Cutting the (cable) cord

Opinions sought on alternative platforms -- I've got a Verizon FIOS bundle but my cable bill is like $230/mo (no contract, includes Yankees YES Network). I also have Prime/Netflix and watch ZERO streaming series, just movies. I want to have basic stuff such as CNN and MSNBC. Thanking you courteously in advance.

 

Now I watch all my shows via a jailbroke fire stick and stream sports on websites like streameast or crack streams or bilasport. (Not Jay Bilas sports.) Took me awhile to find the ones I like best, but they’ll do. There are plenty of drawbacks, such as lags or disconnects or pop up ads (some of which are nasty) or maybe they don’t even work at all for some reason. Also, you’re a minute or so behind so you can have things spoiled for you if you are texting with friends or on Twitter during the game. Also hard to toggle back and forth between games. I would prefer the reliability of cable where you are up to the minute and can just switch between channels during commercials. But the number one benefit is this is free. It’s an incentive to put up with a lot of nonsense.

 

Hulu Live. All the news channels, all the ESPNs, all the Fox Sports.

 

$230 is insane.

We pay $160ish? Given that decent high-speed internet seems to run ~$79/month now, I’ll deal with the other $80.

 

Not the Fox Regional sports channels. For SoCal, that is Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. So we didn't get Angels, Ducks, Clippers. We had to go back to Cox Cable. A year ago, we dumped DirecTV and had been on Fire Sticks, with Hulu and several streaming services until a couple of weeks ago.

 

Our Comcast bill is around $225 a month and includes a mid-range internet package.
The cable itself is only about $90 a month. The internet is another $100, and then there are all sorts of assorted taxes and fees that make up the rest.
How I justify the cost is that the cable itself is about what we'd pay if we picked up five or six streaming services. And then we'd have to still pay for the internet either way. In the end, I'm not sure if the difference is enough to steer me away from the convenience of simply turning on the TV and all of my channels are right there, instead of having to navigate through a bunch of different streams.

 

We ditched Comcast a year and a half ago, and I've been happy as can be.
We have Hulu Live which is now $70 a month. It started out at $50 and increased $10 each of the past two Decembers.
We pay $50 on a deal for a pretty solid internet connection, so my total bill is $120 a month, down at least $100 from before we switched.
I don't subscribe to any other services (Netflix, etc.) but am giving serious consideration to the new Discovery offering.

 

Yep, sorry. Misleading. Meant FS1 and so forth.

 

I just killed my Suddenlink cable after another inexplicable $20 rate hike for no reason. (Of course, when I called to cancel, suddenly customer service had a GREAT RATE that would have knocked off $100 of my cable bill! They didn't say how long

Internet will run me about $100/mo, then I added YouTube TV. $60/mo, all the sports channels I need (minus Fox Sports regional networks), unlimited cloud DVR (so I can watch my DVR at my parents' house when I visit). It's very similar to the cable package I was paying at least $130/mo for, but half the price.

I have the streaming services and the first one to go will be Amazon Prime. Just finding less and less on there to watch.

 

Believe nothing about Suddenlink. Back where I'm from, they're rearranging rates and moving the goalposts whenever family cancels part of a package. Worse, they somehow a monopoly in their town. Took multiple complaints before the state AG announced that they were investigating. I'm betting there's a kickback to some city government worker(s) somewhere.

In summary, be highly skeptical about Suddenlink.

 

This is pretty close to what I did. Ditched my $160 DirecTV service for YouTube TV at $65 a month. Don’t miss DirecTV at all.

 

I keep wanting to cut the cord, but I need to make a list of channels we want and the various services and costs to keep getting them.

I see today that Paramount is launching in March with CBS Sports programming.