Is It Time to Cut The Cord and Leave Cable TV?


Cable and Satellite TV companies are worried because they are losing subscribers to cheaper alternatives from Sling, YouTube and even Sony PlayStation.  

You may already stream movies and TV shows through Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, but there are more and more ways to receive live television without subscribing to a cable or satellite service. And in most cases you will save money.

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Eric Bangeman is the Managing Editor of Ars Technica, a website that covers tech news. He knows that he could save money himself. “In my case, paying $150 per month to DirectTV, I could probably knock about $100 off my bill by switching to a streaming service,” he said.

Each streaming service offers a different selection of channels and different pricing structures, so you’ll need to do some shopping around for some services or a specific premium channel, like HBO GO, says Bangeman. Consumer Reports recently put together a comprehensive guide to streaming services.

If you do cancel your cable TV, says Bangeman, be sure to keep the internet service, because you’ll need it for the streaming services. You can typically use the same devices you may already have for Netflix or Amazon Prime, such as Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire Stick. 

For access to local TV, an over-the-air antenna will get it all for free. “It can actually be better quality than cable,” says Bangeman. “Because TV over cable is compressed. With ‘over-the-air’ it’s going to be an uncompressed signal and it’s going to look nicer.”


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