More and more people are cutting the cable cord…
A blog I keep up with (because its a great blog and coincidentally, I’m related to the dude) called, People helping people. Powerful stuff., has a great article this week on cutting the cable cord. He lays out for those of us that are considering making this change the steps he is going through and the costs associated with removing cable TV from his life and going all-in on digital.
I wonder how many of you have made this change and the challenges that you’ve come across or surprises/lessons you’ve learned. It’s something I think about all the time. The ability to be free of the cost and shackles of the cable TV empire and help start the movement to “Internet TV” is something I want to be a part of.
However, I still think Cuban makes some great points in this debate he had with the founder of Boxee. Mainly, we the people might want this change to occur but creating the content is going to be the tricky part. Also, I beat Avner (Boxee founder) in ping pong once. That has to figure in here somewhere ;)
But this is a good trend to help with that. Kaw-kaw, kaw-kaw…inside joke. Anyone?
And this is a great start to disrupting the cable companies. Please, please, please bring this to Atlanta, Google.
Who else has tried this and what have you learned?
Jeff,
I have subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu and a decent down on my DSL. With that, my DVR sat dormant for almost 6 months, literally unplugged from the wall.
When I wanted to see True Blood, I paid them their 16 extra a month for HBO and I watch it on HBO Go on my XBox :)
Now, this DOES mean I still have dish, but I talked them down to only 21 a month for basic service and the DVR. Since I basically don’t use the DVR, I could probably cut it down to 15 a month for dish plus any premiums.
If I was willing to live without paid for HBO, I could of been rid of dish/cable EXCEPT for this past week.
Good luck seeing the Olympics on anything but a computer. You have to go to other countries sites to get them, NBC has a block on it.
But, seriously, besides the Olympics, there’s been nothing I couldn’t see, legally, and pay very little to the gigantic middle men known as Cable/Dish providers.
You’re right, Cuban makes a great argument for content creation, which is a side that very few normal consumers can see or understand. However, I do believe there will come a day when there are content creators (who will need to figure out how to do productions cheaper… or use something like a kickstarter to fund their show?…) and big dumb pipes that deliver the content. I believe the two are too blurred and it is pricey/inefficient for consumers. (Why do I have to
As the saying goes, I want my what I want, where I want it, and when I want it. We’re not there yet, but that’s the ultimate goal. Customer’s talking with their feet definitely help.
I cut the cord 2 years ago, and it has since gotten a lot easier to do it. I’ve been paying for Netflix and Hulu Plus, streamed directly to two tvs through two Roku boxes. I’ll be honest, it took some getting used to. You have to wait a day to see most shows, so you lose the next day watercooler opportunities, but if reset your expectations it really does just become very easy, and I think maybe even more enjoyable. I now watch entire shows, from season 1 to the end, where that would have rarely happened through cable, and I like that I can essentially create my own channel of just the shows I want through queues.
Now, I said it just got easier to cut the cord. With the release of OSX Mountain Lion, AirPlay Mirroring with an Apple TV means anything that is available on the web can be streamed wirelessly to the tv. Since HGTV, MTV, and many others put all of their episodes on their websites, I have access to a lot more content.
So my setup looks like this: one Roku for each tv (1 time investment of $60 each), one Apple TV (1 time investment of $100), a NetFlix sub ($8/mnth) and a Hulu Plus sub (free by redeeming Bing points). $220 up front cost, and about $8 per month does it for me.
Now, I did recently buy a season pass to Breaking Bad season 5 through iTunes. And that doesn’t feel dirty to me at all. That is the way television should be – I pay for what I want, just like movies.
The thing that stuck with me that Cuban said though is the marketing of the content. Right now, major networks get funding via cable subscriptions as well as ads. This allows them to advertise programming. When you strip those two funding areas away, you suddenly have what we have on the Internet today – essentially a massive amount of content that is hard to parse through to get to the good stuff.
We dropped cable a little over a year ago and haven’t regretted it. Apple TV, Netflix Streaming and an HD antenna allows us to keep up with all of the shows we’re interested in. We pay for what we want and watch it when we’re ready – on average playing 1/5 of what we used to with cable.
Dang, fantastic point about Mountain Lion / Airplay. I can’t believe I left that out of my post! And I agree, paying for the content you want is the way it should be. Also I love the ability with this model to watch on any TV you can sling a cheap AppleTV or Roku too. In the cable model you have to pay for another DVR and sub.
I’m starting to be convinced to start talking to my wife about this…
Cutting the cord got a little easier for folks with today’s launch of the Amazon Instant Video app on the iPad. Throw in an AppleTV and you take it off the tablet onto the primary screen. Of course, now with Lion you can fling Amazon from the computer as well.
The way we find the good stuff is the content producers, like Louis C.K. sell it to us directly :)
We do need a way to find new stuff, but that’s what Social Media is for, amirite? :D
That’s one thing that will be tough for me, the HBO thing. The only way to get it is via cable right? I love HBO GO as well but obviously you have to put in your creds. I suppose, and I hope HBO isn’t listening, you could split the cost with a friend who has cable and then you could use HBO GO and they could use it via their DVR?
[…] Also reinforces the idea that its getting easier and easier to cut the cord. […]
We cut the cord a year and a half ago and haven’t really missed it until the Olympics.
NBC makes you log in with a cable subscription to watch a lot of stuff like live soccer games. I tell other cable cutters that it’s worth looking into xmbc. If you jail break your Apple TV this allows you to watch a lot more content.
As far as Cuban’s point. People will pay for content. They are with Hulu, Netflix and iTunes. And they’ll watch commercials, Hulu makes me. But they’re sick of subsudzing content they don’t like through bloated cable packages. Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo and Google (YouTube) are all experementing with original content. And I suspect once real success starts to happen for them and for MLB and NBA with their apps network execs will have to start taking us cable cutters seriously.
Yeah, that’s why I cut Dish down to the absolute minimum, so I could get locals easily and then pay for HBO.
I got them down to 21 a month, and if I decide I don’t want a DVR, I could probably get it lower.