a question for the cord cutters - best streaming service for live tv

[TAPMD]

If you cut the cord and use streaming service for live tv, what do you use and why did you choose it?

I have Hulu live. I chose it because I like the layout better than Sling TV and it includes the sports channels. I do not miss cable at all!

 

[DisFan22]

Can you watch local sports with any of these yet? My do and son are huge Boston sports fans which is the only reason we haven’t cut cable yet.

I just received a email this morning that NFL Sunday Ticket was coming to Directv Now. So... that’s one option that’s guaranteed for you.

Is anyone else able to watch sporting events on other providers?

 

[azdisneylover]

We use Hulu Live. I pick up gift cards at Target using the red card for 5% off. Same with Netflix.

 

[alryan]

We have YouTube TV and love it. Our tv viewing is almost all sports so that was the deciding factor for us. It has ESPN, local channel for Packers and Fox Sports Regional Network for Brewers and Bucks. We use Chromecast, Roku, and XBox one to stream. I like the Roku best with the remote. Seems like the fast forward does not work as well when using your phone as the remote with the Chromecast.

 

[SteveH]

Can you watch local sports with any of these yet? My do and son are huge Boston sports fans which is the only reason we haven’t cut cable yet.

Check out Sling, they seem to have the best sports line up at this time. We plan to use Sling starting in September, then cancel it after College Football season, unless we like it service better then DTVnow

 

[CamsMom16]

We love Hulu Live. We tried Sling and find Hulu Live to be better.

 

[HeatherC]

Well I did it! Just called and cancelled our cable this morning. Bill will go from $151 a month to $65 for just internet. We have Spectrum...only choice here.

We are planning to sign up for YouTube TV for $40 a month so we will still save $46 a month. We decided on YouTube because we are in the Boston area and the only thing we watch on tv is Boston sports. My daughters and I watch Netflix or Amazon Video. YouTube TV ineup has the channels that my dh and ds watch to see the RedSox, Celtics and Pats games.

I figure if we don’t like it we can always go back and then they will probably offer us a discount to do so.

 

[SteveH]

Well I did it! Just called and cancelled our cable this morning. Bill will go from $151 a month to $65 for just internet. We have Spectrum...only choice here.

You might check with Spectrum, they actually offer a similar system to DirecTV Now but they don't market it much, but I believe it does offer more local options. We're not using it but one of my friends works for the marketing side of Spectrum and shared that bit of info with me.

 

[DisFan22]

Well I did it! Just called and cancelled our cable this morning. Bill will go from $151 a month to $65 for just internet. We have Spectrum...only choice here.

When we canceled our bundled service, I was able to resign up in my husband's name and get the "new customer" offers from Comcast. As long as you don't have a joint account... it could allow you to cancel your cable service, and get a much better internet plan. Worth a try

 

[Dancind]

I like the current DirectTVNow offer of $10 a month for 3 months. Going to give it a shot.

 

[eeyoresmom]

I'm moving to a new house next month and am trying to figure this out. As a new customer, I can get internet, cable and phone for $89 from Spectrum. Internet alone is$49 I believe. I may need the landline to get a cheaper home security service, waiting to hear back from them. I'm thinking the $89 is a good deal. I have to have some kind of local tv for my job for news/ weather. Right now I have an antenna, hulu plus and Netflix. My DD pays for hulu and Netflix but I'm thinking if I try to replicate what I have here in the new house I may as well go with the $89 package. Opinions?

 

[trenty]

OP here - we tried hulu plus TV for about a month. Channels were limted and streaming was not consistent. Got Fios. Not cutting the cord yet. Maybe one day when more channels become available.....

 

[DisFan22]

I'm moving to a new house next month and am trying to figure this out. As a new customer, I can get internet, cable and phone for $89 from Spectrum. Internet alone is$49 I believe. I may need the landline to get a cheaper home security service, waiting to hear back from them. I'm thinking the $89 is a good deal. I have to have some kind of local tv for my job for news/ weather. Right now I have an antenna, hulu plus and Netflix. My DD pays for hulu and Netflix but I'm thinking if I try to replicate what I have here in the new house I may as well go with the $89 package. Opinions?

If I were you -- I'd stay clear away from landline service for your alarm system. The cables which are easily found on the side of your house -- can be simply cut and disabled, which would cripple the communication signals to the monitoring center. I know how outlandish it sounds -- but one of my neighbors was burglarized and had it happened to her. A lot of companies, like ADT offer a Cellular Backup option. ADT charges us $12 a month for it.


If you really want a home phone, I would consider MagicJack - which is like $2/3 a month with the taxes, or something like OOMA. That $89 Spectrum special, will only last a year, before ballooning to over $150/month, easily. That $89 probably also doesn't include the "DVR" fee, Modem Rental "fee", or Receiver Fee, among others. You are so much better off using something like Directv Now, or Sling. And a separate provider for a home phone service.

Also - another thought. If you are just after local channels - you should be fine with just an OTA Antenna.

 

[jameyh]

We cut the cord on our att tv service last year, we live 30ish miles from the tv stations in Birmingham and signal was poor. We chose to go with roku which has a fox channel for our local news coverage. Roku is $50 a month we are saving around $100 a month on the tv service and then we pay for landline and Internet.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

I am very late to the party but YouTube tv Is finally available in our area. We are paying $230 a month. Yes!! $230 dollars!! For our home phone, cable, & internet through xfinity. I am really sick of paying this much money. The part that pisses me off the most is the amount of commercials I am paying to watch.
We very rarely use our home phone, the only reason we curantly have one it is because it is part of our bundle.
If we cancel, and just pay for our internet & youtube tv we can save about $110 a month. The reviews look pretty good. Has anyone regretted cutting the cord?

 

[robinb]

I did not post to this thread, but I bookmarked it because I was interested in cutting the cord. I recently ditched AT&T for Internet and DISH. AT&T was fine to drop, but DISH was a PITB. The last guy laid on the guilt and then LIED to me about whether I could still watch the recorded shows on my Hopper after I cancelled. He said "no" to get me to stay but the answer was "yes!". I ended up buying a Tivo Bolt (which I love) to use with Spectrum. I got a deal for 2 years for Internet and TV. After that, I am hoping the the streaming services will be better and my Tivo will be able to record OTA.

Edited: I upgraded my Tivo to a 4TB drive so I have plenty of room!

 

[DisFan22]

Has anyone regretted cutting the cord?

My biggest regret was not figuring it out sooner.

 

[twoolle]

I have learned a lot from this thread! Never heard of Hulu Live and Youtube TV. Our big issue is lack of good internet in our rural area. We pay $75 for DTV and mostly just watch sports...cardinals baseball and college football. I am thinking to drop the DTV all together until at least next April. We have an antennae we can use if we need it.

We have sprint for cellphones and use them as hotspots when we need good internet. But we only have 30GB total hotspot so I'm not sure how far that would get us with Hulu Live.

I read sprint has a 30 day free trial right now with Hulu Live. Might just try it and see how much we get with the 30GB.

Increasing our hotspot limit would negate any savings after we pay the $40 monthly amount for Hulu Live. I like Hulu because it works with Nintendo Switch.

Oh well..y'all got me thinking and I even got DH's approval to cut the cord on DTV until April. Maybe by then we can get new promotions.

 

[vacationer1954]

I think folks who are thinking about cutting the cord probably should stop dawdling and go ahead and do it, while it is still less expensive than just sticking with cable. With studios now letting their contracts with streaming services that they don't own lapse and reserving all their new content for their own streaming services, we'll soon see the end of one streaming service being sufficient. Within five years, whatever advantage there ever was in streaming will likely be gone so get in while the getting is good.

 

[firefly_ris]

I am very late to the party but YouTube tv Is finally available in our area. We are paying $230 a month. Yes!! $230 dollars!! For our home phone, cable, & internet through xfinity. I am really sick of paying this much money. The part that pisses me off the most is the amount of commercials I am paying to watch.
We very rarely use our home phone, the only reason we curantly have one it is because it is part of our bundle.
If we cancel, and just pay for our internet & youtube tv we can save about $110 a month. The reviews look pretty good. Has anyone regretted cutting the cord?

My parents are paying close to $275 per month for Comcast Xfinity phone, internet and TV, and that doesn't even include a DVR . I can't believe they still pay it but they watch a ton of TV. I haven't had cable since I moved out in 2006 and no, I don't regret it. But I also watch a percentage of a fraction of the TV they do. Internet is the thing i can't be without and they are slowly inflating that... used to pay 30, then 50, now I'm up to 69... and no alternate options to Spectrum in my area.