Cut the Cord
 

It’s earnings season, and we are slowly getting a look at the number of TV subscribers each traditional pay-TV service is losing every month. So far, Comcast, AT&T, Spectrum, and Verizon Fios have reported losses totaling 669,000.
According to the earning reports, Verizon Fios lost 151,000 subscribers, Comcast lost 106,000 subscribers, Spectrum lost 66,000 subscribers, and AT&T lost 346,000 subscribers totaling 669,000 subscribers in the third quarter of 2018. This works out to 233,000 Americans canceling traditional pay-TV every month or about 7,700 people canceling cable TV every day. At this rate, just these four pay-TV providers will lose almost 2.8 million subscribers over the next year.

Cord Cutters News - All the news cord cutters need about cord cutting! Covering, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Netflix, Hulu, & More!

This link to Cord Cutters News is excellent. I have only just started reading through it, but I am amazed at the amount of easy to understand info it contains. I am into cutting the Cord, however I am running into some real hesitation from the person who shares my life! He needs to turn on the box and have what he wants to watch right in front of him! It is hard to wrap your head around technology if you are not really into it. I shall persevere.:icon_wink:

Lots of great info.….sometimes people find change difficult......good luck!

I sure can understand cutting the Comcast cord. Worst service ever!

For Comcast, 106,000 cable customers reprsents only 1 in 200 customers. Also, during the same period, they added 363,000 Internet customers. So, I wouldn't count them out just yet. Also, the streaming service companies are providing essentially the same product as the cable companies. The only real difference is the cost. So, the changes noted are just a result of price competition.

Xfinity aka Comcast GONE
 

I just removed my xfinity and replaced it with Century Link fiber 1gb internet service. They gave free install, free modem and router, and $65 per month. I subscribe to Direct TV Now, Netflix, and Prime video. I stream them with an Apple Tv, Amazon Firestick, and a Roku Ultra. Wonderful performance and more than 70 live channels including all locals. The $65 per month is guaranteed to NEVER increase. No contract. Total cost to install $65.

Very happy speeds are somewhere about 300 mbps. I play video games, watch TV, use Alexa, listen to Amazon Music and Pandora, surf the web, get email, etc. No problem buffering or having plenty of bandwidth speed.:a040:

I have three TVs, two Xboxes, Alexa, Google Home, wifi light bulbs and switches, two MacBooks, and an iPad.

Direct TV Now is a streaming service with 65 channels costing $40/month plus Netflix and I am an Amazon Prime customer.

Would love to have you share your experience at the next Villages Cord Cutters Club meeting, Tuesday, March 12th @ 1:00 pm at the Colony Cottage Recreation Center. We have 570+ members that have joined since December. Email me a v3c2018@gmail.com for information.

I have decided to wait a little while longer to "cut the cord".
All of the different alternatives/options are in their infancy. Like the cable business did, they will get bigger, they will standardize offerings, hence more stuff one doesn't need, new equipment to service the growth all resulting in increasing prices....see Direct TV Now changes.

I am one of those who would like an alternative but have not found any one or combination that offers the convenience of current cable/satellite capability.

It will shake out and the new and better will evolve.

Comcast Starting to Throttle Down Streaming?
 

I think I will soon be out of streaming options. I have Amazon Prime, Playstation Vue, and Netflix. In the past week or so, I can only watch 10-20 minutes of any of these before I get a black screen and have to re-set everything. Has anybody else noticed this? I have Comcast Internet.

My greatest joy was walking into Comcast with my box of "stuff", with comcast name outside of box with circle around name and giant slash, oh happy day, oh happy day!...Now if I could figure out how to drop their wifi, I'd be a happy camper, unfortunately an antenna is not the answer in our tree lined streets,

Have you checked with Century Link to see if you have fiber optic on your street?

See post #6

I have it and love it. $45.00 even a month for life. :coolsmiley:

Checked web site...not available (in our village).

We have Comcast and stream YouTubetv, Netflix and Amazon with Chromecast devices and haven’t experienced any problems.

We can get Century link BUT have been told, speed is slower than comcast.

Not Century Link over copper wire..... Century Link Fiber Optics. Big difference! I went from Century Link DSL to Fiber Optics. As it turns out it was on the street already they just had to bring it into our house. Had the land line phone taken out at the same time and the C/L bill went down over $20.00 ( it was unplugged from the wall most of the time anyway.) Tried streaming the next day and liked it. You know what came next..... I made the trip to ComCast with a large box of their equipment and never looked back. :ho:

Don't know if we're candidates for cutting the cord. We are sports fanatics. We plan our social life around the Red Sox,Bruins & Patriots. From what I understand streaming sports is only available for local teams. Especially NFL games. We have Direct TV and very rarely miss any of these 3 teams when they're playing. Could someone please inform me whether I'm right about sports streaming...Thank You

:shrug: What channels are you watching your teams on? Check some steaming services and see if they carry those channels. Let us know. :popcorn:

My husband is married to The Golf Channel. So if these cord-cutting doodads don't let him watch that ONE channel, the entire deal is off. It's crazy how a single channel can hook someone into a $200 service. We get home phone, 1gb internet, a gazillion channel cable with all the premium options plus netflix. We've had problems recently with these lower-numbered channels - the golf channel only works on one TV but not the one with the HD box and they want to bring someone into the house to check it out. We're not letting them do THAT again - the last time they did it they spent hours and hours poking around our house, and didn't fix what they came for.

We want to cut the cord but he won't ditch the Golf Channel.

I'd be fine with just decent cable internet and old fashioned network TV, with a DVD player we can rent movies with if we really wanted to watch a movie that normally would be on a premium channel. I'm not much of a TV person. I like Survivor, that's about it.

Red Sox & Bruins on YouTube TV. We use Phillo as the other paid station. Total $59 a month, Comcast 25 Jiggawatts for sit down, $19.99 a month, I bought my own Router. When the First Year is up we'll open up a new account under one of our Daughter in Laws Maiden Names and start all over for a year if they don't keep us at the Starter rate which I bet they will do. You have to start off that you will quit if they don't do what you need them to do, if you are weak they will roll over you.

Bosox, buy a Roku and experiment while you keep what you have at the very worst you'll add free channels to your library and if you have Prime from Amazon forgetabouit, you'll be set.

Patriots CBS All Access no extra charge. I'll help you if you need a hand. Just feed the pup before I show up! :1rotfl:

:popcorn: I have the Golf Channel on DirectTVNow. $65 Plan. 105 channels.

DIRECTV NOW Packages & Pricing | Plans Start at $40

Golf channel is on YouTubeTv, $45.00 month.

Also hulu

Right. But as I said, the package I have includes 1gb cable internet and landline. It also means access to any xfinity hotspot in the country - which means if I'm not home, and my home phone rings, and I'm in an xfinity hotspot, I can answer my home phone with any wifi-capable device I happen to have with me (cell phone, laptop, or tablet - I have all three).

You can't do that with just a TV package. I'm looking to compare the costs and options of the entire thing, not one piece of it to the whole.

Followup on previous post since it might not be clear:

How much are y'all paying for the COMBINATION of TV that includes the Golf Channel, PLUS high-speed internet, PLUS landline phone and national wifi access? (which also means if I'm not home in front of my Roku TV set, but I'm in a wifi zone I can watch that TV streaming on my laptop or tablet)

I agree that things will change with cable and streaming. Instead of waiting, I cut the cord and went with DirectTvNow. Even with their proposed $10 month increase, I'm saving $80 month over cable. There's no contract with the streamers, so I can cancel at any time. So I can easily go to another streamer or back to cable if their costs drop. In the meantime, I'm saving a lot of money.

If you get a Firestick, go to Do It Yourself Tech Projects For Home & Small Business. He shows how to put apps on the Firestick.

So I took a look at Centurylink, DirectTV, and xfinity. With the criteria: MINIMUM 150mbps internet speed, TV lineup must include golf channel and all network stations, and voice phone service.

Turns out if I "cut the cord" and get DirectTV, then add internet and voice elsewhere (since DirectTV doesn't offer either of them), I'll be paying more than I would for the xfinity triple-play service in the Villages. Here in Connecticut this service is over $200 after fees and taxes. Down in the villages it'll be $139.99 plus fees and taxes, so likely around $165 after all is said and done. That's for TV, internet, and voice combined.

Why do you have a requirement for 150 megabits per second? 1080p streaming uses about 5 megabits per second of bandwidth. 4k streaming uses about 20 megabits per second of bandwidth. Compared with a lower bandwidth, say 40 megabits per second, web pages with extensive graphics may load slightly, perhaps imperceptibly, faster. When we first moved here 5 years ago, we started out with 10 megabits per second (download) and had no issues streaming 1080p to two sets simultaneously. We now have 80 megabits per second (download) because it hits a sweet spot in the CenturyLink pricing structure (one price for life for $45 total per month). It is way more bandwidth than we can use. I suspect most people overpay for more bandwidth than they could ever use.

It really doesn't matter why. That is my criteria.

That means you don’t have a requirement. Whatever, sorry to bother you with a logical question.

Why do you need television at all? Or HBO? You can cut the cord and not get any of those things, and just watch the local network subsidiary station. You don't need all those other channels.

Or - maybe you have criteria and want certain things. Does it matter WHY you want those certain things? Would the reason change the outcome? I want 150mb minimum because I want 150mb minimum.

:ohdear:

Whatever. I don’t see a need for you to obsess over this. I asked a question and you don’t have an answer. I suggest you just let it go.

Here's your answer: because I don't need the 1gb that I'm currently getting. 150mb is sufficient, and that seems to be the speed that is the most cost-efficient when looking at various bundles and plans on various internet company websites. My computer can do far greater than that, and so can my gaming laptop. But I'm not married to gig speed. I had frontier DSL at one point, and the speed was 25mb, and it was so slow and clunky and nothing synced properly. When I switched to xfnity, it immediately bumped to 80mg and I saw a vast improvement. Then they bumped me to 150, which was even more improved than that. They kept bumping me up to higher speeds but I couldn't notice any particular difference in viewing ability between the 150 and the 250, the 400, or the 1gb. And so - 150 is the speed I want.

Now - do you have an actual answer to my question, or are you just being incredibly nosey?

:oops: Told ya!

We have Spectrum here in TV for both television and internet. At our second home, we have Direct TV and At&T for the internet. At&T is our provider for our cell phones. Of course we can put cable and internet on vacation when we are not using the location of the service. This setup works for us and is very convenient. We get sports for me and movie channels that wife enjoys. Could we save a few dollars by “cutting the cord”,yes, would it be as convenient or would we have all the various options we have now, No. Most of us have some sort of budget which determines our spending practices. Some live in expensive large houses for just two people, some drive expensive cars, some have other expensive toys like boats, fancy golf carts, and others spend their dollars on travel etc. etc. Finally, some like to figure out a “better way” to get their television program options by “streaming”. Good for them.

Is your devices behind the tv? If so they heat up and start to act up

Just got notification from DirecTV Now. Live a little package being eliminated. If you have it now you can keep it but the price rises $10/ month next month. They have only two new packages and eliminated all others. Both have less channels than the live a little a little package however HBO is included - a $50 and a $70/month package. My package has increased from $35/month to $50/month since June 2018. There are some very obvious channels being left out of the new line up - example Discovery and HGTV.

Rusty, Youtube & Philo total $60 and give you Discovery, HGTV, History, Local, Sports. I'm happy with it and hope it helps you out. Good Luck. I'm extra impressed with Youtube TV, Unlimited storage on recording stuff. :clap2: No HBO though. We changed to Netflix and found it is way better Than HBO unless you are following one show.

I share the Youtube with my son and he shares his Netflix with me all legit but of course, I'm paying for the higher priced of the two. We also get Showtime when Ray Donavan is on, what a show, reminds me of the old home.

:shocked: Hard to believe someone can make COMCRAP start to look good..... but DirecTV Now is trying. I'm POed. :boxing2: