How many are still using satellite or cable for TV?

[Daren Todd]

Wife and I got away from satellite TV a few years ago when our internet speed improved. We've been getting by with an amplified antennae on the roof and a roku stick for Netflix and prime video.

For Christmas this year my wife wanted a new TV. So we took advantage of the black Friday deals and sales and got her one yesterday.

We set the TV up today. Connected it to wifi and the antennae and did a station search. We are getting 24 local TV stations, and then it popped up said 300 IP stations

So I started flipping through the stations. The 300 stations were a free preview of the "Pluto" app. Then it said we could download the app for free and it supplied TV stations with commercials.

At this point I figured, well what do we have to lose. So I agreed to the terms. No money changes hands ever, no bank info, ect.....

We now have over 800 TV stations, for free.

And you can hit the search button on the remote and hit will bring up the TV guide for the over the air stations as well as the Pluto stations. Just like having cable or dish

At this point, I don't think I'll ever go back to paying high prices for satellite or cable TV.

 

[Nicfin36]

800 channels and nothing on?

I ditched my cable years ago when I tried to renew my Charter cable contract. They were absolute jackasses. I am sure their CEO/company came up with a new business model. At one time, I could negotiate a deal with them and the last time, they were flat out rude. Every time they countered with a new plan, it would be higher than the one they offered before. I told them to terminate my service and never looked back at having TV. I watch YouTube. I also share a Netflix account, which is nearly worthless as well. Modern TV/entertainment is crap.

I did put in an antenna. I am in a bad location and can pick up about 10-15 channels depending on the weather.

 

[ccoon520]

I still have Satellite. Unfortunately the internet options available to my wife and I just don't have the bandwidth for us to stream and my wife to work. I'm hoping once 5G gets enough coverage the bandwidth improvement will be enough for us to drop the TV contract and pick up YouTube TV so we can still watch sports games. Even if it is 50 bucks more a month than what I pay for internet now I'll be money ahead after adding YouTube TV, and Sling.

I don't have any real objections to my DirecTV thing now, just the stuff my wife and I watch can be covered by other options at a lower cost if we had the bandwidth to handle it.

 

[Daren Todd]

800 channels and nothing on?

I ditched my cable years ago when I tried to renew my Charter cable contract. They were absolute jackasses. I am sure their CEO/company came up with a new business model. At one time, I could negotiate a deal with them and the last time, they were flat out rude. Every time they countered with a new plan, it would be higher than the one they offered before. I told them to terminate my service and never looked back at having TV. I watch YouTube. I also share a Netflix account, which is nearly worthless as well. Modern TV/entertainment is crap.

I did put in an antenna. I am in a bad location and can pick up about 10-15 channels depending on the weather.

We get 24 local channels. Most are crud. I mainly want CBS for a couple shows that I like and local news. And fox cause they have the 9pm news which we will jump on to check if inclement weather is fixing to hit.

There are a few channels that I could watch all the time. The CSI channel, and This old house. I could also see myself getting hooked on the Japanese soap operas as well.

 

[bearbait]

We've had Pluto and Philo here for the last 2 years now but with this crappy internet it's hit or miss. We're really looking forward to getting Starlink when we can.

 

[Johnny11]

I've always been a fan of OTA, even though we are 40 miles from major a city.
Getting a good laugh with a UHF antenna that I just stuck in the ground on a 30" pole; next to the AC.
Can hardy see it, HOA never saw it, and pull in 60 channels. I have a second one up in the attic, its not as good as the one by the AC.
Does OTA have better picture quality than pay for service? Hummm good question, many times YES.
Also bought a Samsung TV 2 years ago, they (Samsung pre-loads an app with channels) it's all seamless and the on-screen guide is awesome.
Other TV ploys, two fire sticks (never use them)
Internet: Fiso-fiber-optic, for internet and bare-bones on channels, that's $140 per month! The only time I use the Fiso for TV is when it is dark enough to use a projector, winter time only really.

 

[Bmyers]

Interesting never had heard of Pluto, just downloaded it to our Roku.

 

[bearbait]

Interesting never had heard of Pluto, just downloaded it to our Roku.

Roku itself has a lot of free stuff but you can also do a search on your Roku for free streaming and there are many.

 

[Daren Todd]

Interesting never had heard of Pluto, just downloaded it to our Roku.

We hadn't heard of Pluto either. Not until we hooked the new TV up and it was preloaded with a preview of the app.

 

[coachgrd]

Still have satellite, DishNetwork to be exact. We are working on 6 months without our local Fox affiliate, because of some dispute between Dish & the owner of our Fox affiliate. Dish says it's the fault of NextStar Media (who owns the Fox affiliate), of course NextStar blames Fox. Bottom line is I haven't seen any NFL games broadcast on Fox, other than on the little 4" TV in our kitchen. I'd also like to watch the 10:00 news on Fox. There is no end in sight for their dispute.

I'm way too lazy to research this, so maybe one of you can answer for me. Is there a way I can cut the cord, still get locals and a select few channels I actually watch? (Like History, Discovery, NatGeo.) Thanks in advance.

 

[bearbait]

Still have satellite, DishNetwork to be exact. We are working on 6 months without our local Fox affiliate, because of some dispute between Dish & the owner of our Fox affiliate. Dish says it's the fault of NextStar Media (who owns the Fox affiliate), of course NextStar blames Fox. Bottom line is I haven't seen any NFL games broadcast on Fox, other than on the little 4" TV in our kitchen. I'd also like to watch the 10:00 news on Fox. There is no end in sight for their dispute.

I'm way too lazy to research this, so maybe one of you can answer for me. Is there a way I can cut the cord, still get locals and a select few channels I actually watch? (Like History, Discovery, NatGeo.) Thanks in advance.

You can put up an antenna for all your locals and if you have a Roku stick or TV (we have a Roku tv in the living room and a Roku stick in each of the bedrooms just plug and play) you can download all the free apps Roku has to offer and there are many. We also have Philo which is from the US (I did a work around to get it being from Canada) and it's only $20.00us a month for what we have. Probably lots of how to info on Youtube on how to set up what Roku has to offer. It's very easy once you get started. The only reason we have cable right now is for my wife's soap but I managed to figure out a work around for that this morning. If you get stuck feel free to ask.

 

[Daren Todd]

We put an amplified antennae on the roof using the existing cable from where our dish was mounted.

Here's a link for you to find the channels for your area. It shows the channel and direction.

Over-the-Air Digital TV Antenna Coverage Map

NoCable.org plots all 1,812 Digital TV antennas that are broadcasting free over-the-air signals. 90% of US households are within range of one!

nocable.org

 

[NHSleddog]

We run DirecTV so I can record and skip all the commercials. I can't go back to watching commercials (been commercial free since the first TIVO introduction). With three tech savy sons, we also have every streaming service available, so not only have we not "cut the cord", we have added a bunch of other cords.

 

[GeoHorn]

OTA for the last 18 years.... we’re satisfied with the 30 channels we get and the nearly $20K saved over the old DishNetWork.

 

[Magicman]

I wish we had enough bandwidth to support a TV. Sometime it struggles to support this Laptop.

 

[Johnny11]

Well there are trade offs, I live between crazy lady and people that leave junk in the front yard; shower doors, etc.

There is satellite internet, HughesNet, Viasat
Worthy of a trial period

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[Magicman]

I ordered a new amplified roof antenna last night to replace the storm damaged one that I have been using. It will be the beginning of an experiment.

 

[bearbait]

I ordered a new amplified roof antenna last night to replace the storm damaged one that I have been using. It will be the beginning of an experiment.

Do the amplified antenna really make that much difference. I had an antenna up here for a while and all we could bring in was 2 local channels. You guys have a link to the antennas you're buying?

 

[random]

I still have Satellite. Unfortunately the internet options available to my wife and I just don't have the bandwidth for us to stream and my wife to work.

Interesting. Have you looked into satellite at all?

It has its problems (latency, mainly) but we do fine with HughesNet - streaming, I WFH as a programmer so I'm connected to several company internal devices constantly, plus various meetings. My wife has appointments via webex or zoom pretty regular, son does zoom & is also a programmer, we watch stuff on netflix, rarely a problem. Just need to remember that there's a couple seconds of delay when on a meeting - like talking to someone on the moon.

 

[armylifer]

Try https://www.locast.org/ for local channels. They are not available in all areas but many of you may be in their coverage area. The website does a location check automatically to let you know if they serve your area. It is $5.50 per month. They also have a ROKU app so yoiu can add that to your ROKU. In my market there is 58 local channels including FOX, CBS, NBC, and ABC. All the channels are live TV, not time delayed or any other type of exceptions.