We did it. I just dropped off our Comcast equipment and I hope to never have another cable box again.
The combination of Netflix and Amazon Prime (services we’ve always had so they were a sunk cost) have slowly grow to eat up pretty much all of our time in front of the television. A week ago I went into the Comcast store to see what our options were, came home, made a spreadsheet (duh!) and it was clear that getting rid of cable television was the answer. Today I went back in to finalize the deal and we’re going to be saving about $1000 per year.
There are some new costs we’ll incur, but they’re nominal.
- We had to add a tuner to the Xbox One for $50.
- We had to get situated with an HD antenna for $40. The third time was the charm here as the tuner came with a small one that would only suffice if you lived next to the towers and the unpowered antenna we bought to replace it wasn’t good enough (25-mile stated range, we’re six from the towers – odd).
- We will have to buy Game of Thrones seasons for $38 a year.
- We will have to buy Outlander seasons for $40 a year.
The tuner is sweet because it has a 30-minute pause function. We’ve never had a DVR so this is an improvement for less money.
The antenna isn’t perfect. The signal can be finicky (especially when the weather is typical Portland winter) so you need to mess with it now and then. If we could come up with a solution to put it in the windows facing the towers I’m sure we’d have no problems at all, but instead it’s on the opposite side of the house so we’ll have to deal with it. I’m making it out to be a lot more significant than it is… It’s truly hardly an issue. One bonus is that the reception is uncompressed. If you’re a video geek like me, you probably cringe at the compression that’s visible (NFL games seem to be the most obvious). The image is not only free, but better than what you can pay for. We get about 50 channels – all the basic network stuff, PBS, a few networks that might as well be Nick At Night (Heather is gobbling them up), some Latin flavor, and a lot of Bible thumping.
With both shows we plan to purchase there are cheaper options to buying on iTunes, but we’ll cross the cost/benefit/legality bridge when we get there.
The only thing we really miss out on is brainless time spent watching Food Network, Discovery Channel, History, etc., but there are so many offerings on Netflix and Prime we’ve not considered that I’m sure we’ll be alright.
Coupled with our refinance last month, we’re looking at a stupid amount of money saved per month. All the better to pay for the new roof that is just finishing up!
Comments
Good planning, Mike! And Heather. 😉
Leslie
Other options to consider Hulu, Hulu with Showtime add-on, HBO Now. Still way cheaper than cable.
Ya. We don’t watch enough of any of those to justify the monthly costs over buying what we want when we want it.
Well done, but what is your source for internetz? Are you still stuck with Comcast for that, or have you found a way to truly cut the cord?
We’ve been cable-free for years and I don’t miss it all (OK, I miss DVRing the World Rally Championship coverage). The wife misses it for the endless availability of brainless trash – I say her brain (and our kids’) is better off not being exposed to it and she mostly agrees.
Nah, no way to get rid of internet unless we want to enter go back to the Dark Ages. CenturyLink is an option, but is a lot more expensive for equal bandwidth. They offer a gig, but that’s be no savings versus our old cable bill.