Cutting The Cord – Part 1
I canceled my Cox Cable TV around a month ago, and I don’t really miss it. I just received my first bill from Cox, and I was happy to see that my bill decreased by almost 50% ($70). I must admit that there are some channels I do miss being able to receive, but for the most part I have found that I have more content selection now that I had before.
This and the following installments will outline and discuss what I did, how it was set up and lessons learned.
Why…
This is the first question you must ask yourself. You will give up some convenience of having just one source of content. For most the savings in money is enough to make many consider this option, it was for me.
I realized that I was spending a lot of money each month and I was only watching a fraction of the channels that I was paying for. If my cable of satellite company offered ala carte programing I would probably still be with them. But then they wouldn’t have the justification to charge me the exorbitant fees for providing me hundreds of channels.
If you decide to go down this road, its important to have your family buy-in, especially the SAF (Spouse Agreement Factor).
Other than money, the big factor for me was being able to watch what I wanted when I wanted or more commonly refered to as On-Demand programing. The Internet is full of content and most of it is free depending on your viewing habits.
Is This Right For Me?
This is the biggest decision you will need to make. It is based on your viewing habits and will you be able to get the same content or suitable alternatives to what you are viewing currently. Sports is the area that may cause you some concern, as there is not an abundant of sports programming on the Internet.
For me, as Im not a die hard sports enthusiast, the sports I get via Over-The-Air or local channels suits my viewing requirements.
Watching The Internet On Your TV
In my opinion this is going to be the hot topic of 2011. There are already tons of ways to accomplish this; Network Ready TV’s, Set-Top Boxes, and Game Consoles. Your choice may depend again on your viewing habits. I would recommend you look at the various services available and then make your selection on the device that provides you the best content. Below are some content providers that I have looked at and found fairly robust.
- NetFlix – Watch Instantly (Pay Service)
- TV.com
- Hulu.com or HuluPlus
- YouTube
- PlayOn
- Amazon Video On Demand
These are just a few of the ones I personally like. You may want to check out Clicker.com. This site is not a provider of content but a directory of what sites are hosting what content.
