Do you really want to stop paying money to the cable company or do you wish you could get cable for less than you pay now. Because there is a big difference from facing budget realities and hating working with the cable company because of service based reasons or other issues.
If you just wanted a discount but could not get the person on the phone to give you a fair rate do what the ambulance chaser lawyer says and show them you mean “business”. If all you wanted to do was get cable TV cheaper then you should cancel cable and go in with what ever kind of combo works for you as far as streaming services. They still don’t expect you to cancel and turn in that equipment. Afterwards sign up for one of the streaming based cable replacement services or two if you really think you need to without a contract and when the cable company wants to offer you TV “phone” and Internet for $99.00 take it. There is nothing wrong with liking what cable has to offer. There is a reason that cable TV is still popular in the US. Because it is an easy to understand all in one TV entertainment solution. But you can shave off a lot of money from the cable bill if you follow the steps we lay out for you.
Use Streaming To Save you money
One of the big reasons people pay high cable bills is because they have multiple receivers/cable boxes in the home. This was one of cable’s dirty little tricks. They advertise a price to get you in the door then pretend that supplying things like HD cost more money or ask you the “how many TV’s do you have” question. That really means, “how much more money can we get from you based on you not understanding the real cost of things?” Get one box and use other methods for the rest of your viewing.
Things you should do before you sign back up.
Find out if your cable company has an app that works on any streaming players that you already own. There is no reason to pay $10.00 per month for an extra box in the bedroom or office or kids room or where ever one might have a TV. These costs add up quickly. The top 2 cable TV providers, Xfinity and Charter both have great apps for Roku, Apple TV and other devices. There are a number of smaller providers that do the same or work with third party products. That means that the streaming devices can essentially be your cable box. Even if you don’t have one already, buying say, a Roku Streaming Stick+ and using it as a cable receiver along with all the other things it can do is far more preferable to paying 10 dollars a month for a year or two in order to use a box that only delivers cable TV.
See if your favorite channels have TV Everywhere apps
TV Everywhere apps are the most overlooked streaming options in the industry. People are very aware of paid TV services like Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max. But they often never think of watching a show on the Food Network app. Yet there it is with a searchable database of seemingly every show that ever appeared on the network on-demand. A lot of these TV Everywhere apps also provide live feeds of the content. So if your favorite thing to do at night is fall asleep watching Conan O’Brien just add the Watch TBS app to your streaming device. Are you a sports fan with a private man cave or at least a TV in the garage? You better believe there is an ESPN app and a Fox Sports app that will have all the live streaming sports you could want. On top of that even major broadcast networks provide apps with live streaming.
Don’t buy the premium services through the cable company
If your cable company has some sort of premium tier requirement to add channels like HBO or Showtime tell them to take a hike. You can sign up for any premium service without the cable company these days. Through things like the Roku Channel or Amazon Channels or Apple TV you can sign up for any movie channel you want for the same price as with cable and in many cases less depending on what sort of promos are going on. If the live feed is very important to you it is probably easier to go with cable, but if you have gotten used to on-demand entertainment, then you have very little need for the linear feed of a network anymore. Think about it, what is the difference between DVR and just watching something on demand. Unless you have a plan to record and keep everything you watch forever, you don’t need it.
All cord cutting is not streaming and all streaming is not cord cutting. Streaming is a medium for media delivery. It is a tool in the box. So if your goal is money savings but you do not want to have to get used to an entirely new system just to watch the game, then play the long game, save that money and maybe in a few years you will get an 8K TV to rotate services on.
