AVHerbert

Cord Cutting Overview

Mon 13 February 2017 by Herbert

Cord Cutting

Cord Cutting - I canceled my Cable TV service!

I returned my cable television boxes and remotes to my cable provider last Friday. I unsubscribed from their cable television service. Over the last year, I have replaced it with a combination of different things. While the interfaces have changed, somethings better, somethings worse, I think I'm getting more value.

The below chart shows the last 12 months and it does include my Internet service.

A long path

Where I started - Internet, Television, DVR

Simple: we subscribed to Internet, Television and DVR service.

Basic Internet service : Our cable provider was one of the first to have install-it-yourself cablemodem service that I remember first getting from "Nobody Beats the Wiz" (an actual electronics store like Best Buy) and installing at home in 1997(?).

Silver Television package : The Silver package is the complete "preferred" cable channel package plus HBO, Showtime, and Starz/Encore premium channels. We chose this because we like HBO programming and its only $15/month more than just the "Preferred Package". And we're being "reasonable" by not paying another $20/month more for the Gold package.

Digital Video Recording (DVR) : When the first consumer products (TiVO and before that, ReplayTV) offering DVR support came out, it was a game changer. When my cable provider had their own solution is was a worse user interface, but more convenient than the TiVO-controls-your-cable-box approach. I didn't begrudge this luxury, I could record shows, watch them when I wanted and even fast forward through commercials!

What it really costs?

$213 per month

Our Internet offering cost $54 per month (after a $5 discount for being a cable subscriber). This is a 20 Mbps down/5 Mbps up service. Not terrible.

The Silver Package from my cable provider costs $89.95 per month (only $15/mo more than the Preferred package).

DVR Service costs $12.45/mo on top of the $8.80/mo HD set-top box rental which includes the remote control (both these prices have crept up since I first subscribed to cable). Oh yeah, this is PER BOX. We had 2 DVRs for $43.50/mo for the 2 set top boxes (includes remotes).

Oh yeah, fees: we were paying a Sports + Broadcast Surcharge Fee of $5.98/month another "Additional Outlet Fee" $1.50/month because I had a second cable box. Then there is another $17.83 in other unspecified taxes and fees.

I'm a little embarassed to admit it, but: Welcome to $213.71 per month!

And after, adding in all the fees, the set top box rentals and taxes, my television service was really $159 per month! That's more than I pay for our cell phone bill for a family of 4 (that's a blog post for another time).

As a side note: We used to have a 3rd cable box (no dvr) that lived in our bedroom, and then was moved to the TV in front of our treadmill. I replaced that the last time our cable bill crossed $200/month (about April 2014).

Where it is heading..

The price of our Silver television package has actually been unchanged since April 2012 at $89.95/month. It's the taxes and fees that keep going up, and they are easy to miss. The headline price is $90. In January 2017, the cable box fees jumped 13%, the programming surcharges jumped 40%. While the fees are still practically fine print on the bill, for the same level of service I would have seen a 4% price increase.

As a geek, this is shocking, there are more and more places to get our programming, how is the price going up? Especially for something like TV, change is an annoying disruption. This makes it real easy for the incumbent provider to simply raise the fees and count on the annoyance of changing to keep their subscribers.

As a geek, I do actually appreciate the internet service I have. I view my local cable company as a decent provider of connectivity into my home. I'm far less impressed with them as a provider of content into my home.

Other services...

To be fair, we did already subscribe to Netflix. Back when one would rent Video Tapes or DVDs from a physical store for $3/day, it was pretty straight forward to pay a few bucks a month to rent 2 at a time as much as you wanted. Then Netflix eventually got itself to be a streaming service and it was better. We were happily paying about $8 per month for Netflix for the movies.

We also subscribed to Hulu Plus. I think it's now just called Hulu and it is also $8/month. Unlike Netflix, we still see commercials (and you can't fast forward through them), but it is like a DVR for many of shows than are shown on NBC, ABC, Fox, A&E, Bravo, FX, SyFy, USA, BBC, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and more...

We also have access to Amazon Prime Video. We subscribed to Amazon Prime years ago for the free shipping (we order stuff from Amazon often enough, that it was a good deal), since then Amazon Prime Video, Music and other capabilities have only added additional value for the subscription. I'm not going to include it in my figures.

Where did I end up?

$121 per month

Better Internet : I spend more on Internet service from $55 to $70 per month. I now have 4 times the download speed and 6 times the upload speed from 1 year ago.

New Set Top Boxes : I bought a few Roku 3 (about $60) boxes, these are television set top boxes that you can use to watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Google Video, and many other streaming video services. No monthly fee for the Roku, but you do register a credit card if you want to take advantage of some Video On Demand services, or other customizations. Obviously the services I just mentioned have monthly fees.

Antenna : I bought an HDTV Antenna (about $80) and I get CBS, NBC, FOX great. I think I'll get ABC and PBS clear when I eventually end up mounting it on my roof/chimney. No monthly fee, HD Quality. Great for the rare times I want to watch live TV.

New Gizmos : I bought a HDHomerun (about $180), this little box let's me turn my HDTV Antenna into a streaming video service in my home. Instead of using my Television to select channels, I can use my Roku or AppleTV or computer to watch free Over-the-Air (OTA) HDTV. And, with the right software, you can use this to create your own DVR capability. I use software called Plex.

Over the Top TV Services : I subscribed to DirecTV Now. Despite the name, this is not Satellite TV. This is over-the-top (OTT) service from ATT. Over-the-top means it runs over your internet connection. You can watch DirecTV Now channels on your computer, your mobile phone, your table, or other digital set top box. I use an Apple TV and, soon, a DirecTV Now App will be available on Roku. The low price plan is $35/month and I was lucky enough to get early adopter pricing for their "Go Big" plan at $35/month and a discount on the Apple TV I'm using.

So now, for $100 less/month I pay for Internet+Netflix+Hulu+DirecTV Now. In three months, I will have "saved" more than I spent on the Roku boxes, Antenna and HDHomerun. I have spent a bit of time on this, but I actually enjoy that.

Actually, the reality is that I cut the way-overpriced DVR Service in April. I've already saved $200 since then. And I already had 2 Roku's, the HDHomerun, and an Antenna. I probably should have turned in 1 of the cable boxes earlier and used only 1 as the "backup for the Superbowl." And should have done all of this a year or two ago.

Comparing before and after

Watching Serial Television : We rarely watched Television live, we used the DVR. Now we use Plex, Hulu, or the DirecTV Now on-demand to watch previously recorded television. With some Networks, I can use my DirecTV Now account to log into their applications and do the same (ABC, Disney, ESPN, HBO, ...) as I could with the cable television service.

Watching Live TV Special Events/Cable News/Sporting events : I can use the OTA Antenna, or DirecTV now, or the ESPN App. Even the Superbowl was available for free via the Fox Sports App on my AppleTV.

Watching Movies/Premium : Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all have extensive libraries of Movies and premium television shows. Many of them are quite good. DirecTV Now even lets me add HBO (and the HBO Apps) for only $5/month more, which is way better than my old cable providers $15/mo more.

What's worse

Your Internet service has to be good. Test this out before you cancel services. I remember when we first got DVR service and changing channels went from a fraction of a second to a second or two: It was super annoying. Buffering Internet Video Streams can be painfully slow and if it occurs while you are watching a movie, it's terrible.

This isn't for channel surfers. Even the DirecTV now service takes longer to change channels, its not terrible, but.. it's not mindlessly pushing the "Channel Up Button." This approach is better for people who like to browse their DVR history or a service like Netflix and selecting what show you want to watch. It's also requires you to know "which app" you want to use for what you want to watch. Is the movie you want on Netflix or Amazon, make sure you run the right app? Want to watch Football? Try the ESPN App or the Fox Sports App or the NFL app...

Many small bills vs 1 consolidated bill. Tracking your subscriptions and recurring charges is more of a hassle than in the 1 Television provider scenario.

Choosing and configuring: it takes time to choose which services you want and how you want to consume them. It get's easier once you have decided on a given set top platform (I like Roku), but it still take attention and mindfulness when it comes to updates and the like.

What's better

Competition!

Easier to change

  • If the new service and old service are available for the device you chose, then it really only takes a couple of clicks on a website to subscribe or unsubcribe to a given service.
  • You don't have to visit the cable store to return or replace set top boxes, or even worse, wait during a 5 hour window for a "tech" to come visit your home

Price

For my family, I was able to cut the monthly cost by about half. But we don't watch a lot of sports, and I don't think we'll be adding services to watch NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA other than what I already could have through my OTA Antenna or streaming services. And I'm not including our home phone (which is a blog post for another time).

Comments