Cutting The Cord

The price of cable and satellite providers keeps going up month after month. Most times in sneaky and, in my opinion, dishonest methods. The cable providers don’t raise the quoted price for their service, they add on a new “fee” or raise the price of an existing fee.  Most times these fee have official sounding names but in reality are just a way for the provider to soak you for more money.  Then there is the hardware. In my case my satellite provider was adding over $60 per month to my bill. Finally after 3 or 4 years of suffering through overpaying I decided to take the leap and cut the cord.

Comparing My Options

I began researching my options using this site and Cord Cutter News.  This website gives great information on different streaming options and their latest news.

It’s All About Live TV & Sports

For me and my family, we don’t watch a lot of TV but when we do its usually live sports or the local news. We have to be able to see the Cowboys, Rangers, Stars, Mavericks, Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. That’s quite a lot of local content and until recently, it was hard to get local live content.

But now there are multiple options, priced reasonable and don’t require a long-term contract.  It really is amazing all of the options that are available now.  

In the end I chose YouTube TV. At $50 per month with all of the local major affiliates and sports stations including multiple ESPN, Fox Sports and SEC Network. YouTube TV allows you to save and record stations and includes unlimited space. 

We’ve been using YouTube TV for over a month and have not missed anything!  Even though our old satellite provider offered a lower price than we were paying and a $200 gift card, in the end, after you factor in hardware fees we’re still saving over $60 / month.  It’s just not worth staying with the old cable and satellite providers.

How To Stream / Hardware and TVs

Many smart TVS today can install apps including YouTube TV but I’ve found that the easiest is using Roku devices and TVS.  

Roku makes an easy to use and FREE application to add streaming TV providers and dozens of free channels.  You can even throw pictures and videos from you phone to the Roku or TV.  It really doesn’t get any easier and with the prices of Roku equipped TVS from TCL, it doesn’t get much cheaper.

Take a look at the prices of the TVs below. It’s really amazing what you get for the price!

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