Cable TV alternatives

[Wade Lippman]

They just raised my bill by 25%, so I am thinking of dumping it.
My wife requires TLC, so I have to get either $60 DirectTVNow or $20 Philo and either $35 HuluTV or YouTubeTV. Add in $35 DSL and it is about half what I am paying after the price increase.
I'd be giving up phone service, but only have it now because the triple package is cheaper than just TV and internet.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I guess the cable company figures that if they can raise prices faster than they chase customers away, they can increase their profits.

[Jim Becker]

Wade, I urge caution with streaming via DSL unless you're really close to the CO and have the maximum available speed attainable at your address. You usually can by Internet only from your cable provider which will provide substantially better performance than DSL in almost every market.

I also caution you about YouTubeTV...it's primarily focused at mobile devices and has extremely limited support for actual TVs via a very short list of interface devices. Streaming requires either a SmartTV with the appropriate apps to support the streaming services you want to use or an external box, such as Roku, AppleTV or a DVD BlueRay player that has streaming app capabilities.

One other option to consider is drop your cable TV to just "Local Only" for OTA stations and use one of the streaming services for the TLC. That's what I did a few months ago and it cut our $212 monthly bill from Verizon FiOS to nearly half since no set top box rentals are required for Local TV (reduces a lot of cost) and they can no longer charge some of the over-the-top fees that come with the "cable" bundles, such as the regional sports fee and the broadcast programing fee.

[Wade Lippman]

Wade, I urge caution with streaming via DSL unless you're really close to the CO and have the maximum available speed attainable at your address. You usually can by Internet only from your cable provider which will provide substantially better performance than DSL in almost every market.

I also caution you about YouTubeTV...it's primarily focused at mobile devices and has extremely limited support for actual TVs via a very short list of interface devices. Streaming requires either a SmartTV with the appropriate apps to support the streaming services you want to use or an external box, such as Roku, AppleTV or a DVD BlueRay player that has streaming app capabilities.

One other option to consider is drop your cable TV to just "Local Only" for OTA stations and use one of the streaming services for the TLC. That's what I did a few months ago and it cut our $212 monthly bill from Verizon FiOS to nearly half since no set top box rentals are required for Local TV (reduces a lot of cost) and they can no longer charge some of the over-the-top fees that come with the "cable" bundles, such as the regional sports fee and the broadcast programing fee.

I am 30 miles from the TV transmitters, with plenty of hills in the way. My reception would be pretty marginal even with a roof top antenna.

The phone company claims they can offer 25Mbps for $35; which is the same as what I am getting now from cable. Stuff I watch using Amazon Firestick seems fine.
The cable company says they offer 100Mbps for $40, but if I drop them for everything else, I am not sure how well that will work out.

[Myk Rian]

Call the cable company and ask to be disconnected. They'll make a deal with you to keep your business.
My wife does it all the time.

[Jim Becker]

25 mbps on DSL is pretty unusual and almost always requires very short distance between the DSLAM and the customer home...they may be able to sell you that speed, but whether or not you be able to actually achieve it where you live is the real question. Wire size in the infrastructure also affects DSL performance. All speeds are "up to" type specifications with the carriers. There's no guarantee you'll get that 25 mpbs or even close to it in some cases.

My reference to "Local Only" was not referring to actually using an OTA (Over The Air) antenna. All cable providers (or similar) are required to provide access to "basic" TV without a set top box to customer who want that. It's the equivalent of OTA...so whatever the local market is for you in your area of NY state is what would come in. On my FiOS account, that's only costing about $13 a month of my $124 a month including taxes. I still have a "triple play" and get discounts because of it, but it's half what I was paying for a more cable-like bundle that required set top boxes and their added costs. It's worth asking about as one option. And Myk is correct...part of the conversation with your current provider should revolve around your intention to leave them for lower costs. Sometimes the "retention" folks will come up with a very attractive deal. (but not always, so be prepared to follow through with the threat. And do ask about unbundled Internet only service...it's likely going to be more satisfying than DSL, especially for streaming.

[Wade Lippman]

And Myk is correct...part of the conversation with your current provider should revolve around your intention to leave them for lower costs. Sometimes the "retention" folks will come up with a very attractive deal. (but not always, so be prepared to follow through with the threat. And do ask about unbundled Internet only service...it's likely going to be more satisfying than DSL, especially for streaming.

A few years ago I threatened to quit when they raised me from 90 to 150. They went to 120. Then up to 140 and now up to 175.
However my neighbor threatened to quit last month and they told him not to slam the door on his way out. And he quit.
I am just looking at my options.
Thanks.

[Justin Ludwig]

It's a big leap, but I dumped it all 10 years ago and never looked back. I'm lucky that my wife is on the same page and is a voracious reader. We used to pay Dish $75 a month for 10gb of satellite internet. I changed my "grandfathered-in" unlimited data plan that doesn't allow tethering to an unliimited data plan that does allow tethering. I write this from a tether-to-computer connection.

ATT sends me a text when I've used 16gb, stating that if I exceed 22gb, they may reduce my speeds in high congestion areas. I have to laugh at that, because my county is 29k people. I've been to ball games that have more people in the stadium than reside in my entire county.

Down side to streaming TV on the phone - you have to connect the phone to the TV or I bet there may be a Bluetooth attachment out there? If you have a SmartTV you can connect it to your phone's hotspot depending on your phone's plan.

Good luck!

Drop the TV and it's costs, buy more tools.

[Jim Becker]

Down side to streaming TV on the phone - you have to connect the phone to the TV or I bet there may be a Bluetooth attachment out there? If you have a SmartTV you can connect it to your phone's hotspot depending on your phone's plan..

There are various products that connect phones/tablets to TVs and some of the more current SmartTVs have a native app available to do so. Correspondingly, you can also connect SmartTVs to your tethering WiFi and stream directly to the TV. The phone is only acting as a "hot spot" for the TV in that case. While most of the devices in our home are wired connections for best performance, my younger daughter's SmartTV in her room currently utilizes WiFi for streaming because it's in an area that's difficult to get a wire to and I haven't tackled that task yet.
----

Wade, it's becoming increasingly common to get the "don't let the door hit you on the way out" response when threatening to cancel. I was only suggesting that if you do make that statement, be prepared to execute on it or it's meaningless. And a few months down the road, you'll likely get offers to come back...nature of the beast.

[Brian Henderson]

Funny thing, right after I got home yesterday, someone from Spectrum comes to the door wanting me to switch. Well they've already lost my business forever, the last time I tried them out, the installer just no-showed, never called, never did anything. So I called to just cancel the whole thing but eventually relented and let them send someone else same day since I had taken the day off work just for them. The guy showed up, installed, and it turned out that they were not able to provide the speeds they had promised, not even close. And they were even more expensive than the service I was trying to replace which was giving me better service. They totally misrepresented what they could do so I sent them packing. And this guy, unfortunately, didn't seem all that surprised by any of it.

How you can work for a company that you know lies to their customers, I will never know.

[Russ Filtz]

None of them seem to want to deal. They are all more setup to churn accounts. Bonuses for creating "new" accounts it seems. You have to bounce between satellite, cable, and FIOS if you can get it. Every year or two when out of contract, switch.

As to cord cutting, unless you really want to downsize selection/access, trying to piecemeal various services rarely works out I think. You end up not saving much and lose a lot of channels in the process. If you are not a TV watcher, then go for it.

Me, I like cable TV, all premium channels, Netflix, Hulu, and don't forget Amazon Fire TV if you have a Prime account. I get all that at 300MB speeds for around $180 a month, including phone/internet. Worth it to me.

[mark kosse]

I cut mine. I don't miss a thing. I just have ota tv and it's just fine. I'm 50 miles from the nearest station but get 20 channels. Along with all that comes with the internet we do just fine.

once you get your so on board all goes well.

[Wade Lippman]

Turns out the phone company doesn't even offer DSL here. They told me on chat they did, but they don't. So my only option is satellite, which I really don't want.

That changes my conversation with the cable company from "I'll quit if you don't lower my price" to "how much is just internet".

[Jim Becker]

Internet only from your cableco and then a streaming service that has the content you want will hopefully save you a bit over time. TLS seems to be available via DirectTVNow, ATT's streaming service.

[Jim Andrew]

I have an antenna, and it is 70 miles from the nearest transmitter. Since the change to digital, we get many more channels. The wife scanned recently and got 47 channels. They do NOT always work, but most do, just occasionally the wind seems to blow some channels away. Evenings are better than daytime.

[Wade Lippman]

I have an antenna, and it is 70 miles from the nearest transmitter. Since the change to digital, we get many more channels. The wife scanned recently and got 47 channels. They do NOT always work, but most do, just occasionally the wind seems to blow some channels away. Evenings are better than daytime.

What kind of antenna? No one for a mile in either direction from me has one, so I assumed it wasn't possible.

[Larry Foster]

I cut the cable About 3-4 years ago and never looked back.

My house had an antenna and my local stations are 45-70 miles away in hilly western Pa.
It was a directional antenna and I got from 20-25 stations.
However, it didn't do UHF well so I just added an second antenna 2 months ago and pick up all the UHF stations, now.

I was already an Amazon Prime member so I added a Fire Stick.
Already had Netflix, too.

But, we tried SlingTv and really like it.
They have 2 basic packages for $20 &$25 and recently started offering add-ons.

I don't know if they have TLC but I bet it could be found somewhere online.

I am in the boonies and have 25 MPS DSL.
Cable isn't available to me.

[Dave Lash]

What kind of antenna? No one for a mile in either direction from me has one, so I assumed it wasn't possible.

The FCC has a web site that will show you which stations are available in your area, and show the relative signal strength you can expect. You plug in your address to get the info. Be aware that most stations are now on the UHF frequencies, even if they have an old VHF station number; but some may still use the old Hi-VHF frequencies. Most newer TV antennas are UHF only, but they also make UHF/Hi-VHF antennas. By clicking on the station call signs you will see the compass headings for the stations on the map.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

[Jim Becker]

The FCC has a web site that will show you which stations are available in your area, and show the relative signal strength you can expect. You plug in your address to get the info. Be aware that most stations are now on the UHF frequencies, even if they have an old VHF station number; but some may still use the old Hi-VHF frequencies. Most newer TV antennas are UHF only, but they also make UHF/Hi-VHF antennas. By clicking on the station call signs you will see the compass headings for the stations on the map.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

I used a few of these services to determine both station availability and specific aiming direction. Unfortunately, there's one station that's on VHF (and it's the one I watch the most) and geography torpedoed OTA because that specific station just will not pull in, no matter what antenna, what height, what amplification, etc. So I had to stay with "Local Only" TV on my provider (which is cheap) to insure I can watch that station. It's basically OTA via fiber. :)

[Brian Henderson]

The FCC has a web site that will show you which stations are available in your area, and show the relative signal strength you can expect. You plug in your address to get the info. Be aware that most stations are now on the UHF frequencies, even if they have an old VHF station number; but some may still use the old Hi-VHF frequencies. Most newer TV antennas are UHF only, but they also make UHF/Hi-VHF antennas. By clicking on the station call signs you will see the compass headings for the stations on the map.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

I just went and looked and I can hardly get anything OTA. There are two that show up, one is weak and one is not available at all. I live on the back side of a mountain opposite every channel there is.

[Larry Foster]

TvFool.com is the best of the station finders.

I bought my last antenna from Antennadirect.com
Excellent support and they will advise you without any hard sell

The first time I contacted them several years ago, they advised me against buying a new antenna and suggested a few things to try on my existing one.

[Brian Henderson]

TvFool.com is the best of the station finders.

I bought my last antenna from Antennadirect.com
Excellent support and they will advise you without any hard sell

The first time I contacted them several years ago, they advised me against buying a new antenna and suggested a few things to try on my existing one.

They report I can get 4 channels at all and every one of them are oddball, non-mainstream channels.

[Wade Lippman]

TV.Fool says I can get 1 channel, Fcc.gov says 2.

My cell phone ran a speed test at 20mbps. Can I run a fire stick off a hot spot? Well, if I got a better data plan.

[Jim Andrew]

I bought a digital antenna from Ace hardware. Put it on a tower that clears the roof of the house, and also have a booster installed.

[Justin Ludwig]

Wade, whatever you do don't go with satellite internet. It's highly frustrating and way overpriced for only allowing 10gb per month (peak times).

Your cell phone will stream easily at those speeds. You can always purchase a signal booster that helps if you experience any latency (lag). Have you tried streaming any YouTube or Netflix on your phone?

I have 2 unlimited data plans from AT&T for my iPhone and my son's. Wife's phone is Verizon unlimited, but paid for by her dad's company because she does their accounting. We can stream anything - though I'm not sure if I've tried over 1080res. Our TV is 5 years old and doesn't go beyond 1080 so that is a moot point for us.

Check with your cell provider on their unlimited plans. "Unlimited" will have asterisks and TOC after a certain amount of data used. Streaming eats up data quickly. I mentioned above the text message AT&T sends me, but it's irrelevant in my area.

Incoming phone calls will interrupt service; only you can determine if that would be a nightly problem. I set my phone to Do Not Disturb after 5pm (except for my favorites and family list).

[Mike Cutler]

Wade
I'm 58 and have never had cable TV. We didn't have an actual "TV" in the house until 3 years ago.
I pay for cable access for the internet, of course, and that's it. Everything else is streamed.
Listening to the folks at work that have "Bundled Packages, I would never do that either. At least not here in Connecticut. These guys are talking about $300.00+ monthly bills for the bundled packages.:eek:
Streamed content is everywhere,and you may have to pay a subscription service to an Amazon, Netflix, FX, American, service etc, but you control the cost.
For instance the TLC you reference is on Netflix. To obtain access you would need a Neflix account. The cost of this account is up to you, beyond the member subscription. Amazon is the same way, and if you're an Amazon Prime member, much of the content is free. It's really just a matter of looking. For at least Netflix and Amazon you would have access to previous seasons as part of the membership, and you might have to pay a fee for the current season, with a 24 hour delay.

To gain access to these streaming providers you need a "box". Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku, etc. The smart TV's have these built into their software also, except for Apple TV. I have Apple TV, but wouldn't recommend it. It's access to content is more limited than a Roku or an Amazon box.

There is a learning curve involved, I'm not going to lie to you about that, but at the end of it, you have exponentially more control of what is available to you,and greater control over the cost.
I would never have Cable TV. It is extremely limited in available content.

[Tom Stenzel]

Wade
I'm 58 and have never had cable TV. We didn't have an actual "TV" in the house until 3 years ago...

I remember in a previous discussion about television you mentioned that OTA reception wasn't an option. Back then I looked up Griswold, CT on one of those web sites that tell you what you could get. And if you put up a tower you could get:

ION station (or, All Serial Killers All The Time)
PBS station
Fox Station(s), maybe

That's about it. I can see why you didn't have a TV.

-Tom

[Myk Rian]

TvFool.com is the best of the station finders.
That is a good one. Just input your zip code. No need to give them your address.

[Wade Lippman]

That is a good one. Just input your zip code. No need to give them your address.

My post office is about 1500' higher than I am. They probably get more channels than I do.

[Mike Cutler]

I remember in a previous discussion about television you mentioned that OTA reception wasn't an option. Back then I looked up Griswold, CT on one of those web sites that tell you what you could get. And if you put up a tower you could get:

ION station (or, All Serial Killers All The Time)
PBS station
Fox Station(s), maybe

That's about it. I can see why you didn't have a TV.

-Tom

Tom

Supposedly, there are some third party hardware/software devices that can get more of the local channels, but I've never really looked into it.
I ordered Center Ice once for Hockey, and all of the Bruins games were blacked out on it because of the local stations. Plenty of Sharks and Coyotes, but no Bruins. I cancelled that straight away. I wonder if the folks in San Jose and Phoenix get the Bruins? ;)

[Art Mann]

I haven't seen a good answer to this question yet but I will tell you my experience. It may give you some idea. My Mother-in-law lived in a very rural location and had no service but satellite TV. She did, however, live near I-20, which has fair (3 bar) 4G coverage on my Verizon phone. I used to go there all the time and watch Netflix on my Samsung tablet from a Wifi hotspot from the phone. It is a high resolution 10.4 inch tablet and the picture was excellent. I think it is a potential solution the your problem.


TV.Fool says I can get 1 channel, Fcc.gov says 2.

My cell phone ran a speed test at 20mbps. Can I run a fire stick off a hot spot? Well, if I got a better data plan.