Cutting the cord

[homer]

And zero issues with service arrival windows, crappy call centers, or installation fees.

 

Maybe cable lets you go month to month now but I hated getting locked into a contract and then having to call and negotiate the rate every time the 12 month deal expired. I can see the advantages of having all your "stuff" with one company but it just wasn't for us.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm paying about a combined $200/month for cable TV (including all ESPN channels, FS1, CBS Sports, BTN, MLB/NFL/NBA networks - no FSWI in Chicago), cloud DVR, internet, and cell phone service and that includes all taxes, fees, and $25/mo for a new phone, as well as free access to thousands of WiFi hotspots.

 

If you add up what you're paying for each of those things individually, including taxes and fees, I'll bet it's pretty close to $200/month.

 

Always been my argument as well. Seems like a lot of screwing around for minimal savings. Now the equation changes if you get extremely cheap internet, do illegal things and/or don't want very many channels to watch.

 

That's the rub for a lot of people. You end up paying for a bunch of channels you never use which is why I've never taken the leap with YouTube TV or Sling or any of the "live" TV options.

 

And it's also possible that the increased competition from the streaming services has forced the cable companies to improve things on their end.

 

This is exactly what happened. I got Sling because it was "only" $25 a month and I figured I'd cancel when the Brewers were out of contention or season was over. The rest of it was just a bunch of crap I never wanted. Regular plain old YouTube is filled with millions of hours of old docs, webcasts and original material that can be very interesting. If I could literally just order FSNWI I probably would pay $10 for just that one channel as it would provide about 80% of my use of a TV.

 

Once the price is above $10 I lose interest completely.

[MrTPlush]

I'm paying about a combined $200/month for cable TV (including all ESPN channels, FS1, CBS Sports, BTN, MLB/NFL/NBA networks - no FSWI in Chicago), cloud DVR, internet, and cell phone service and that includes all taxes, fees, and $25/mo for a new phone, as well as free access to thousands of WiFi hotspots.

 

If you add up what you're paying for each of those things individually, including taxes and fees, I'll bet it's pretty close to $200/month.

 

Well...not all of us live in Chicago. So your case is not very comparable to many.

 

Where I live, to get all the channels I would want, I would need to get the middle tier cable package. After adding dumb monthly charges for HD boxes/DVR boxes and upgrading the internet to a faster speed it is about $190. Mind you this is the special intro pricing and it tells you it will be the standard price after the one year contract. I am sure it is notably more post one year.

 

I can not bundle and instead do: internet for about $70 and Hulu Live with DVR/unlimited screens (what I currently have) for like $70. That is a total of $140.

 

I will likely cancel Hulu entirely eventually. I don't watch that much TV and can always go to a family members house to watch the sports...or bar I suppose. As someone else mentioned YouTube has a lot of good content. Which is what I usually watch half the time anyway.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

When we sold our place this summer I decided to dump Spectrum. TV/Internet was over $180/mo. Went with YouTube TV, and it has worked out well. Has all the sports, and major channels, the only one I miss at times is Comedy Central. Saving $65/mo.

 

The only tough adjustment was keeping the phone away during live sporting events. That 30 second delay gets ya.

[bjkrautk]

Wish someone would make a skinny bundle with:

NFL Network

ESPN 1&2

Big Ten Network

FS Wisconsin

FS1

TBS

TNT

TruTV (thanks NCAA tournament)

 

...along with a smattering of other non-sports channels. PS Vue actually would have covered my needs, but Sony shuttered it last month. Either going to have to shuffle services on a monthly basis, or stick with cable until someone makes my ideal streaming product.

[MrTPlush]

There is a reason that hasn't happened...those are the channels everyone wants and they include them with a bunch of trash you don't want so you can pay more. That is one of the nice things about the streaming services...a lot less garbage channels you don't even want.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

A couple conglomerates own all of the content. This is how they get away with their insane fees, by forcing a provider to take 25 channels instead of the only two anyone watches. The real answer lies with the Internet - people can and will just stop watching TV, but the Internet is oxygen at this point and LOTS of places have one choice.

[tmwiese55]

That doesn't really work anymore. Most of them only allow you to view live sports when connected via the Internet service that's part of the subscription.

 

IDK, I have multiple friends that use my Fox Sports login to watch Brewers/Bucks. One tries my charter stuff on everything where you need to show that you have cable and it works.

 

The funniest part is that I actually got rid of Charter in November and the logins still work. I have internet another way now and am still able to login to the Charter app and watch everything for free. I'm going to keep riding it for free as long as I can just to spite them, even though I hate not just having normal cable. 3 months so far.

[adambr2]

If you're one of many that just needs TV for Wisconsin sports, you're almost better off living out of market. If I didn't live in Wisconsin, I'd just pay $122 a year for MLB TV, get a decent outdoor antenna installed for CBS, FOX, and NBC football games, and Reddit the few Packer games I can't get doing that.

[LouisEly]

Well...not all of us live in Chicago. So your case is not very comparable to many.

From what I can tell, most major cable companies (including Charter Spectrum) offer cellular service now as a part of their offering, so I would think that most people would have that option.

 

Part of the problem is living in Chicago*. What I want to watch the most are the Badgers games (football, basketball, hockey), but now those are pretty much split evenly between ESPN, BTN, and Fox/FS1, and it seems like every streaming service is missing one of those. In order to watch the Brewers here I need the MLB channel; not sure how the Cubs new TV network will work as they don't have a deal with Comcast yet as far as I know, but that was 18 games a year I got to watch. This past season I think the Packers were only blacked out once or twice here because of conflicts with Bears games - that was luck, but you have Thursday night and Monday night games that are on ESPN and the NFL network. Marquette basketball is split between FS1, CBS Sports, and some other obscure network. The Bucks are sometimes on TBS/TNT/NBA, so I might as well get cable so I have all of those sports channels.

 

One of the other benefits of cable is that if you miss a game (NFL, BTN, sometimes ESPN) there are often replays of the game that are on later.

 

(*Don't get me started on the taxes and fees here.)

[Samurai Bucky]

This site seems to keep up the channel list, etc.

 

https://thestreamable.com/channels

[OldSchoolSnapper]

That doesn't really work anymore. Most of them only allow you to view live sports when connected via the Internet service that's part of the subscription.

 

IDK, I have multiple friends that use my Fox Sports login to watch Brewers/Bucks. One tries my charter stuff on everything where you need to show that you have cable and it works.

 

The funniest part is that I actually got rid of Charter in November and the logins still work. I have internet another way now and am still able to login to the Charter app and watch everything for free. I'm going to keep riding it for free as long as I can just to spite them, even though I hate not just having normal cable. 3 months so far.

 

My dad has Spectrum and when I try to use it, what I described happens. I can watch Hallmark Channel but it will not allow me to connect to Spectrum live without being on their network, i.e., in their house.

[SeaBass]

That doesn't really work anymore. Most of them only allow you to view live sports when connected via the Internet service that's part of the subscription.

 

IDK, I have multiple friends that use my Fox Sports login to watch Brewers/Bucks. One tries my charter stuff on everything where you need to show that you have cable and it works.

 

The funniest part is that I actually got rid of Charter in November and the logins still work. I have internet another way now and am still able to login to the Charter app and watch everything for free. I'm going to keep riding it for free as long as I can just to spite them, even though I hate not just having normal cable. 3 months so far.

 

My dad has Spectrum and when I try to use it, what I described happens. I can watch Hallmark Channel but it will not allow me to connect to Spectrum live without being on their network, i.e., in their house.

You wouldn't be able to use the Spectrum TV app but you should be able to use 3rd party apps like Fox Sports Go, ESPN, TBS/TNT, etc. Many networks offer their own app. As long as those channels are part of the original cable package you should be able to log into those using Spectrum credentials.

 

For context, I believe the Spectrum TV app is a way to access your cable subscription without needing to use one of their cable boxes. Say you have 4 or 5 TVs in your household, having a box for each of them would get pricey, so you could use the app instead to cut down on the box fees. It's only intended for use at a customer's home.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Weren't they cracking down on that like 3 years ago to the point of notifying users who were doing it?

[SeaBass]

Weren't they cracking down on that like 3 years ago to the point of notifying users who were doing it?

What's the point of having Fox Sports Go or HBO Go if you can't watch it on the... go

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm specifically referring to password sharing. There is no way that companies like Disney and Comcast are going to let that slide much longer. It'll get more complicated than just typing in a password. I'm surprised to hear that still works at all as they vowed to be "cracking down" in 2017 per a quick Google search.

 

Edit: They already have some mechanisms in place but have refrained from using them to this point:

 

“We have created some technology that’s in the backend that we will use to understand behavior,” Paull said. “And when we see behavior that doesn’t make sense, we have mechanisms that we’ve put in place that will deal with it.”

 

Article goes on to say they red flag accounts with suspicious activity/unusually long list of devices accessing content. I password share on some stuff too, just saying that monopolies are not just going to continue hemorrhaging millions as their base customer gets younger and does this sort of thing regularly.

[MrTPlush]

(*Don't get me started on the taxes and fees here.)

 

Trust me, I know. I have bought Cubs tickets direct or for other entertainment things. 12% in amusement taxes. LOL

[nate82]

(*Don't get me started on the taxes and fees here.)

 

Trust me, I know. I have bought Cubs tickets direct or for other entertainment things. 12% in amusement taxes. LOL

 

Well you could say the taxes were not very amusing......

[FVBrewerFan]

Regarding sharung, thats another great thing about yttv. You could share with anyone else and split the cost. $25 for most of the channels most people want. Also unlimited dvr and multiple streams.

[Samurai Bucky]

You wouldn't be able to use the Spectrum TV app but you should be able to use 3rd party apps like Fox Sports Go, ESPN, TBS/TNT, etc. Many networks offer their own app. As long as those channels are part of the original cable package you should be able to log into those using Spectrum credentials.

 

For context, I believe the Spectrum TV app is a way to access your cable subscription without needing to use one of their cable boxes. Say you have 4 or 5 TVs in your household, having a box for each of them would get pricey, so you could use the app instead to cut down on the box fees. It's only intended for use at a customer's home.

It is very possible they know the location where the subscription is assigned. This could be done by using the MAC address of your cable modem. A little OSI level 2 analysis to lock it down...

[tmwiese55]

IDK, I have multiple friends that use my Fox Sports login to watch Brewers/Bucks. One tries my charter stuff on everything where you need to show that you have cable and it works.

 

The funniest part is that I actually got rid of Charter in November and the logins still work. I have internet another way now and am still able to login to the Charter app and watch everything for free. I'm going to keep riding it for free as long as I can just to spite them, even though I hate not just having normal cable. 3 months so far.

 

My dad has Spectrum and when I try to use it, what I described happens. I can watch Hallmark Channel but it will not allow me to connect to Spectrum live without being on their network, i.e., in their house.

You wouldn't be able to use the Spectrum TV app but you should be able to use 3rd party apps like Fox Sports Go, ESPN, TBS/TNT, etc. Many networks offer their own app. As long as those channels are part of the original cable package you should be able to log into those using Spectrum credentials.

 

For context, I believe the Spectrum TV app is a way to access your cable subscription without needing to use one of their cable boxes. Say you have 4 or 5 TVs in your household, having a box for each of them would get pricey, so you could use the app instead to cut down on the box fees. It's only intended for use at a customer's home.

-------

 

Yes that is what Spectrum TV app is. It's designed as a way for you pay for it on one TV but then have access to all your other TVs(so you don't have to pay 15/month for each box). As I said though, I currently watch the Spectrum TV on my smart TV using other internet and it works fine and has been for 3 months since cancelling. Chances are this is just due to not logging out and wouldn't work if say I just gave you the details now and you tried it on your TV.

 

And as you said, using your Charter login to access FS Go, ESPN etc worked for several other people off mine for years with no issue. No one ever tried the Spectrum App so IDK. I know for one of them it has since stopped working once I cancelled but I'd guess he logged out and couldn't get back in. Others it's still chugging along. If you lived wherever and had a friend paying for cable here I'd be really surprised if you couldn't log into FSGO using his login. I do have a friend's info as a backup if/when mine stops working, I got it because I thought I would get cut off, so I guess I'll know more if/when I ever have to try it. But that reminds me, I gave that login to the other friend who's stopped working from mine and it worked for him no problem.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

FSN GO/TNT whatever work fine with a Spectrum login, today. I watched the Bucks game last night that way. I was just saying that I would not expect that train to choo choo endlessly. They may not care now, but they will as older traditional customers disappear and they are relying on a younger demographic. They're not just going to eternally let people get 6 subscriptions while one guy pays.

[tmwiese55]

For sure, I'm frankly shocked it's gone on this long with everything such as Netflix, etc. It's been a running joke for years how everyone uses each others logins and they've done very little to counter it. It's only a matter of time.

[SeaBass]

Apps like Sling TV, YouTube TV, and especially Netflix do have a limit to how many simultaneous streams they allow. So if you give out your log ins to too many people you could potentially lock yourself out of your own subscription if too many people are watching at the same time. I'm sure other services must too. That's one way they curb password sharing abuses. I think Netflix even has pricing tiers where you can pay more for a greater number of simultaneous streams.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Netflix's lowest tier is one screen, that's it. That's one of the reasons they "don't care" about the password sharing, because in many instances that person has a higher-tier account and that negates some of the loss. Disney+ has four screens on its lowest tier.

 

All these places know this is going on. I was reading about this earlier due to this thread and the tech is already there to stop it. There is an entire company doing this, Synamedia, and there are already algorithms that are incredibly precise at determining irregular behavior from an account. It can already detect when a user is on vacation with high accuracy.

 

Of course, using a service like this will come at a cost to the Netflixes of the world so there is some reluctance to jump ship. You can bank on that happening when they've figured out the losses are significant.