Discussion for the BOD.

Hey Scott,

Long-time fan of your blog and rants.

Since the days of streaming content, it seems like the growing trend is "cutting the cord". However, do you really save that much money doing this? I've thought about it and have looked into it. At the end of the day, I just don't think it's really worth it to be honest. I've read one comment from someone regarding this issue that was kinda spot on....it's like trying to save money by eating grass and insects instead of buying food at the grocery store.

 

In my case, my cable bill is about $100 a month. From doing research, that seems like that's the around general cost for most people. That includes a decent high-speed internet connection and basic cable (TBS, USA, ESPN, MTV, etc.)

Let's say you cancel your basic cable tv portion and just keep the high-speed internet. That alone is like $50 a month for a good enough speed needed to stream all your content. Then, let's say you still want to see UFC and WWE content. Then of course, you still want TV shows and movies. Hulu Plus is superior for TV and Netflix for movies.

 All together your streaming packages come out to $36 a month.

Now Hulu doesn't have every TV show available and doesn't have live sports. I, for one, love watching NFL games on Sunday. And yes, recently I've tried several indoor digital antennas for local channels, and have had pretty terrible results with them. Am I missing something? Is there an app or something for Roku to watch live sports on NBC, CBS, FOX, etc.?

Is it really worth it to save $14 a month in that case? Saving $14 a month isn't going to make you rich.

I don't know, to me I don't paying the small monthly difference for cable/on demand service. It's peanuts.

Is the cutting the cord revolution more about not wanting to give your money to cable and satellite companies anymore rather than the money you save by doing it?

It's about paying that $100 a month and not being able to watch what you want when you want for that money.  Yeah, I'm paying $8 for Netflix and $8 for Hulu Plus now, but now I watch those shows entirely on my own schedule, without intrusive commercials.  1 minutes of ads per break on Hulu is reasonable, 4-5 minutes on Canadian TV is ridiculous.  For the money I was paying I shouldn't have to subscribe to garbage channels that are owned by the cable companies, but that's exactly what was happening.  Shaw is particularly bad for rebranding channels into something that have nothing to do with the original license and filling it up with recycled content from other their channels.  There's literally 3 or 4 channels playing old sitcoms up here, plus another half-dozen about vague "travel" or "home and garden" themes, which allows them to endlessly recycle shows from Food Network and HGTV or god forbid create cheaply-made Canadian reality TV.  I can only take so many deck-building competitions or shows about wacky restaurants before I bail on the entire cable system.   I watch the regular primetime shows on Hulu Plus the day after, my kid watches her Disney shows on Netflix, I can YouTube tons of interesting content, and soon I'll have the WWE Network to fill up whatever other downtime I need to fill.  

Also, live sports, don't care.