Cord Cutters: How much do you save?

#1

Have you cut the cord on Cable TV in favor of streaming services? I’m working on a new “cord cutting” section of my website and I’m curious how much others have saved by getting rid of Cable TV?

The TV-only portion of my cable bill was looking like this (I’m not including internet service because I would have internet either way)

  • $55 for “Expanded Digital” TV (no premium channels)
  • $10 for an HD cable box (mandatory as Clear QAM has been encrypted)
  • $10 for HD service (don’t get me started as to why this isn’t included with the HD cable box rental :rage: )
  • $7 mandatory broadcast fee for the “luxury” of having my local channels in my cable package

I now pay:

  • $35 for YouTube TV
  • $10 for Netflix
  • I also have Amazon Prime, but I subscribed to that even when I had cable, so I did not include that in my cost.

So I went from paying $82 per month just for Cable TV to $45 for streaming services. I also gained YouTube TV’s cloud DVR which I didn’t have with my old Cable TV package. I’ve been enjoying this setup a lot more because I can watch what I want when I want to and I don’t have to worry about missing shows!

Have any other members of the Anker community saved money by cutting the cord?

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Introducing Roav Chainsaw!
#2

I gave my TV to the garbage many years before.
There is nothing I can cut! :smile:

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#3

Nice! Just curious, did you replace it with anything? For example, streaming on your phone, listening to the radio, etc?

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#4

Easy to explain.

All the old films I like, I have stored! :wink:

Of course listen to the radio.
I prefer the local classical broadcast here in Munich (Bayern 4 Klassik, (DAB+))

I stream radio stations from the net as well.
There are so many!
And not to forget :
I download classical music from YT.
(There is really a lot to detect.)
Those I keep in my music library at the laptop and play it via BT
(ANKER A3143 :slight_smile:)
or I transfer it to my old Ipod, which I use in the sub.

#5

I live in an area with overpriced cable. Switched to directv now and ooma, saved 125 a month. Its crazy how much i was spending.

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#6

I honestly don’t know why I was so stubborn before. Cutting the cord is the BEST thing you can do. I moved to a new house and thought as long as I was calling Comcast, I would do the unthinkable!

Before I had the whole package (250+ channels, HBO, SHO) and only 50 mbps internet. With 3 HD boxes, 1 Standard Box. I was paying $166.19.

I now pay $59.29 all in for 100 mbps internet and Xfinity Stream TV (Free Streaming Service for a year) …I do have to pay a $7.75 “Broadcast Fee”. Saving $106.90 PER MONTH! or $1,282.80 PER YEAR!!!

That’s 505 gallons of gas (in chicago on average) or 475 cups of coffee! (on average - per the Google machine).

My quick review on the Stream TV: It’s ok ( I get CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, WGN, and a few others not worth mentioning). Included in the service is HBO. I will purchase an OTA antenna once this service is up.

I had Netflix and Amazon Prime before Cutting the Cable, so for this exercise I will not add those.

Since cutting the cord, with my cost savings I bought a new 4K Roku TV. New Modem and Router for improved service.

I have hosted many parties, Superbowl included and everyone was super impressed. I have persuaded 4 other couples/families to cut the cord as well. Do yourself a favor - Give it a shot! You can always go back. And let me tell you, you will qualify for a new account discount - saving you more money if you decide to go to cable.

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#7

My step father works for directtv so we get that for 5 dollars a month, we lay 200 for internet/tv/phone…no way around the triple com cast package unless we want to pay more for the local service. I pay for Netflix, amazon prime, and watch basic YT.

Out if pocket I spend 30 bucks a month for that, not counting comcast pricing since we have to have a landlines for my son’s school, cell phones don’t work here anyway unless you have a Internet network extender.

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#8

That’s awesome! Congrats!!

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#9

I use my firestick with a few mods :grimacing::yum:

Less said about that the better :crazy_face:

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#10

Ha, yeah probably better not to elaborate on that! :hushed:

#11

No cable TV.

Have an Antennae on TV I get the local terrestial TV for free.

Get NetFlix for free as part of my family T-Mobile plan
Get Amazon Prime Video as part of Prime payment

I have thought at times of cutting the cable completely and no cable Internet but with all the streaming we often >400GB/month on the cable Internet and I reckon we’d hit issues with “unlimited” T-Mobile even with BingeON

Having cut the TV out a long time ago, what I’m looking for ways is to cut the cellular plan costs as the next biggest and then the cable internet. It is still too much.

Compare with, say, 30 years ago when it was just a UK BBC TV License and a phone line and spent less money than now.

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#12

Local Channels, world news is garbage anyways. I do not care what goes on in the world as it’s mostly hyped and bias. I do have free Netflix (saved from an AirBnB rental 2 years back :smirk:) and have Prime for $49 a year. That’s all the entertainment I care to have as I like being outdoors more. :grin:

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#13

Like @k_pug2003 no need to elaborate… been working pretty good considering

#14

I find that the most interesting topic.

Linux iptables

Learning that in detail was one of the top skills ever.

#15

I pay only for unlimited fiber (via ADSL/phoneline) but I get free sky apart from sports n cinema.

Initially i won sky free for the boxset package, and even before going for fiber, it was extended! Basically it seems, so long as I keep paying g for fiber, I get sky free. So, won’t be going back to freeview anytime soon! … Apart from the bedroom

#16

Your are lucky.
Here in Germany you HAVE to pay fees, even if you don’t have a TV.
I would call this “bondage fees”. :smiling_imp:

My wife has a TV. I do’nt.
We have an antenna at the roof of our house so we some recieve TV stations via DVBT. Thats all.

If we would change to a rooftop dish we had to change all cables in the house.
But this is not necessary as the TV-programs are mainly unsubstantial.

There is a cable junction in the basement (sealed). So let it be sealed forever)

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#17

In the UK we have sky costs £38 a month for all channels (Except Sports and Movies) but includes HD and box sets. Ive also got Netflix £10, currently in the middle of Designated Survivor (someone on here recommended it). It’s goooooood. And an android box with Kodi :yum:

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#18

Cable costs around $70 in my area. Instead, monthly I pay about $60 for internet, $8 for Netflix, $8 for Amazon Prime and $15 for HBO Go. I also have digital antenna that allows me to get NBC, Fox, PBS, ABC, CW, and some others. So I assume I’m saving that $70/month, and my TV service goes with me wherever I go (gym, travel, friends’ houses, etc). I also control when shows come on rather than arrange my life around the schedule of the cable channels. It’s totally worth it.

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#19

The economy varies greatly with the type of content you consume. If you watch a lot of series and need to watch everything as it happens, you won’t save as much as if you don’t have a problem always watching last season’s episodes.

I did the math for my case, and found out that even if I purchased every series I liked, with some spare series, I could still save about 300$/year, while maintaining two subscription services - Netflix and Crave.

But I don’t watch sports, and I get my news from the internet, so I never bothered with OTA.

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#20

We are in the middle of cutting the cord. For us its a little harder. We live in the country and have limited internet services.
We are on a horrible satellite internet service. We pay over about 65 a month for 20 down and 1 up. Data capped at 10 gigs but unlimited phone line speeds after that (to slow to use most of the time). From midnight to 5 am they have free zone where they take the cap away. But they tend to shut your internet down or slow it down if you download and stream to much during the free zone. Just received a letter that they raising our rates by $15 and changing the free zone to 3 am to 6 am.

We are on direct TV plan and pay about 80 a month.

There’s a new rural internet provider in our area that does point-to-point microwave. The price per month is cheaper by $15. its about 25 down and 5 up with true unlimited. I told them that I would be streaming movies and shows all day/night they were fine with it. The catch is due to our geographic profile (very low level and the tower is on the other side of a hill) we have to install a 60 ft HAM radio style tower on our property for about 2k (that should get us in the line of site of the receiving tower). Most users need a 10 foot pole on their roof. But myself and our neighbors we have to stall these towers.

Once we get that pole installed, we are going to have them install a HDTV antenna and Cell phone booster antenna as well.

After that its buying the tech to make it work for us. We will still have slower speed and streaming during peak hrs may not be ideal. So we will use playon to download our shows. After watching them delete them.

New NightHawk Router for streaming/gaming
Plex Service
Playon Life time membership
DirectTV Now -with a 4 month of service they will give you a free apple 4k TV box
Hulu
Netflix - use my parents accounts
Amazon Prime - use my parents accounts
HDTV Antenna
TV Tunner
8 TB external hard drive or streaming NAS system
Media computer to run the media server and iTunes server

But once we have the tech in place our TV monthly bill should go down to about 45 to 50.

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