Introduction to Cutting the Cable TV Cord

I received my cable TV bill yesterday, and it was for $137.00.  I don't subscribe to any premium channels or packages -- expanded basic, HD tier and internet only.  There has got to be a better way to watch the TV shows I like without paying the cable company through the nose.  Especially since I never watch about two-thirds of the channels I receive.

So where am I now?  I'm researching how to cut my cable bill and still receive the programs I want.  There are a lot of articles on the web about cable-cutting.  Most talk about the trends and the industry reaction (or lack thereof).  Some give general advice on how to cut the cord.  Few web articles go into great detail or give concrete examples and breakdowns of the costs (in terms of money, time and convenience) involved with cutting the cord.

I've written several articles about my cable-cutting research:

• Cutting the Cord:  Take an Inventory
• You've Cut the Cord, Now How to Get Your Shows Back
• Getting Cable TV Shows Without Subscribing to Cable TV
• What If I Can't Get the Cable Shows I Want from a Video Streaming Service?
• Potential Pitfalls of Ditching Cable
• My Call to the Cable Company to Cut the Cord
• Sharing an Indoor TV Antenna with the Whole House

Cutting the Cord, Step One: Take an Inventory

You need to decide whether cutting the cable cord is worth it.  To do so, you need to compare your current cable costs against getting the same TV content without a cable TV bill.

My current monthly cable bill is about $137.  That includes high-speed internet, expanded basic TV, and the HD tier for my HD television (no premium stations or services).  If I drop TV service and retain only the high-speed internet, my monthly bill will be about $55, including taxes, etc..  This is for theoretically unlimited internet (subject to the cable company’s reasonable use policy.)  Right there I stand to save about $82 per month, or $984 per year.  But that’s without adding any TV content back into the equation.

Inventory, Step One – Hardware and content subscriptions:

What hardware do I currently own?  In my case, I own a second-generation Apple TV, a TiVo Premiere box, and a cable modem and wireless router.  And, of course, an HD TV.  I also have a MacBook Pro and an iPad Air.

What services do I currently subscribe to?  I currently subscribe to Netflix – the $7.99 streaming-only plan.  I don’t subscribe to any other video streaming service.  I won't include my Netflix subscription in my savings analysis since I already subscribe to it in addition to cable TV.

Inventory, Step Two – What do I watch?

Taking stock of my television viewing was easy for me.  I simply looked at the Season Passes I created on my TiVo Premiere DVR.  I have 25 Season Passes – 25 shows that I enjoy watching.  The Season Pass Manager in TiVo even listed-out the network for each of my programs.  Write this information down for each of the programs you’d like to watch sans-cable.  I created an Excel table with this information.

Of these 25 programs, 13 run on over-the-air networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and FOX.  The remaining 12 programs come from basic cable channels like Discovery, the History Channel, USA and TNT.

With my inventory complete, and my television programs and networks listed out neatly in a table, I’m now ready to assemble my television program content without cable. 

Current savings with no TV programming - $82/mo.

Next Article:  You’ve Cut the Cord, Now How to Get your Shows Back?

Cutting the Cord, Step Two: You’ve Cut the Cord, Now How to Get your Shows Back?

In this step, we figure out how to get that juicy TV content back once you do cut the cable cord, and how much that content will cost you.

In Cutting the Cord, Step One you took an inventory of both the hardware and services you currently have, and the television programming that you currently watch.

Free Content First:  

Broadcast networks must, well, BROADCAST their signals over the air for free.  And those over-the-air broadcasts are now digital and much of the programming is in high-definition.  Many say the broadcast quality is better than cable TV, because cable TV providers often compress the signal to squeeze more channels into that little, itty-bitty thin coax cord.

In my case, I bought an inexpensive indoor digital antenna from Philips (about $30) just to see what channels I can receive over-the-air.  To my surprise, I receive 32 channels.  I receive local affiliates for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS (two stations each for NBC and PBS).  I also receive local stations affiliated with CW and myTV.  New with over-the-air digital TV service are sub-channels within the signal of your main channels.  For example, my local PBS station serves-up its main feed, but also another 3 sub-channels with different programming.  The 32 channels I receive include these sub-channels.  That’s a lot more channels than when I was a kid, in the BC era (BC=Before Cable.)

There’s really no such thing as “snow” with digital signals – either you get a clear picture or you get no reception.  One caveat – sometimes you can receive a weak signal that is still strong enough to show the channel, but the signal will occasionally drop enough to cause stuttering of the audio and/or pixilation of the video.  Try repositioning your antenna to improve reception for all of your channels.

In my example, then, of the 25 television shows I want to watch, I can receive 13 of them for nothing more than the $30 indoor antenna.

Now how about the 12 cable shows I still want to watch after cutting the cable cord?

Current savings with 13 of my 25 TV programs - $82/mo. + one-time cost of antenna

Next Article:  Getting Cable TV Shows Without Subscribing to Cable TV
Previous Article:  Take an Inventory

Cutting the Cord, Step Three: Getting Cable TV Shows Without Subscribing to Cable TV

How can I get cable TV shows without subscribing to cable?

In Cutting the Cord, Step Two we discovered that a digital TV antenna may be able to deliver a great number of the television programs you want to watch, with no cost other than the one-time price for the antenna.  In my case, 13 of the 25 programs I watch are available over-the-air, for free.  The TiVo website claims that more than 80% of the shows recorded with TiVos are broadcast over-the-air.

The 12 cable television programs that I want to watch are delivered by 5 different basic cable stations:  Discovery, the History Channel, USA, TNT and Lifetime.

Using my Excel table of the cable TV shows I want to watch without subscribing to cable, I began my research using 4 popular video streaming services:  Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and iTunes.  The research took me about two hours.

I created columns in my Excel table next to each cable show:  a column each for Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and iTunes.  My cable television shows are:

American Pickers (Discovery)

Being Human (Syfy)

Deadliest Catch (Discovery)

Defiance (Syfy)

Falling Skies (TNT)

Gold Rush (Discovery)

Mythbusters (Discovery)

Pawn Stars (History)

Project Runway (Lifetime)

Psych (USA)

Royal Pains (USA)

Survivorman (Discovery)

I am already a Netflix subscriber, but I signed-up for the 7-day free trial on Hulu Plus and the 30-day free trial on Amazon Prime in order to see whether I could view each of these programs on each of the four video streaming services (iTunes being the fourth.)

Here’s what I found:

Netflix:  I cannot watch new episodes of any of my 12 programs using Netflix.  I can watch (some) past seasons for 6 of my 12 programs.

Hulu Plus:  I can watch new episodes for 5 of my 12 programs on Hulu Plus, but only on my computer.  That’s because Hulu doesn’t always buy the full re-broadcasting rights for a show it offers.  Note, too, that you can’t watch the current episode of a show until a few days after its original airdate.  I was able, however, to stream my shows to my TV via Airplay from my MacBook Pro to my Apple TV.  Hulu Plus has some past-season episodes for some of my shows.

Amazon Prime:  I can watch current episodes (after the same airdate delay mentioned above) for 2 of my 12 programs on Amazon Prime for no additional fee beyond the annual Prime membership ($79).  I can watch new episodes of the remaining 10 shows on Amazon Prime at a cost of $2.99 per episode (there’s a slight per-episode break if you buy a season subscription).

iTunes:  I can watch current episodes (subject to the airdate delay) of all 12 of my shows for $2.99/episode, or I can purchase a season pass for each show (varies, between $20 and $38 for each season pass.)

So, looking at my list of cable shows, here’s how they fared:

American Pickers (Discovery) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

Being Human (Syfy) – Can get via Hulu Plus (computer) or Prime without surcharge

Deadliest Catch (Discovery) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

Defiance (Syfy) – Can get via Hulu Plus (computer)

Falling Skies (TNT) – Can get via Prime without surcharge

Gold Rush (Discovery) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

Mythbusters (Discovery) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

Pawn Stars (History) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

Project Runway (Lifetime) – Can get via Hulu Plus (computer)

Psych (USA) – Can get via Hulu Plus (computer)

Royal Pains (USA) – Can get via Hulu Plus (computer)

Survivorman (Discovery) – Can only get by paying via Prime or iTunes

General Observations:

• 6 of the 12 cable TV programs I want to watch without paying for cable TV are carried by either the Discovery Channel or by the History Channel.  Neither channel provides episodes on its website, and neither channel appears to serve its shows to Hulu or to Netflix.  The only way to get these 6 programs is to buy them from Amazon Prime or from iTunes.
• I can watch new episodes of 5 of my 12 cable programs using Hulu Plus.  I think that’s worth the $7.99/mo. subscription fee.
• Netflix is kind of useless for current episodes of cable TV programs, but I already subscribe to Netflix for movies and for their original programming, which is increasing and it’s becoming really good.
• Amazon Prime gets me 2 of my 12 shows without additional surcharge over the $79 annual fee (that works out to about $6.59/mo. and you also get free 2-day shipping for stuff you buy on Amazon.)  One of the two programs overlaps with Hulu Plus (Being Human on Syfy), so the value of Prime is one cable TV show.  That’s an average of 2 episodes a month over the course of a year, or 24 episodes.  The annual fee for Prime is $79; a season pass on iTunes for Falling Skies is $24.  Looks like Prime is out unless I buy lots of stuff on Amazon and I want to save on shipping.

My research has led me to conclude that I will subscribe to Hulu Plus to regain 5 of the cable television shows I want to watch.  I will cancel the Amazon Prime trial membership.

Current savings with 18 of my 25 programs (now adding Hulu Plus):  $74.01/mo. + one-time cost of digital antenna

Next Article:  What if I Can’t Get the Cable TV Shows I Want Using Hulu Plus, Netflix or Amazon Prime?

Previous Article:  You’ve Cut the Cord, Now How to Get yourShows Back?

Cutting the Cord, Step Four: What if I Can’t Get the Cable TV Shows I Want Using Hulu Plus, Netflix or Amazon Prime?

In Cutting the Cord, Step Three I found that I can cut the cable cord and still watch new episodes for 5 of the 12 cable TV programs I like to watch using the Hulu Plus service for $7.99/mo. (a digital TV antenna is able to score me ALL 13 of the over-the-air shows I watch.)  The user experience won’t be ideal, but it will work.

We also learned in the previous article that new episodes of shows aired by the Discovery Channel and the History Channel are particularly hard to come by unless you purchase the shows using Amazon or iTunes.

In my on-going example I will save $74.01/mo. by cutting the cord versus subscribing to cable TV service if I install a digital TV antenna and pay $7.99/mo. for Hulu Plus.  This gets me 18 of the 25 TV programs I like to watch.

But what about those last 7 shows?  They are:

American Pickers (Discovery)

Deadliest Catch (Discovery)

Falling Skies (TNT)

Gold Rush (Discovery)

Mythbusters (Discovery)

Pawn Stars (History)

Survivorman (Discovery)

I have a few options:  (1) I can stop watching these shows, or I can wait a year or two for the seasons to appear on Netflix or on Hulu.  (2) I can buy/rent episodes on a per-episode basis for $2.99 each using iTunes.  (3) I can subscribe to a season pass for each show on iTunes at a cost of $20-$38 per season pass, depending on the show.

If I buy season passes for all 7 shows, it will cost me about $215 a year.  My current cable bill savings without subscribing to these 7 shows is about $888 a year.  This means that I can still save about $673 per year by cutting the cable cord – and I still get to watch new episodes of all 25 of my favorite programs.  Looking at it another way, that’s a savings of about $56/mo. over my current cable bill to get the same programming I currently watch. 

To play with the numbers a different way, I currently pay about $82/mo. for cable TV service (excluding internet); if I cut the cable cord (retaining high-speed internet only) I will pay about $26/mo. for the programming I actually watch -- a savings of about 68%.

Is saving $56/mo. worth it to me?  What inconveniences might I experience? What else might I lose by ditching cable? 

Next Article:  Potential Pitfalls of Ditching Cable

Previous Article:  Getting Cable TV Shows Without Subscribing toCable TV

Cutting the Cord, Step Five: Potential Pitfalls of Ditching Cable

In this article I will discuss how cutting the cable cord and ditching cable changes the way you watch television.

In Cutting the Cord, Step Four we looked at ways to get new episodes of current cable TV shows when they aren’t available from flat-fee streaming services like Hulu Plus or Netflix.  We also did the math on cutting the cable cord to see how much can be saved without sacrificing the TV shows we watch.

Sports.  I’m not a huge sports fan, I admit, so the example I have used throughout this series of articles hasn’t included any programming for sports fans.  Of course, major sporting events are typically broadcast over-the-air, so a digital antenna can probably get you the major sporting events and national championship matches.  For day-to-day sports competitions, or if you follow teams outside of your local viewing area, you may choose to subscribe to a season pass from the governing body of the sport (i.e. – Major League Baseball – MLB.com.) Just make sure to include this added cost into your math to determine whether your savings will still be worth ditching cable.

Multiple Devices/Multiple Remotes.  No more cable box means no more cable remote.  You may already be used to using a separate remote for your DVD player, but be ready to switch more frequently between devices and remotes.  In the example I’ve been using, I will need to stream some of my shows from Hulu Plus on my computer via Airplay to my Apple TV in order to watch the shows on my big HD TV rather than on my 13” computer screen (my shows on Hulu Plus are only available on the computer and not directly on my TV via Apple TV or my Tivo because of the licensing rights Hulu acquired).  That means fiddling with my computer, using the Apple TV remote and using my TV remote.  Oh, and switching the TV input from the digital antenna to the Apple TV.

Program Guide.  No such thing as an onscreen program guide without cable TV.  You’ll need to know what’s on and when in order to view your over-the-air programs.  You can watch your streaming programs anytime.  My TiVo does provide a program guide for my over-the-air channels, meaning that I only need to keep track of the shows to which I subscribe via Netflix, Hulu or iTunes.  Hulu and iTunes will send you an email when new shows are available.

DVR.  Until recently there haven’t been many options for a digital video recorder that supports over-the-air programming.  That is changing, and changing rapidly – do an internet search and you’ll find that a number of companies are starting to come out with DVRs targeted to cable-cutters.  Certain TiVo DVRs work with over-the-air set-ups.  My TiVo Premiere is one of those boxes (happy coincidence).  Check the TiVo website to see which models are compatible.  Nothing better than being able to pause and rewind live, over-the-air TV.  I’ve grown so used to being able to pause and rewind live TV that not having the ability is almost a deal-breaker for me in terms of cutting the cable cord.

Delays Receiving Programs via Hulu Plus, iTunes and Amazon Prime.  You can't watch programs on Hulu Plus, iTunes or Amazon Prime, even if you paid a subscription fee or bought a season pass, until they are released by the content provider.  This can be a few hours after a program's original air date, or it can be up to a month later (that seems to happen with a number of shows I get via Hulu Plus in particular.)  Be prepared for patience, and avoid water-cooler talk at work about these programs.

Pay-Per-View/Video on Demand.  Nope.  You’ll have to wait a little longer for new movie releases and watch them on Netflix or Hulu, or you can certainly rent newer movie titles from iTunes or Amazon.  As for video on demand, that’s pretty much what Netflix and Hulu are designed for.

Public/Government Access TV.  If you’re hooked on local politics, then you may miss the local public access channels that cable companies are forced to carry.  One alternative:  many communities now post videos of public meetings to their websites.  Or you can do it the old-fashioned way and actually show up at town hall for the meeting you’re interested in.

Next Article:  My Call to the Cable Company to Cut the Cord

Previous Article:  What if I Can’t Get the Cable TV Shows I Want Using Hulu Plus, Netflix or Amazon Prime?