Cord Cutting 101: How We Watch TV

We haven’t had a cable TV subscription since July 2016. 

In that time, more people have decided to ditch traditional cable/satellite television packages in favor of over-the-air television and various streaming services. 

In the past two years we’ve seen the growth of multi-channel streaming “bundles” — which are essentially a variant on the tried-and-true “tiered” cable/satellite channel packages we’ve had the past 20 years. The main difference is that you stream the content from these bundles. 

The question is whether these packages will retain their “value” in terms of price for the long haul. 

When we “cut the cord” in 2016, we went cold turkey. 

To this day, we go without “streaming channel bundles” from outfits like Sling or DirecTV. 

This post outlines how we watch television...

MAKING THE MOST OF AN OVER-THE-AIR ANTENNA

Depending on where you live, using an over-the-air antenna to tune in your local affiliates (and their various sub-channels) is a remarkably practical way to enjoy “live” television for free. 

I’ve tried numerous set-top antennas — rabbit ears, leaf-style, and bow-tie variants. Those antennas tend to be affordable and easy to set up. They also tend to have mixed results. 

(Tuning in digital signals is far superior to the analog-era of “ghosting, striping, and shadows,” but it can still be an arbitrary exercise...)

After playing around with indoor antennas for a year, I was ready to try a more “robust” set up in our attic or on the exterior of our home.

As luck would have it, I discovered an old yagi-style antenna in our attic (that looked like it hadn’t been used since the 1970s). 

I had read a number of “tech forum” posts about re-wiring old antennas such as the one in my attic with shielded, hi-bandwidth coaxial cable. 

I outline the procedure of converting our old attic antenna is this blog post from 2016. 

I’m happy to report that it tunes 24 local channels (including all the Omaha affiliates) remarkably well — and the signal is strong enough to power the HDTVs in our living room and basement. 

The MPEG video that is broadcast over-the-air is uncompressed — terrific sound and resolution. 

However, if your antenna is too weak (and around household items that cause interference), it can cause digital “breakups.” A common problem is high wind interfering with smaller antennas. 

Using an attic antenna has eliminated that problem for us for the televisions connected to the antenna.

USING STREAMING JUDICIOUSLY

There are many ways to stream content from services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu to your TV (in addition to the streaming “bundles” I mentioned at the beginning of this post). We choose to use an Apple TV unit. 

If your goal is to “recreate” the cable or satellite package you are dropping, things can get pricey. 

Here’s what we have:

Netflix Standard Plan - $10.99/month

Amazon Prime - $119/year (or an average of $9.92/month)

CBS All Access (we opted for the commercial free version) - $9.99/month

PBS Passport - $5/month
YouTube Premium (commercial free) – $9.99/month

In addition to these services, we also subscribe to NCHC.tv so we can watch the UNO Hockey program on the road (as well as other games in the conference). The price for NCHC.tv is $109.95/year regularly (but we are auto-renewed with a special deal that is like $89/year).

We’re also testing ESPN’s new standalone streaming service ESPN+ (UNO Hockey had a series at Union College that streamed on the service, so we decided to try it out). ESPN+ is $4.99/month.

The amount we pay per month is about half the $100/month we paid for cable TV.

TO REPLICATE OR NOT REPLICATE

We are paying about $50/month for our streaming services. Looking at the services we use, you’ll notice that it doesn’t replicate a traditional multi-channel cable/satellite package in any manner. 

Some people might not be willing to make such a change. We’ve found that this setup makes sense for our viewing habits — habits that had to adjust back in 2016 when we cut the cord. 

Others will argue that we could get a multi-channel streaming package (with channels like ESPN and HGTV) for the amount we pay for the streaming services we use. 

That is true. 

We could also purchase an over-the-air DVR (like the TiVo Roamio OTA DVR, or the upcoming Amazon DVR (geared toward cord cutters). Such a move would allow us to drop the CBS and PBS subscriptions.   

However, both the PBS and CBS streaming services have been making inroads in original content not found on the broadcast side (PBS is also good about dropping “all episodes” at once for the latest seasons of shows like “Victoria” on the service — and a $5/month donation allows us to “binge” those episodes). 

DO I MISS CABLE TV?

There are certain times that we miss having a multi-tiered cable package, but those moments are few and far between. So much content exists today that it is hard to find the time to watch the programming we have available.

What I like about cord cutting is the ability to “pick and choose” the services you want, and cancel them anytime. 

We use an Apple TV box to stream content on the three TVs in our home, but streaming apps are built into a variety of streaming devices, as well as most televisions and DVD/Blu-ray players on the market — so there are many options out there for consumers. 

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

I don’t know what the future holds for cord cutters, but there are some exciting technologies on the horizon. 

The next generation of over-the-air television is called “ATSC 3.0” and will provide consumers with stronger digital signals, 4K HDR video, on-demand content, and the ability to receive TV signals on phones, tablets and PCs (all using the same antenna tech we use today).  

FINAL SUM GAME

I remember a world before cable television. 

Part of the reason people ditched antennas for cable TV had a lot to do with the “reliability” (or lack thereof) of TV signals in the analog era.

We didn’t have a cable subscription until I was in high school (despite the fact that a number of my friends had cable in the early 80s).  

There has never been a better time to go “back to the future” and take a cue from television technology of the past. 

Cord cutting is also a great way to try something new, save some money, and use the latest streaming technology to your advantage. 

Previous post: When Kevin Costner Had a Mustache … And Played a Pro Cyclist