Cable is expensive, very expensive! One of the panaceas out there is to cut the cord on Cable by using internet services. This past weekend, after scrolling through the guide for the umpteenth time and finding nothing suitable to watch, I decided I'd had enough. I called Frontier (our local Tampa provider) and found out that of my $160+ FiOS bill, only $60 was for internet, so I told them to cut TV off. Yes, it was a rather emotional decision since I didn't really have a plan yet. But then I began to research some of the options.
The Options
- DirecTV Now
- SlingTV
- Playstation Vue
- Hulu
- Amazon Prime
- Netflix
- HDTV Antenna
My Requirements
I've got three young kids, so right away I know I need Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. I also enjoy watching Fox News Channel and Fox Business so those were non-negotiables. My wife and I like to watch home improvement shows and sitcoms so DIY, Discovery, Food Network, and others were important but not non-negotiables. I can't tell you the last time I watched a local channel so that was not important to me.
Narrowing It Down
Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are great choices for watching TV shows On Demand, as well as movies. We already have Netflix and Amazon Prime so those are taken out of the equation. I may try Hulu in the future but in the interest of saving some cash, we'll skip it for now.
A Sony Playstation is required for Playstation Vue* so that ruled it out (I'm not shelling out $300+ for a Playstation). I already have an AppleTV so DirecTV Now and SlingTV were perfect choices. As I looked through the channel lineup, SlingTV was missing Fox News so that only left DirecTV Now. The base DirecTV Now Package, at the time of this writing, is $35/mo and includes the channels I was looking for. As a bonus, it also includes one local channel (other markets outside of Tampa may have multiple local channels).
For prepaying three months of DirecTV Now, I was offered a free, latest gen Apple TV ($130 value) so that was the cherry on top PLUS no contract.
If I require local channels in the future, I can always grab an HDTV Tuner/Antenna and take advantage of the local Tampa programming.
The Experience
I paid, downloaded the requisite apps, and signed in on my two devices (an AppleTV and Amazon Kindle Fire Stick). Right away, I was impressed by smooth, high-quality HDTV. Also, I noticed a significant difference in navigation speed between the Kindle Fire Stick and the AppleTV. While the Kindle Fire Stick was slow to change channels and crashed several times, the AppleTV was fast and responsive. Scrolling text in news tickers on the Kindle Fire Stick was not completely smooth, but the AppleTV's display of news tickers was just as good as my cable TV receiver.
A great test was the Super Bowl LI game. The stream was perfect and no issues were experienced throughout the game.
How's It Going?
Cord cutting isn't for everyone. The navigation is different, there's a delay between channel changes, and in many cases involves the use of different hardware and different remotes. I'm tech-savvy and comfortable with a certain degree of change so I wasn't bothered by those things... too much. The video quality from DirecTV Now so far has been excellent and I'm experiencing a roughly $65/month savings by discontinuing Cable TV service. I can also take my streaming with me to a hotel or our favorite family vacation spot, guaranteeing that I'll always have the channels I want. So far I'm happy with it, but if anything turns up, I'll write another blog post about it.
As always, your mileage may vary. Test it out and see how you like it!
*ETA: A Reader has told us that the PlayStation Vue service can be streamed on the Roku, and we then discovered from clients that it can also be streamed on AppleTV. In fact, client response to the path this article outlines has been tremendous! Click here to see how it's gone for us, and read about the MASSIVE savings our clients have had.
