Streaming is more convoluted than ever. Is cable the better option once again?

[Soapbox Killer]

My initial response to my own question is no but I'm getting ready to move and trying to balance the entertainment options is just a touch more complicated. 5 kids +1 coming. 5 tv's in total.

Keeping cable on the big tv because streaming sports still sucks but the rest is up for grabs.

 

[BLEEN]

Not yet but we're def. going backwards it feels like lol
You'll most likely save $$$ streaming multiple things but for how long is another question.

 

[Deleted member 13645]

Eh, I ended up just going with Hulu Live tv. It has all channels I need and most importantly no contracts or rental feels on equipment and I can cancel any time. Imo the streaming options are way more convenient than cable still.

 

[TaySan]

Pick your poison at this point. You are going to paying the same amount either way

 

[Invisible Cities]

No, but the state of streaming is a mess.

 

[AxeVince]

The best option will likely be to subscribe to the service for a month to binge multiple series/films before canceling :/.

 

[Prattle]

I thought people were cutting the cable due to the ease of setting up Kodi boxes?

 

[Deleted member 32374]

No because unless you're taping something your still tied into watching something at a certain time, which sucks.

Then, add in the cost of the DVR and rental....

But, keeping the kids happy.... all 5 (6!! god bless sir) You've better have a wireless router with mimo...

Me and my GF, I'll cut if off at Netflix and Hulu and Netflix could be going bye bye after Stranger things 3. How much content can a person reasonabily consumer during their free time?

 

[Darknight]

It amazes me how many people didn't see this coming.

 

[Like the hat?]

At this point and with data caps you might as well just get a cable bundle.

 

[mrmoose]

Depends.

For the kids (and wow that's a lot of kids... congrats on the new one, I think?), streaming (non live) is fine. Lots of kids content, all on-demand, easily pulled up.

For sports fans, probably not, though sports is probably what hikes the cable bill up to what it is anyway.

For general shows: despite all the fragmentation, there's way too much content to watch anyway. If you're disciplined and you don't really care about watercooler talk (which is rare except in cases like GoT), you can switch between them, binge what you missed, rinse and repeat, and I'm sure that will be much cheaper than a constant cable bill.

 

[Kthulhu]

Don't most streaming services let you pay more for simultaneously usage?

 

[Squirrel09]

I'm in a different boat than you, but I keep Netflix year around. And then add hulu, CBS, Amazon, ESPN+, A-list (Not Streaming, but similar) as things I want show up. Right now I'm rocking Netflix and A-list. But I'll realistically be switching out Netflix with Disney+ in November.

 

[renegade_sylens]

The whole reason this "streaming war" began was to significantly undercut cable options by offering "skinny bundles" or allowing the customer to choose the channels they want to subscribe to and pay significantly less than signing up for 100+ channels, when in reality, you only watch like 10 of those channels. TV channel networks refused to budge on allowing this decentralization of their content and we ended up where we are today....a hybrid system, where you get the convenience of streaming content anytime/anywhere, but you are still paying fees equivalent to the old cable networks of yesteryear....

What a mess...

 

[sn00zer]

Netflix and Hulu live will get you settled. Don't think you would need or want anything beyond that and it's way cheaper than cable.

 

[Richietto]

I mean does every kid need a TV? I had to share 2 with 4 other siblings and it was fine. Not to mention you can stream on multiple devices and I doubt everyone will watch Netflix at the exact same time.

 

[BDS]

This is the future you asked for. People said "I don't want to spend $60 a month on cable when I only want a couple channels! Why can't I buy them a la carte?" and the channels went "Sure. Here's the price to buy our channel standalone." Welcome to capitalism. It sucks.

I guess people thought they'd be living in some fantasy world where HBO is $2, AMC is $1, NBC is $1, etc.

 

[davepoobond]

until there is some sort of program that bundles several streaming services together somehow, i think cable is technically the simpler venue.

cable still needs to catch up with its streaming/video on demand capabilities, i think

This is the future you asked for. People said "I don't want to spend $60 a month on cable when I only want a couple channels! Why can't I buy them a la carte?" and the channels went "Sure. Here's the price to buy our channel standalone." Welcome to capitalism. It sucks.

I guess people thought they'd be living in some fantasy world where HBO is $2, AMC is $1, NBC is $1, etc.

Click to shrink...

yeah, how about paying $15 for one thing!


the only real benefit streaming seems to have provided is that it is making content more available within each of the silos that may not have been otherwise made available. whole libraries of things transferred/remastered/digitized etc is good

 

[Htown]

no, cable is still worse, I think


you can always just drop a streaming service for a few months and pick it back up with little hassle

with cable there's equipment costs involved and installation fees and all the other garbage they tack on

 

[mrmoose]

Don't most streaming services let you pay more for simultaneously usage?

Click to shrink...

Plus unless he has like 8 TVs, they're not all going to be watching different cable shows at the same time.

 

[meowdi gras]

Not for me. Criterion Channel is all I need. Then again, I don't watch programming that much and my tastes skew far away from mainstream, so...

 

[ianpm31]

I subbed to PS Vue and never looked back. Saving $100 per month since switching over from comcast

 

[Truly Gargantuan]

No because I can still watch stuff on my own schedule with streaming.

 

[Sandfox]

Streaming is is still a lot cheaper than cable was for me.

 

[Kthulhu]

Netflix and Hulu live will get you settled. Don't think you would need or want anything beyond that and it's way cheaper than cable.

Click to shrink...

This plus you can rent nearly every movie out there digitally.

 

[Bradford]

Cable is still terrible.

With every streaming service I'm subscribed to I still pay less per month than it would cost to get less content with a Cable subscription so I'm not quite at the breaking point yet, and the streaming options have way more flexibility and functionality.

I'm currently subscribed to:

• Netflix
• Hulu
• VRV
• HBO Now/Go
• Amazon Prime Video

Out of all of those, Netflix, Hulu, VRV, and Amazon Prime all have exclusives so Cable wouldn't match their catalogues. Cable is essentially just a worse version of Hulu's catalogue, with the bonus of being able to tack on an HBO sub.

 

[Aftermath]

Everyone wants in on the Streaming game, yeah it's becoming to crazy now

Even in the UK where we don't have Hulu, nor DC Universe but we do have Disney already.

Amazon Prime
Now TV (movies, entertainment- kind of limited since most channels are not in the entertainment packs only like 11 I think, sports (very expensive)
Netflix
Disney Life (eventually to be Disney+)
TV players (gives some freeview channels & charges for a few basic ones) they have now removed the freeview sports from there.
Premier Sports (is available digitally via a pc only)
Then there is all the exclusive channels on Amazon you can to sub too separate , like arrow movies, and universal movies, eurport etc etc.

I find myself just drifting away feom TV nostly and watching Youtube & Twitch & occasion Netflix when I can be bothered. It's a mess

 

[DrROBschiz]

Spectrum does have something coming

Basically a "Streaming" Package which essentially lets your smart TV get legitimate authorized access to all the on demand GO apps you see on Roku and such as well as their own app with rotating content

Currently pegged to launch at 15/month on top of whatever you pay for Internet

Feels competitive since many GO apps do host almost their entire libraries on them

 

[DirtyLarry]

I would imagine with 5 kids in the mix it would be a pretty daunting task, but I am now 2 months in to cutting the cord and the only thing I keep asking myself is why did I wait so damn long to do it. And my wife more or less has it all down on all of our TV's. But I would not recommend it for everyone.

 

[RastaMentality]

Cable's streaming services are dreadful

 

[Jiraiya]

Not even close. Choosing the service who has the most that you want to watch is good enough. You don't have enough time to watch everything.

 

[B4mv]

I do the base Direct TV Now grandfathered at $35, and Netflix.
Guess I also have Amazon Prime Video, but I've never found anything I want to watch on it.

This is significantly better than paying for cable.

 

[Fisty]

Uh what, no. You can get like 4 different subs with no commercials for the cost of the most basic cable packages

 

[IcyInferno]

The problem with cable companies is that you usually need a 2 year contract to get a decent price for bundling internet and cable. With streaming, at least you can rotate subscriptions and only pick which services you want on a monthly basis. I guess it depends on how much stuff you watch on cable and if you can wait a year to watch the latest season of a show.

I still have 1 1/2 years in my contract and I still subscribe to streaming services... then again I rent a $5 cablecard and use plex DVR for recording and Shield TV to watch the live stuff as a cable box replacement to keep costs down. And I choose minimum packages without local sports to avoid the regional sports network fees. The cable companies make more money off of rentals than the service so you have to do some 'cord shaving' rather than 'cord cutting' to get a good price with cable. And that can be convoluted as well with custom setups to use a cablecard without paying monthly fees for DVR (plex pass lifetime subscription is $120)

 

[Afrikan]

Does you cable company have a TV App?

If you get Roku TVs, I believe you can download Comcast's Xfinity App to it....and it's like having an extra cable box. You get all the same channels. I'm guessing the same might be the case with Roku boxes?

Edit- this is based off memory of 2 years ago. Not sure if that's changed.

 

[Duxxy3]

Not yet, but we're getting closer and closer.

 

[bangai-o]

I think some people think that they have to stay subbed to a streaming service. In reality, you can just sub for a few months, watch what you want to watch, cancel, and sub to a different service for a few months. Repeat throughout the year. There is no reason why you need to be dedicated to one specific service.

 

[Cels]

This is the future you asked for. People said "I don't want to spend $60 a month on cable when I only want a couple channels! Why can't I buy them a la carte?" and the channels went "Sure. Here's the price to buy our channel standalone." Welcome to capitalism. It sucks.

I guess people thought they'd be living in some fantasy world where HBO is $2, AMC is $1, NBC is $1, etc.

Click to shrink...

i live in the real world where NBC and the rest of the big four networks are $0 with an antenna

but yeah it was the natural way of things for content creators to want to offer their own streaming. i think on balance it's still cheaper than cable but that margin keeps decreasing.

 

[WedgeX]

The post-Fordism days of streaming are upon us.

 

[Kill3r7]

Streaming is still considerably cheaper.

 

[maximumzero]

I'm cool with Hulu & Netflix, more than enough content between the two services to sustain me.

 

[Deleted member 21339]

No, and for the sole reason that cable/satellite/fios set-top boxes are complete shit.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

Not even close. Choosing the service who has the most that you want to watch is good enough. You don't have enough time to watch everything.

Click to shrink...

I really think that a lot of these new streming services are trying to bring people in for one or two high profile offerings and then are relying on consumer feelings of FOMO.

Guess what though; Life is MO and that's ok.

 

[entremet]

It's still cheaper if you go up to 5 services--that's a massive amount of content!

Plus, you get better UIs, no decrepit and archaic cable boxes, better overall selection, and so on.

Cable only makes sense for avid sports fans.

 

[corasaur]

for me, i can't imagine consuming enough tv content to need more than 1 streaming service, let alone to need channels for live tv.

i keep telling myself that one day when i need a new show i'll buy a month of something else just for specific things, and then i'd cancel whatever i wasn't using, and maybe I would discover this plan is actually a pain in the ass to follow through on, but i just keep not running out of tv so i haven't found out whether i'd really want to do a few months of a service at a time.

 

[TaySan]

I'm happy i don't really watch TV anymore. I have hulu for $1 a month for a year and i barely use it. Cable and Streaming are too expensive and i probably won't even even hardly use either service.

 

[Wraith]

Is the concern about monthly data caps / simultaneous peak usage? Or more about trying to find the content your family wants across an array of different streaming services (not subscribing to every single service out there)?

 

[Deleted member 14313]

Nope. Ads, schedules, inflexible contracts, atrocious prices, not infrequent technical/billing problems, and terrible customer service means that if streaming ever got bad and/or expensive enough that I no longer thought it was worth it I certainly wouldn't be going back to cable. I'd go back to something I did between cable and streaming lol.

 

[BDS]

i live in the real world where NBC and the rest of the big four networks are $0 with an antenna

Click to shrink...

Part of the argument behind cord cutting and a la carte payment is that Millennials™ Are Killing TV by not owning television sets or not getting an antenna, meaning they can't get the broadcast networks even if they wanted them. And then you have to sit through commercials every five minutes. So the argument was supposed to be "I want to spend $5 a month and in exchange receive NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox with no commercials" and that's just not how business works. That was never going to happen.

 

[LiK]

Cable is still way too expensive for what you get. With streaming services, you could just watch what you want to watch and cancel and resub at any time. You're not stuck with a contract and turning the services off and on is easy online. Even tho there are way too many different services to choose from now for specific content, at least you can easily decide what you want to watch and move on when there's nothing else they provide that you're interested in.