Curiosity has the best of me. What's with cord cutting mania in the Triangle? (Charlotte: coupon, rental)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I can afford it, I just realized all the shows I watch were either on Netflix, HBO streaming, or over-the-air channels. Got an antenna, canceled cable, and that was that. SO watches sports that aren't on broadcast channels by using his parent's cable account for online streaming. If he didn't have that, we'd probably have SlingTV just for ESPN. I hate TWC with a passion and refuse to give them more money than is absolutely necessary for my internet (eagerly awaiting Google). The vast majority of my friends do not have cable. It's just not how people of my generation (late 20s/early 30s) watch TV anymore. I also haven't had a landline since I moved out of my parent's house for college, so there's that.
People who go that direction, certainly do love to talk about it. Maybe that's the answer :-)
We are still sticking with cable, but would LOVE to go FIOS if it was available in the area (still my favorite provider). We have Amazon Prime and a ROKU but most of the time I find myself not wanting to bother switching all the inputs, grabbing three different remotes etc. I need to break down and program the Logitech Harmony that is just sitting here at some point in time to make the ROKU easier to use.
Get a smart TV. Mine is a 55" Samsung, 1080dpi for under $600 (about 3 months of the OP's Cable Budget). One remote and everything happens fast and easy. (Two remotes if I play it on the surround sound, but that probably would go away if I had a modern sound system, definitely if it were Samsung.)
Even if you don't want to do that, a decent Blu-ray player that is the same brand as your TV should do the same, for under $100.00 (That's what we had before, and again, 1-remote).
For people who watch a lot of TV, I guess I get it. For major sports enthusiasts, I kinda get it. But for everyone else, I just don't get it. I have more tv than I can watch for free, and on any given day I'd rather be out doing something, then sitting on my arse watching someone else do something.
We got Amazon Prime a while back. For the shipping, not the programming, but now that I have a SmartTV, it's easier to stream Prime. I've found a lot of good documentaries (recent interest in the civil war has overcome me), but I'm finally watching the Sopranos. Never saw it, so that's fun. Prime seems to be the main outlet for HBO programming....
And when I'm home alone and not wanting to do anything, I've been rewatching Breaking Bad. Still a great show!
For me, it's not the cost, it's the reliability of the service and the customer service.
I dropped TWC last week...handed in the equipment on 5/21/16. I received a priority mail letter from them yesterday practically begging me to come back. I'll never say never, but for now, I will not return to TWC.
I pay $197 for my triple package, which is more than many, however I love the quality, variety and simplicity.
The other thing that I think of is...for the first time people have a real choice when it comes to premium (above OTA) content.
Sure, prior to streaming content you had a choice of cable of the dish - but let's be honest at the end of the day it's the same product for roughly the same price. You have to play the same games of calling to extend your promotional offer, or switching to someone else to take advantage of their promotional offer. You have to deal with equipment swaps as well as "renting" the boxes, remotes, etc. (things that aren't included in the $110 triple play pricing). Before cutting the cord I considered DirecTV. Their promotional rate was phenomenal, but there is also a button on their pricing screen that lets you project your costs out up to a few years. You had to sign a two or three year contract (I forget) and after the promotional 12 months your costs were significantly higher than TWC.
With streaming, I own the equipment, I purchase what I'm using and I'm not spending hundreds of dollars to get ESPN while supporting Oprah Winfrey's network, or the hunting channel (or whatever channel you never watch).
In the end I'm happy with my choice, just as you are with yours. I think that the prevalence is the newness of choice, as well as exchanging ideas, experiences, and tips to save a few bucks.
It was a matter of value for me. Just seemed silly to pay TWC what I was paying when I was using it less and less. I went from $150/month cable tv bill to $30/month Playstation Vue bill plus OTA DVR (Tablo) and get all the shows I was watching before, but with way more functionality that I had with TWC (cloud DVR available from any TV or from iPad/iPhone, for instance). Was a no brainer. Super easy to stop it for the summer months when I'm busy doing other things and my shows and sports are not on, too.
A big part of my decision to cut the cord and just use an antenna is that I simply don't watch as much TV as I used to. It's not that it was a financial burden to pay for cable (I was actually on a basic plan that only cost about $20/month). It was more that I couldn't see the point in burning that $20 a month for what I could essentially get for free after a $25 investment for an antenna from Target.
When I hooked up my indoor antenna when I lived there, it was to try to get the best quality HD picture. It ended up not being worth it, given that I really needed to be able to rotate the antenna with the signal coming from different directions......hence not part of the K.I.S.S. system.
Sounds like people have pretty much covered it, but dealing with the cable company sucks.......
Yes, very interesting perspectives. I do have a question for everyone responding.
Are y'all into watching professional sports/games, such as NASCAR, football, baseball etc? If so, how do you watch the events the same day, if they are not available on the local Raleigh/Durham area stations? My television watching is either sports, various political & news programming and various educational programming. I very rarely watch other programming. We are not into today's "entertainment" TV at all.
Yes, very interesting perspectives. I do have a question for everyone responding.
Are y'all into watching professional sports/games, such as NASCAR, football, baseball etc? If so, how do you watch the events the same day, if they are not available on the local Raleigh/Durham area stations? My television watching is either sports, various political & news programming and various educational programming. I very rarely watch other programming. We are not into today's "entertainment" TV at all.
Sports -> most primetime games and NASCAR events are on CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX which you can get on local RDU stations.
For ESPN and TNT/TBS/TruTV, I get SlingTV for the months that I need it (college football season and March/April). Also once you pay for SlingTV, it allows access to WatchESPN which means you can watch ESPN3 games as well.
I have T-Mobile and MLB TV is free for me.
For NFL games, I usually stream RedZone or other games illegally off my computer.
Political & News Programming -> Can get local/national news on local RDU stations. Also have a Roku that has tons of channels (PBS, TED Talks, CBS/NBC/BBC/Bloomberg News etc...)
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