Dropped DirecTV earlier this year after having them for more than a decade. With Netflix/Hulu/Redbox/Amazon Prime I’m golden. Never been interested in sports so that was a non-issue.
It was really easy once I realized I was only watching about 10 hours a month. I can wait for my shows to come up on an internet service.
I stopped getting cable years ago. I have a good sized DVD collection and rely on Netflix or online sources if I want to watch something I don’t have. I don’t watch sports so that’s never been one of my viewing issues.
I gave up cable in 2010 when finances were quite tight. Today, the cable company provides my internet, and that’s all I use them for. The only times that I miss cable are during football season, and especially these last handful of years in Chi-town, hockey season/playoff time.
The short version of how I deal with it is: I simply miss some of the games.
I just suspended my cable. Not sure I can live without it, but thought I’d try because I need to save money somewhere. So far, so good.
Eh… Wish I could get cable. I depend DirecTV/hughesNet satellite for my TV and internet.
The internet is the issue. It’s very slow and limited. If I had cable, I could dial what I get over the dish for TV quite a bit I think.
For instance, no way I can get Netflix with a download limit of 250 megs a day. About 1/2 hour of programming eats right through that.
Definitely try out an antenna connected to your TV to see what channels you get. They transmit in pure HD, so it actually looks better than the compressed HD on cable. You don’t need a special antenna to pick up TV. An old pair of rabbit ears will work, although a newer antenna may work better.
The major networks are flaky when it comes to making their shows available over streaming from their website. For over-the-air, you may want to get a DVR which can record from antenna. Tivo makes a pretty nice one or you can get something cheap like this where you provide your own disk.
My mom did this in Denver (I don’t get any broadcast where I live) and she does get HD for the local stations.
There are a couple of excellent web sites that allow you to enter your location and it will give you the channels you can potentially receive, ranked in order of strength.
Antennapoint.com is one. Antennaweb.com is another.
Me, I come up with bupkis even assuming a 30+ foot mast…
I’d think you could just use the NFL GamePass. The games come right after they air, on Demand (though you can get live audio.) Instead of $100 a month, it’s $100 a year.
And you get access to every NFL game since 2009, including Super Bowls, with alternate angles. And you get what’s called “Condensed games” which can shorten the games to about 30 minutes. Sounds right up your alley.
If you’re into football, it sounds pretty sweet. (Me, I’ll watch the Super Bowl free once a year.)
I’d look closely at what games might be delayed or blacked out in the viewer area. I thought MLB.tv was the answer for this baseball household… but being at the intersection of the Boston blackout zone AND the NYC blackout zone, we couldn’t get about 2/3 of the games we were interested in. Since GamePass only shows the games on delay, it might be better… but honestly, I can think of few things more boring than watching a repeat of a game, once you know the outcome. :rolleyes:
I haven’t had cable in over five years.
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, youtube, and my sister’s xfinity login/password (for network live streamng) kept me sufficiently entertained through that time. But I did go through some withdrawal when my sis finally cut the cord and I could no longer stream all that delicious programming.
So a couple of months ago I got SlingTV. You pay $20 a month and you can stream AMC, TBS, Cartoon Network, CNN, IFC, and several others that I don’t watch (including multiple ESPN channels). It’s cheap enough, true, but it’s kinda crappy. The stream skips and crashes A LOT. Sometimes the app won’t even stream anything. I wanted to watch the premiere of Fear of the Walking Dead, but the stupid app wouldn’t work for the first 30 minutes of the airing. But I guess it’s not so bad that I’ve canceled my subscription. I am slightly addicted to the Cleveland Show on the CN.
The big downside of cutting the cord for me is that I feel I don’t have a very entertaining home for house guests. I watch all my programming on my lap top because I don’t have an HDTV. So Roku, Chrome Cast, or Fire Stick are not an option for me. Once my father came to visit and he was very unsatisfied by the piddling offerings on my TV. I probably should get an HDTV one of these days.
I have this same problem. I’ve decided that next time I have guests, I’ll sign up for cable and cancel when they leave. The cable company will either charge me based on the number of days I used it or for a full month–either of which is fine with me.
I cut the cord about 6 months ago and I’m generally pretty satisfied. I’ve got an HD antenna, Roku, Tivo (connected to the HD antenna) for my input; and I subscribe to Sling, Netflix and Amazon Prime, plus the Tivo.
The HD antenna signal is beautiful. So this covers my sports over the broadcast networks.
I get ESPN 2 different ways – it’s on Sling, and I also “borrow” my daughter’s cable ID, so I can get ESPN Watch (plus the HBO, Comedy Central and Fox streaming services).
The only sports that I’m missing – and it was a bitter pill to swallow – is Giants baseball, which is 90% only available on cable.
Sling is available for “channel surfing” – when there’s nothing on, I used to go see what was on AMC, TBS, HGTV, Food Network, History Channel…all of which are available on Sling. It’s clunky, though – I have to switch inputs from live TV to Roku, load Sling, and then navigate through it’s slow and poorly designed interface to browse channels.
Put me on the list of those who have cut out cable. I got rid of mine about four years ago and don’t miss it. Between the Hallkids and I, we all share an Amazon Prime account (I pay for that), Netflix (Hallgirl2 pays for that) and Xfinity account (Hallgirl1 pays for that). Even when I do watch something online, it’s HGTV or DIY Network, but that’s rare.
As others have said, get over sports and it real easy to get rid of cable. I don’t give a shit about sports except for Formula 1. However its always on at some ass-o-clock time so I’d miss it even if i did have cable. So I usually just torrent it the next day.
My wife loves the college hand-eggery, but not enough to justify the price. So she just goes to a bar, or somebody else’s house.
I’ve been living on Internet entertainment for at least a decade now and still find it surprising to hear people talking about and complaining about TV.
On the other hand, I don’t watch sports and I never cared about local news. But since one shouldn’t watch sports nor care about local news, I’m still mystified about why people continue to watch regular TV. 
On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to find a meetup group that plays sports in your area (which is like watching sports on TV IN 3D with GREATER PERSONAL INVESTMENT and TRIUMPH) and I’m sure you can find local news via Google, and that will probably include a number of video segments.
Many sports events are, probably, on the Internet. If you wanted to follow HEMA or something, I’d venture to guess that you could get all the footage you could ever want of it. You just might have a harder time with big name sports. But fundamentally, the only difference between big name sports and small name sports is advertising inertia. Otherwise, it’s just athleticism on play, guided by a set of rules. Be a rebel! Get into sepak takraw!
I would totally watch that over hand-egging any time.
Yeah, that’ll happen. :rolleyes: When I cut the cord I’ll just stop rooting for the team I’ve followed for 50 years, change my lifestyle, and become a participant in a sport I never heard of.
Or I could listen to the Giants on the radio.
Your house guests are inconvenienced because you don’t have cable for them to watch?
Did I say “inconvenienced”? Please don’t put words in my mouth.
Most Americans like to watch TV. Most Americans enjoy their cable TV. Most Americans do not go places where they will be away for their cable TV for more than several hours, let alone a long weekend. So if you are a person who wants to entertain American houseguests for an extended period of time, you will not have the most “entertaining” house if you do not have cable TV. The same as if you did not have a couch or a refrigerator.
My parents like TV. I wish they were a bit more bookish and didn’t have to have the boob tube blaring at all hours of a day. But I also don’t want them to be bored when they visit me.
It’s not that hard to understand unless you’re an alien robot from outer space.