OK. I'm sick of paying the cable companies. How do I cut the cord?

[politicat]

32. We've always been no cable, but we do okay.

Sports: I'm a baseball fan, partner is not. I found a sports bar frequented by like-minded fans. Cost per week: $10-20 for games I want to see. Otherwise, I do radio because baseball on the radio works for me. I don't like football, but I personally find the camaraderie of being with other fans good. Many sports bars will also change a channel to any sport, so if you're into curling or cricket, you've got a good chance of finding a screen.

HBO: the original content is usually on iTunes within 24 hours of broadcast. HBO finally got that memo after so many years of getting pirated. Once you buy it, you own it. Cost per series is around $30 for standard def, which is usually fine. We use an Apple TV for what we want. The replay content shows up on the streaming sites at about the same time it hits HBO.

Netflix streaming covers most series, a rotating catalog of film and original content. You'll pay $10 a month for pretty much all you can consume.

The roku does pretty much the same as the Apple TV but uses Amazon for paid delivery. If you have an amazon prime account, you have access to a selection of TV and film included (usually around 40K titles.) There is significant overlap between the two devices (Netflix, ABC, PBS, hulu plus, mgo, several others) but roku doesn't do iTunes and Apple TV doesn't do amazon. And licensing competition can be a factor. OTOH, each device is only $100. (I've got a roku for my grandmother, because the woman is a compulsive Home shopping/QVC buyer, and since her stroke has lost a lot of impulse control. Cable would kill her financially.)

Our total monthly media costs average $60 for content and $75 for the fastest, widest possible internet pipe (which we would be paying anyway, geeks that we are.) Gran's DSL line is slower and narrower, but it handles 10 hours of streaming a day just fine for $45 a month. Gran piggybacks on my netflix and amazon accounts (mostly to help control the money - she can't have a credit card. See poor impulse control.) She gets about 2 movie rentals a month (rewards for meeting PT goals) and has yet to run out of series on Netflix she wants.

The real advantage to your wallet hits about 3 months in. If you don't see commercials, your buying habits will change. You will start to buy what you need, not what's been sold to you. You'll also find that the narratives flow better when they're not broken up by ads. There's also the active consumption piece -- without cable, you have to actively decide what you want to watch. It's harder to channel surf and near impossible to be a passive receptor of whatever happens to be on. Gran is watching less TV and interacting more with people, which is great for her. (She's in assisted living; before she lived alone and consumed a lot of HGTV, QVC and HSN.) However, she's not a sports fan so that's no loss for her. She's found others who love her same soap opera, so they have commandeered one of the community rooms for a daily soap fest.

I personally like the Apple TV interface & remote better, but it's a tiny thing that can easily be lost. The roku remote is larger, but very simple, and has a lanyard. Both are robust little devices that don't require much in terms of tech savvy.

The first couple weeks will itch, but it goes away pretty fast.