• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Cord Cutting & Live TV: What's the best service?

ManaByte

Banned
I officially and finally cut the cord about 2 1/2 years ago. The only thing that was keeping me from getting rid of cable for so long was sports. So, when I cut the cord, I started exploring what live TV options there were for streaming that would get me the most sports possible while still having the most options to watch and being the most value.

The big one was NFL. To cut the cord and get all the weekly games you need a live TV option:
Sunday games: CBS AFC games (streams on Paramount+ now), NBC night game (streams on Peacock now), Fox NFC games (no streaming option).
MNF: ESPN
Thursday: Prime

Over the last couple of years, I've tried all of the Live TV streaming options EXCEPT Sling. I don't think I'll go to Sling at this point:

Hulu Live TV: This is the first one I tried and back when I tried it, they had a bundle where you could get Hulu without ads, Disney+ without ads, ESPN+ and live TV for just over $70. They raised that to $90 and when that happened, I decided to try out other options. But Hulu gets you all NFL games except for the Thursday night Prime games, has ESPN+ for hockey, and has TBS+TNT (wrestling and some basketball).

DirectTV Stream: Tried this next. It's basically cable pricing but streaming. For the best sports option you'll be paying $120 a month. Way too much and that price would eliminate having other streaming services. It was also a hassle to cancel up until recently.

YouTubeTV: This is the most affordable. You can get all NFL games, has ESPN and TBS & TNT. No regional sports though. About $75 a month isn't bad if all you want is basic TV and some sports.

Fubo: This is the most recent I tried and although I just cancelled it, I did like it. It has RSNs (Bally Sports) so with this I could get a ton of Braves and Preds games each season. But the RSNs tack another $15 a month on to the price making it more expensive than the Hulu bundle AND it does not offer TBS or TNT meaning no AEW or big NBA games.

So, after going through all those I've gone back to the $90 Hulu bundle. It's easily the best value. With that you get Live TV, Hulu (without ads), Disney+ (without ads), and ESPN+. You can save a few bucks if you don't mind ads on Hulu and Disney+. Basically for the price of the Direct TV package I can have all that plus Netflix.
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
I have yttv but it is expensive now. It use to be 30 a month and now it is just another cable bill.

as far as channel and sports yttv is the best option.
 

ManaByte

Banned
I have yttv but it is expensive now. It use to be 30 a month and now it is just another cable bill.

as far as channel and sports yttv is the best option.

I liked YTTV a lot. But it's the most basic. ESPN+ has a lot of hockey and I wanted Hulu for stuff like Shogun. So it's only $15 more for the Hulu bundle with those. The Hulu interface for Live TV is also a little better (it used to SUCK but they really improved it).

Hulu also gives you the East/West feeds of the Turner channels.
 
I’m in Canada and my options are very limited (thanks CRTC you useless bastards).

I’ve considered getting a VPN so I can get that Hulu package with ESPN for live hockey.

Anybody from Canada try the VPN thing with American TV?
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
You guys never heard of Kodi? All our needs are met through multiple 4K Amazon Fire sticks on each TV synced to a real debrid account and I only pay £30/mth for 500mb fiber
 

Vyse

Gold Member
Got rid of cable a few years back and tried YouTube TV, but they didn’t have local Vegas Hockey at the time. That was locked with AT&T. Went with Direct TV, during hockey season, but it was really expensive. Thankfully; they ended that deal and now have a streaming app, Knighttime, through Scripps, which is pretty cool. Downside is it’s regionally locked and doesn’t work when I travel. Sports seems to mess up as it’s the only live TV I actually watch. Everything else we stream via Netflix, Hulu, etc.
 
You guys never heard of Kodi? All our needs are met through multiple 4K Amazon Fire sticks on each TV synced to a real debrid account and I only pay £30/mth for 500mb fiber

I tried the Kodi thing but the channels get nuked shortly after they appear. It’s to the point where nothing lasts more than one day.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Most ISPs don't take well to torrenting movies and TV shows.
Not one of them gives a flying squirrel mate, I've throughout my many many many years on the internet downloaded an ungodly amount of terrabytes of movies/TV shows and never had 1 single "knock that on the head" letter
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I got a box through some shady store that has everything you can imagine. $10/month. Funny thing is I would had kept cable but Rogers stonewalled me on any deals. They kept jacking up my bundle pack and I tried many times if I could just get my price from last year and they said no. They wanted an extra $20 or so per month and the best they could do is knock off $5! Fuck that. So I switched and holy shit I get everything, including sports from every game on TV on every night.

Coworkers had been bugging for like 5-6 years to do it and I didn't bother. I should had listened to them.

About 2-3 weeks after I quit Rogers, suddenly some door to door cable guy knocks on my door offering me a really good deal. Well, where the fuck was this deal when I tried wheeling an dealing with a Rogers guy on the phone, and then a different person on online chat box? Your deal is way better than mine. All he could say is his team has way better door to door deals. I told him what I got and what price I pay and he replied something like..... "I wouldnt change too". lol. Good guy and just doing hs job, but he knows whats going on with cable cutters.

I havent had a door to door sales guy selling cable since. Maybe I got flagged in the system I'm a $10/mth streamer and there's no point wasting time on my house.
 
Last edited:

Raven117

Member
Once I bundled my home internet…it was 13 more dollars a month for “cable.”

“Cutting the cord” isn’t always the best way to go about things. That said… I really Don’t watch a ton of stuff. So I don’t have alot of those other services.
 
well, the streaming services as a whole is very fragmented so it's essentially cable 2.0.

or you can just stream them by sailing the high seas....
 

Mistake

Member
My mother basically pays $90 a month to leave fox on all day. I told her to pay the $50 for basic internet instead, but she refuses to go without it. Are there any cheaper alternatives?
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
My mother basically pays $90 a month to leave fox on all day. I told her to pay the $50 for basic internet instead, but she refuses to go without it. Are there any cheaper alternatives?
Gun Shoot GIF by BrownSugarApp


Friends Lol GIF by Schitt's Creek
 
Last edited:

RavageX

Member
Best to find a good crew and set sail. Streaming is every bit like cable now, commercials and all.

I personally dont have time or money to watch medical ads when i wanna watch a 30 minute show.

I literally only watch a few things like DC animated movies, an occasional biography, and old shows.

Torrents are the life for me. I pay for peacock to watch old wrestling and thats a wrap.
 
Top Bottom