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By Adam Hansen
Let’s face it, we all watch TV. Whether it’s the news, Real Housewives or golf, we’ve all got a reason to watch. But nobody anyplace in the world doesn’t grumble about the price of their TV service. It doesn’t matter if you have cable, satellite or carrier pigeon, the cost keeps rising and the companies seem to find more ways to take money from our already tight budgets. Reducing or eliminating these bills is the genesis of the concept of “Cutting the Cord” to the cable companies.
What is “cutting the cord?”
The central concept of cutting the cord is reducing or eliminating what you pay for these cable TV services. There are two primary approaches, the first involves cutting the cable altogether and going back to the good old days of TV over the air, and the second involves changing how you get your TV services to reduce the cost and keep it there. This article describes each approach, the pros and cons and what you should expect while implementing each.
The “Good Old Days” approach involves the complete elimination of paid TV services. In effect, you buy an antenna one time, point it to a major city and you get your TV over the air. Fun fact, many of the channels you’ll get over the air are actually broadcasted in high definition, so they’ll be crystal clear on your TV screen and besides the one-time expense of buying and installing an antenna, you’ll never get a cable bill again. I’ll answer the question before you ask it – the cost of antenna ranges from $25-$150 depending on how far away from a city you are.
The “Nick the Cable” approach is a little bit different that the “Good Old Days” approach because you effectively eliminate the TV channels from the cable company and use the Internet to “stream” the channels to your TV. Now, I know what you’re thinking – how do I stream and where is this river coming from? Well, the river are companies on the Internet that license many of the same shows that you currently watch and broadcast it over the Internet at lower prices (e.g. Netflix, Hulu etc.). Once you have a streaming service, the rest is history as your TV is most likely ready to stream from these accounts for you with Roku, Amazon FireTV etc.
So, you’re probably wondering, is cutting the cable worth it? Most cable cutters will respond with one simple question: do you enjoy paying upwards of $250 a month for TV? If the answer is no, then cable cutting is for you.
