RealGM

I know there is another thread on this but I can't bring myself to sift through it.

I'm considering making the jump off cable mainly because I hate U-verse so much. Our cable bill just jumped to $150, and we get a no frills package. Ridiculous.

Things to know...

1. I need live sports. NCAA (basketball/football), NFL, NBA. Rugby and Premier League would be great as well.
2. I watch very few series consistently, though if I were to it'd likely be a binge watching type scenario.
3. Our kids love the Disney and Nick Jr. channels
4. Wife watches HGTV and FYI type stuff.
5. I'm not an early adopter of any technology and am pretty unsophisticated with media devices. I have no apps on my phone as a frame of reference. I could certainly bring myself to learn a few things for the greater good, but can't devote my life to a cable work around.
6. We have a newer iMac and a really crappy HP netbook that is on it's last legs. Otherwise no existing infrastructure or know how.

Questions...
What do I need (subscription and tech-wise) and what do I need to do with it?
What are the start up costs (rough estimate)?
What are the average monthly costs?
What are the anticipated viewing deficiencies or holes in such an approach?


Complete blank canvas. Anyone want to accept the challenge?

How legal do you want your viewing to be?

I'm in near the same spot too, only Charter.... I hate Charter TV. Nowdays, its mostly crappy scripted "reality" shows, and shopping networks and junk. It has become a very poor value.

Talking about the binge watching of TV series, my oldest daughter will use Netflix to binge watch all kinds of series: ER, Revolution, Law & Order, etc. I catch the old PBS Mysteries (Murdock, Heat of the Sun) with Netflix & the new ones on PBS online. We either pick up Netflix via the computer, or one Roku 2 box, or a NetGear box. So far, I've been too cheap to pop for another subscription service.

My other two kids will catch Netflix or DVD's!!! My son likes the DIY type shows on Charter, so that one might take some finagling.

I've got a broadcast antenna on one of the TV's, which picks up about 8 Western Wisconsin stations.

The only Sports I really need is to catch the Bucks, which with Charter is Fox-Sports Wisconsin. Dish or Direct TV in my part of the world would go to Fox Sports North, which is Minnesota based - Timberwolves, Wild, etc.

What's the reccommendation?

Shaffty wrote:How legal do you want your viewing to be?

FYI if you, or anyone else, posts illegal sites or links you will be banned. This isn't a debate on whether it's ''right or wrong''. It's a Realgm policy.

Get a Roku 3, or equivalent, for each TV and buy a Netflix subscription. My view is your family has to adjust; your wife and kids won't be able to watch the same shows, but there is a ton of quality entertainment for them to enjoy. For you, sports is going to be an issue...

midranger wrote:I know there is another thread on this but I can't bring myself to sift through it.

I'm considering making the jump off cable mainly because I hate U-verse so much. Our cable bill just jumped to $150, and we get a no frills package. Ridiculous.

Things to know...

1. I need live sports. NCAA (basketball/football), NFL, NBA. Rugby and Premier League would be great as well.

This is essentially where the discussion ends, in my opinion.

Being a sports loving cord cutter is pretty simple in the spring and summer. The NCAA Tournament is on-line so if you can live with missing the NBA playoffs or watching illegal streams, you only really need to pay for the MLB.tv package.

But the fall and winter make it really tough to watch live sports on high quality streams and not pay more than you would if you just got a decent cable deal. Even if you had the equipment (I think a laptop is a almost a must but also having either a Roku or AppleTV is something a cord cutter should probably have) I think you'd be looking at a minimum of $300 for NFL Game Pass and NBA League Pass Choice broadband. That doesn't get you NCAA sports.

You'd also need an antenna. Mohu Leaf's run $40 and those get you your HD over air broadcasts.

I'd go with Charter. You can get cable TV with the channels your family wants, ESPN, Fox Sports WI and FS1, along with 30MB download internet for about $80 a month without a contract. In the spring when there are few sports you need to watch you can ditch the cable TV and order MLB.tv if you're into baseball.

MickeyDavis wrote:

Shaffty wrote:How legal do you want your viewing to be?

FYI if you, or anyone else, posts illegal sites or links you will be banned. This isn't a debate on whether it's ''right or wrong''. It's a Realgm policy.

I am aware its just two different routes he can take

Needs to be legal.

I'd pay whatever to watch Badger games in my house in HD.

It just seems ridiculous to pay so much when I essentially only watch live sports. We could easily live with just the sports package stations and Netflix, but you can't go ala carte AFAIK. Paying 150 bucks for what amounts to ~8 channels is absurd.

it's really not realistic as a sports lover at this point in time tbh, i'd guess a very high percentage of cable users buy it because of a sports love in the household.

streaming sports still isn't super reliable YET either, even with great internet

idk, i have charter for like 90 a month for the regular package. yea it sucks, but i get packers/bucks/badgers/premier league/champions league/europa league/bundesliga coming next year. no i don't get nbatv or anything, but there's so many games on all the time anyways it's not a big deal.

so yea, if you weren't interested in sports, i'd say just get like amazon prime and hulu plus or something, and then rent/buy seasons of shows to fill in the blanks, but since you are (obviously) i think you're honestly best off just looking for a better deal for cable elsewhere (if possible). most companies have a lot of wiggle room with the pricing. i'd ask for the new member rate on uverse or tell them you're leaving, they'll prolly listen.

sucky i know, but the price to pay as a sports fan.

midranger wrote:Needs to be legal.

I'd pay whatever to watch Badger games in my house in HD.

It just seems ridiculous to pay so much when I essentially only watch live sports. We could easily live with just the sports package stations and Netflix, but you can't go ala carte AFAIK. Paying 150 bucks for what amounts to ~8 channels is absurd.

Yea, go with Charter this fall and winter. Another person in the cord cutter thread went with TV/Internet and is paying $80-ish a month. I'm the same as you. My live TV watching is almost exclusively sports, so paying about $50 (plus $30 for internet) a month for ESPN/FS1/Fox Sports seems absurd, but that's life if you want to watch live sports.

FYI: With Charter I believe you have access to Watch ESPN with just an internet subscription. I know that used to be the case anyway. It doesn't solve much but it's at least a step in the right direction.

Big Ten Network, Fox Sports, ESPN and other channels have a totally legal internet stream. As long as you have a cable or satellite subscription service you can get a login and password then watch these channels anywhere. Most people don't use the streaming service because they don't know about it and it is easier just to use the cable box. But the service does exist.

HD Antennas are also great and actually give you better HD than most satellite and cable providers.

Edit- Also if you call into to negotiate your deal you want to ask for the customer retention department.

The sports part is obviously the hang up and the most difficult part.

This is just me, but the best thing to do is just make peace with not watching sports as much and cut the cord. It will free up so much time in your life and yet you can always find a way to watch the bigger games. I catch enough NFL games at the gym, for example. I can stream NBA via LP when needed and I listen to more radio now.

I know your looking for actual hook ups, but I just wanted to share this angle. It's amazing how good it feels to distance yourself from the entire sports scene.

FWIW, I don't understand why people freak out when their bill jumps up. It's common practice among providers. Charter/Time Warner will tack on 20 bucks a month for a few months after the promotion ends to seemingly sneak one by you, as does DirectTV, whereas Uverse just cuts to the punch.

Regardless, PMed you Midranger, hopefully that's of help.

skones wrote:FWIW, I don't understand why people freak out when their bill jumps up. It's common practice among providers. Charter/Time Warner will tack on 20 bucks a month for a few months after the promotion ends to seemingly sneak one by you, as does DirectTV, whereas Uverse just cuts to the punch.

I've always found DirectTV to be very responsive to discounting the bill if you again commit for another 12-months or 24-months. Time Warner is much less fun. Charter is flat out horrible.

People in Milwaukee will soon learn how bad Charter is, assuming Charter employees and procedures take over Time Warner in the next 12-months.

I also wonder if we won't reach a tipping point in the next year or two and finally get ala carte pricing. John McCain has tried to push that option through a few times but been shot down by a number of special interests on both sides of the aisle.

A bill like that would have significant ramifications, as a lot of little old ladies in rural areas won't be forced to pay $10 a month for the ESPN/NFL stations, which will greatly reduce sports broadcast right revenues. But at the same time, the "Dramas for Single, homeless females" channel along with the "Military Vehicles from recent World Wars" channels likely bite the dust as no one would likely subsidize those.

^^basically all providers suck. there's really no "good service" out there when it comes to this stuff. charter and time warner both suck. comcast sucks. cox sucks. it all sucks. that's what happens when you have an allowed monopoly because of the physical equipment necessary throughout the city to make this all necessary.

this is a bomb that will basically explode because of the internet though. once major sports start allowing people to buy all the games online (commercials still will be there obviously), people will probably almost all stop buying cable and dish. they will be ancient tales of the past.

when that happens, that's the mystery. unfortunately probably not in our lifetimes because of all the politics involved with essentially destroying traditional tv watching.

paulpressey25 wrote:

skones wrote:FWIW, I don't understand why people freak out when their bill jumps up. It's common practice among providers. Charter/Time Warner will tack on 20 bucks a month for a few months after the promotion ends to seemingly sneak one by you, as does DirectTV, whereas Uverse just cuts to the punch.

I've always found DirectTV to be very responsive to discounting the bill if you again commit for another 12-months or 24-months. Time Warner is much less fun. Charter is flat out horrible.

People in Milwaukee will soon learn how bad Charter is, assuming Charter employees and procedures take over Time Warner in the next 12-months.

Yeah.....my DTV bill just jumped up from the 120-130 to 150-160 range. I called and asked for their customer retention dept and I got 30 dollars in discounts reapplied, actually 36 as I disconnected my daughters TV in her old room.....she's on her own now...

Still too much to pay but I can record 7 shows at once and love the picture quality and selection. Sadly being a computer / network guy I also do the streaming / x264 stuff and have a media PC attached so I can watch whatever I want from my PC on my home theater.

paulpressey25 wrote:

skones wrote:FWIW, I don't understand why people freak out when their bill jumps up. It's common practice among providers. Charter/Time Warner will tack on 20 bucks a month for a few months after the promotion ends to seemingly sneak one by you, as does DirectTV, whereas Uverse just cuts to the punch.

I've always found DirectTV to be very responsive to discounting the bill if you again commit for another 12-months or 24-months. Time Warner is much less fun. Charter is flat out horrible.

People in Milwaukee will soon learn how bad Charter is, assuming Charter employees and procedures take over Time Warner in the next 12-months.

I was always able to renegotiate year extensions with Charter just before the promotional period ended. They absolutely refused to do that last time. Still, 30 days after I cut the cord, they were willing to treat me as a new customer again and give me the promotion again. Just kills me that they treat new customers better than existing customers. Stands most business models on the head and makes for unhappy existing customers.

paulpressey25 wrote:

skones wrote:FWIW, I don't understand why people freak out when their bill jumps up. It's common practice among providers. Charter/Time Warner will tack on 20 bucks a month for a few months after the promotion ends to seemingly sneak one by you, as does DirectTV, whereas Uverse just cuts to the punch.

I've always found DirectTV to be very responsive to discounting the bill if you again commit for another 12-months or 24-months. Time Warner is much less fun. Charter is flat out horrible.

I would concur. DirecTV has been very responsive to me every time I call. Time Warner I don't even bother.