People in online forums including Facebook and Reddit love to complain. Say anything and start the clock. Something that will always get clicks is a complaint that streaming is as expensive or more expensive than cable. Is it?
You can find ways to overspend on streaming. You can even put enough services together so to pay more than cable even if your local cable company is charging $250.00-$300.00. But have to try really hard.
There are only a couple of streaming services that are marketed as a way to replace cable. And I’m gonna be real with you, those services are pretty pricy. They are not more expensive than cable services though, unless you are getting a new customer deal from the cable company. New customer deals are why people often report that streaming is more expensive than streaming. The prices are usually one-year offers before the cost leaps higher.
It’s difficult to find out what cable really costs customers without someone actually pulling up their bill and sharing it. Five years ago my mother finally came to me and said she was ready to cut the cord. Her bill for TV, not TV and Internet and phone, but television services, was over 200.00 per month. It was closer to $250.00 She had been a customer for 40 years so there was not a discount in place for her.
Can you set up a streaming package for less than $250.00? To be frank, you’re damn right you can. Even if you start with something really expensive like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV. Those two services are the most similar to traditional cable. Both offer fewer channels than a typical basic cable plan but if you are still counting channels as a measure of value you are not seeing the forest for the trees. I know, that’s an overused cliche, but it fits.
YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV costs $83.00 per month. And it must be pointed out that Hulu with live TV even comes along with ESPN+ and Disney+, which is a bunch of pretty great content that is not even included via cable. So let’s do the math 250-83=167. So if you get a streaming service that effectively replaces cable you will save $167.00 per year. That would be $2000 and change per year. If math is not your strong suit I’ll make it simple. That will pay some bills.
Now of course some people want to make sure they get their premium channels like HBO and Showtime. Well still, the cost of streaming services like Max and Showtime does not cost any more than it does with a cable plan. Showtime can be had for $12.99 with the Paramount+ Showtime plan. Customers can add HBO and tons of other content with Max for as little as $9.99-$16.99.
Are those prices cheap? No. That is over 100 per month for TV. But is it more expensive than those $250.00 cable bills along with all the extra fees and taxes that they add on to the bill? Also No. And the thing is you do not need to even bother with things like YouTube TV if you don’t want to.
Why would you want YTTV or Hulu with Live TV? In most cases it’s about a couple of channels. Some folks can’t cope without ESPN. For some it comes down to whatever their favorite 24-hour news station is. There are others that people will latch on to especially access to broadcast network channels. But are there 70 channels or more that most people never or watch. The math doesn’t even allow for it. Again for those who don’t want to do that math you can just trust me.
If you absolutely can not break self of yelling or cheering at the TV screen then obviously you will have to pay a premium for the opportunity. But even when it comes to sports users can sign up for Sling TV, which has much lower entry costs than the big services mentioned earlier. It starts at $46.00 and includes ESPN and a number of popular cable channels with the ability to add more to the tune of $61.00. This offers customers the cable channels they would get with the pricier services. Sling TV delivers the content at that cost because it does not include the broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW and PBS. Did you know that those networks actually cost the cable providers about 20 bucks in fees per customer? It makes sense if you look at the fact that the other services that offer them cost about $20.00 more now doesn’t it.
If you can find a cable bill you will see the cost of those broadcast channels listed as the local broadcast fee or something along those lines depending on your provider. The good news for many customers is that those channels are easy to get with an antenna. But that is a whole other conversation.
But this is not a commercial for various streaming services. The point is that yes if you are a longstanding cable customer and you drop TV services you will save money. Give it a look.
