Suggestions for cutting the cord?

ShootsManyBullets · Jul 17, 2018

Anyone have good suggestions for replacing cable? We really don't watch much regular TV but I do like a little football and some sports in the fall when I'm not hunting. My wife likes local news and kids like a few cartoons. We've got a smart TV with Netflix and Amazon now.

BlakeA · Jul 17, 2018

We ditched cable over a year ago and I don't miss it at all. Like you, I enjoy football and a few local channels so we picked up a couple antennas on amazon for like $25 a piece. We get the Fox, CBS, and ABC Sunday Night games no problem. Amazon Prime was running the majority of Thursday night games this year so essentially other than having the RedZone channel I didn't miss much at all. I'm driving home from somewhere out west most Sundays until December so I end up listening to most games on my drive home but it is really nice to be able to watch them in December and on.

widnert · Jul 17, 2018

Netflix and Amazon, as you noted. Prior to cutting the cord, we had those services already anyway. Did that about 3 years ago.

We also subscribed to the Hulu Live TV service - something like $20/month. That fills out my sports needs and the wife gets her black&white movie channels. Roughly 25 channels there. Then, an amplified antenna outside where the dish used to sit and I re-used all the cabling in the house to distribute the over-the-air signal to where I wanted it. We have 13 channels over-the-air. Little bit of free YouTube and I am set. Don't watch much TV anyways but, I've got everything I would ordinarily use and got Fresh Tracks covered on Amazon & YouTube!

belshawelk · Jul 17, 2018

Roku. Got is for my daughter while she is in college. Check into it.

406LIFE · Jul 17, 2018

Firesticks are on sale at Amazon right now too.

VikingsGuy · Jul 17, 2018

If you can get decent OTA (over the air reception) and it is supported by your TV, a simple antennae gives you local and NFL (and it is way better than the old rabbit ears reception we got as kids). If not, it is hard to get local or NFL other than via cable or dish. All the other stuff is pretty easy over the internet with netflix, hulu, slingtv etc. All kinds of tools for that, appletv, firestick, chrometab, integrated tv apps, xbox/playstation, etc.

JohnCushman · Jul 17, 2018

Run a splitter off of your neighbor's cable in the middle of the night

Gellar · Jul 17, 2018

We haven't had cable for about 5 years. We got an antenna to get Iowa Public Television, ABC, NBC, and CBS. If you have Verizon for cell phone the NFL app is free with all of the national games and the games in your region. We have Amazon Prime, too.

Gellar · Jul 17, 2018

JohnCushman said:
Run a splitter off of your neighbor's cable in the middle of the night

We got away with that in college for almost an entire school year. The commons area had more channels than the dorm rooms did so we ran cable through the false ceiling.

Tradewind · Jul 17, 2018

JohnCushman said:
Run a splitter off of your neighbor's cable in the middle of the night

If you are in a busy, high pop density area tht works quite easily.

BucksnDucks · Jul 17, 2018

We cut a couple years ago and don't miss a thing. Smart TV and ROKU on other sets. Very happy with ROKU units (appr. $35) We pay for Amazon Prime (Randy is on there), Netflix, HBO, and HULU. We rarely watch HULU and not into sports, but there are lots of options for game day out there. I get local news from internet and apps but have heard modern antenna are fantastic for FREE local broadcasts. DO IT, you will save money for sure compared to satellite or cable.

PrairieHunter · Jul 17, 2018

For sports you have several options. Sling TV has options with ESPN for around $25, for an extra $5 you can get ESPNU, ESPN News, conference networks, etc... Essentially that's about all you can't get between netflix and OTA antenna. There are many options for internet based cable with ESPN. If you done have an antenna it's a great way to get your locals in HD for free.

dcopas78 · Jul 17, 2018

I have a Roku with a digital antenna for the local networks. I subscribe to Amazon, Boomerang for my boy which is an amazon channel addition at $5/month, and I have Sling TV which gives you about 40 different channels like TBS, TNT, Sci-Fi, fox sports etc. My total tv bill is less than $40 a month, but I can drop Sling and be at like $14/month which I do when Reds baseball is off for the year. I was paying over $100 from Direct TV.

JohnCushman · Jul 17, 2018

I'm in a position living out in the country that I am dependent on Directv. Cable stopped a couple of roads north of me towards town, which means cable internet as well. The best I could get with DSL was 4.72 Mps. I actually have quicker internet using a jetpack from Verizon on my data plan. So, without high speed internet I'm not in a position to be able to cut the cord on satellite for any sort of TV that requires internet. I have a friend that got one of those plug into the back of your TV for basic channel things and gets 2 channels. I had a similar result doing the same thing with my camper, so that option kinda craps out too. So, it's a tradeoff to live in the country.

morley.tyler · Jul 17, 2018

check out google TV. App based, 40(ish) channels, ESPN, all local networks and most things that matter. combined w/ Netflix and Prime, its all done.

SherpaPhil · Jul 17, 2018

Like most of the above, I have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. I use the Fire TV stick. I also have DirectTV NOW, which is DirectTV's streaming service. Its not affiliated with their satellite service, as far as I can tell. It is internet based and you can pick your package. We have the cheapest one ($35 full price), which gets us all the stuff I care about, Discovery, History, Animal Planet, etc. AT&T owns DirectTV now, and they offer bundle deals if you have your cell phone through them. Ours is $25 a month off any DirectTV NOW package and free HBO. So for $10 a month, I get all the cable channels I care about, plus HBO. Its a great deal if you already use AT&T.

ShootsManyBullets · Jul 17, 2018

Outstanding!
I'll take a look at Roku and Hulu and a couple others. Would be nice to save some cash since cable is so ridiculous
We have Verizon so I could probably use that too.

JohnCushman · Jul 17, 2018

Can you get midget porn on Roku or Hulu like you can on cable? Priorities, dude

IDFireLass · Jul 17, 2018

Digital over the air antenna. A good one runs around $100 or so.
I get a CBS, ABC, and 5 public channels.
I can remember only getting one channel of each networks.
We don't watch pro sports of any kind. So no loss there.

fmnjr · Jul 17, 2018

We've tried everything out there. Sling, prime, netflix, youtube tv, OTA, crackle, etc, etc. We settled on netflix and prime with youtube TV for sports events.

You can get Fresh Tracks on youtube via your laptop/phone for goodness sakes....so why do you need anything else?

Suggestions for cutting the cord?

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