Ah good point. My fiancee also isn't really into watching TV shows so I guess I lucked out across the board.

Will we ever have a service where we can just buy the channels that we want and not have channels that we dont want forced upon us? These streaming services are becoming almost as expensive as cable tv is. I just want to be able to pick my F’ing channels. Spectrum sucks balls in every way but they so have a streaming service where you get your local channels plus any 10 channels that you want for 20 something a month and that is perfect dor me, or so i thought anyway. The deal breaker is Fox Sports Ohio is not a channel that i can choose as one of my ten channels. This TV game really pisses me off, not gonna lie.

First had sling and LOVED it, it was cheap and food but then they dropped fox sports

Moved to Fubo after that and it was 55 a month but i liked all the channels they offered, now they just dropped fox sports.

Now im with YoutubeTV and its 50 a month but its very soorts oriented and nothing else almost so im gonna have to pick up Philo TV for 20 a month which puts my bill at 70 a month plus another 75 for my internet to stream it. Thats not much cheaper than cable really but i do get the satisfaction of giving the middle finger to Spectrum.

If there was just an app where i could buy Fox sports id be happy, then i could buy Philo for 20 a month and I’d be a happy camper.

Same Boat....Needed Philo for History Channel, and Comedy Central...2 Channels!
With Youtube Live, and Netflix, I swap out Netflix, with Disney, CBS....etc, I just binge the smaller streamers for a month or two, then move to the next.
What makes a difference for me, is Youtube live is 5 streams at once, so I use these services at my other
property. For others, it could mean splitting streaming service accounts with a neighbor, or family, and cutting costs in half. Lastly, is Chase ink, and Costco card...they issue 5% and 6% back on Cable and streaming services.

I bought a 60 mile range amplified antenna and the channels would glitch intermittently. I replaced it with a 30 mile range non-amplified antenna. Even with a very weak signal, the channels don’t glitch. Most of my stations are ~35 miles out.

Cancelled Sling and added YouTube TV this weekend, was able to watch Playoff football and the Clemson/LSU game tonight, seems to have the local network channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) that I cared about and cable channels the family wanted (TLC, IFC, HGTV, CNN), so this looks to be the way to go.

A little more expensive than we were paying for Sling, but looking to drop Netflix as well, kids fighting me on that at moment. Will see if they are better when I install Disney+ to their devices instead. I recall living just fine at their age without such options...

I have an antenna on the roof 90 channels.
TIVO DVR for OTA recording= free service
Sling=$30
100 MB internet=$30
Netflix=$13

$73 per month

Ill be battling the same issue as my Playstation VUE account dies at the end of the month. I thought about the Spectrum choose your channel but didnt realize Fox Sports wasnt included... thanks for the heads up

If Fox Sports was included that would be the perfect package for me. Hopefully one day they will make that one of the channels that you can choose. That would be awesome.

500mb internet (i show 1GB down when wired) + home phone = $67 after tax
OTA antenna + Smart TV Internet channels + Netflix + WWE = $22

Just wanted to say thanks to you guys, I bought a Tablo setup and got rid of cable this past week. I put the tablo server in my shop, and I was in the process of running coax for the antenna down a wall chase, when I set my indoor antenna next to the metal ductwork, and instantly I had great reception of all 20+ OTA channels in my area. I knows it's akin to the old aluminum foil on the antennas from when I was a kid, but for going on 2 weeks now, the signal has been rock sold on everything I have watched. I don't know how anything else would give me better reception.

I kept internet service and bought Roku's units for the TV's, and haven't missed a thing. Roku and Tablo work together, and I love how the Tablo can live stream to my phone, as I don't have any reception to watch news and such in my office. It was an absolute joy to return all of that cable equipment and I don't feel like I am wasting money for paying for something I never watched anyway. Wish I had done this much sooner.

AMEX has a $20 back FUBOtv offer you can add to your account for the next 3 months (that they have been renewing pretty much all year, so probably even longer than that), which you can use for FUBOtv to bring it down to $45.98 for 141 channels (we have the $5.99 fubo extra add-on included in that price), multiple streams, and a 500hour dvr, the best deal out there. Better interface and way more channels than Philo (including a lot of news channels), and MUCH better video quality than SlingTV.

Video quality is about the same as Vue, and the only real negative is no profiles for individual DVR queues, but that's coming in the next update.

Philo is 20 dollars a month so it's kind of unfair to compare the two services but honestly since Fubo lost Fox Sports Ohio I would rather have Philo and pocket the extra money.

Philo has a terrible interface, bad DVR, no news channels, and about 1/3 the channels. I wasn't comparing them, really. The base Fubo still has more than 2x the channels and with the AMEX promo is only $39.

We've tried all the streaming services except youtubeTV (we're de-googling ourselves as much as possible now that google is evil), and now that VUE is gone, Fubo is the best all-around that's left. Their only problem is price, but the AMEX promo fixes that. They ran it almost all last year, so I don't see the promo credit ending anytime soon.

SlingTV was the best for me until they lost fox sports, then i switched to Fubo which is also good but more expensive than Sling and then they lost Fox Sports, so now I've had to go to YouTubeTV which is even more expensive and not really that great unless all you like is sports. So now i have YouTube TV for the Fox Sports and Philo TV so the gf can watch her hallmark channels and TV land etc. None of them now have it all like Sling and Fubo did. Basically to get all the channels i want i have went from a 35 dollar Sling TV bill to now 75 dollars to get all of what i want.

Its the Fox Sports that throws a monkey wrench into everything because the gf has to watch her Cincinnati Reds games. I wish it was all Ala cart and i could pick my own channels instead of being forced to buy channels like BET and the shopping channel etc that i will never watch. Those channels would never survive on their own if they depended on subscriptions from people. I bet 75% of the channels wouldn't survive if they depended on people purchasing them. I literally hate the TV industry and i wouldn't pay for any of it if it wasn't for my gf. I would have rabbit ears only and maybe Netflix.

My main problem with SlingTv is the video quality is ATROCIOUS. So crappy. I got spoiled with Vue, which had very good to excellent video quality, so SlingTV was a slap in the face. We were out after the one month trial and moved to Fubo (because we already tried Philo and its channel selection was too limited and had a bad interface, too).

There's a huge market for the taking for the first service that gives you all the channels you would get on cable AND a decent interface AND a good cloud DVR - at a reasonable price. No one provider has that - yet. But as HBOMax and Peacock and others enter the market this year, there will HAVE to be consolidation. There is just too much fragmentation and it's only getting worse.

I had no problem with Slings pictures quality. I know that Sling doesn’t like the fire sticks because a friend of mine brought his over and i didn't like it. I then did some reading and found out about the fire stick thing and sling. I bought a Roku Ultra for $99 dollars and the Sling TV worked great on it. No stuttering at all while watching sports like there was on the Fire stick. Maybe that is your problem?

It's not stuttering, it's compression. The video quality looks BAAD if you're sensitive to it. We watch on a 4K HDR OLED (but it looks equally bad on our high-end Panasonic plasmas in other rooms) and Sling video is massively overcompressed, so the crispness of the video is lost, leading to a generally indistinct, softened non-dynamic-looking image. Trust me, they're massively over-compressing what they're sending out to save bandwidth.

We don't use Fire products (terrible) or Rokus (only slightly less terrible). Sling looks bad on Nvidia Shield and Apple TV 4k, which are two top-tier streaming boxes at the moment.

I guess it’s something that just doesn’t bother me then. As long as its hd and smooth im good.

I switched to YouTube tv after vue tanked. Video quality is good, less buffering than vue, dvr is great AND they have good “suggestions” for shows since they spy on you!

YouTube TV is ok but its so heavily sports oriented that i just cant see any females liking it.

Whoa whoa whoa so the GF ONLY needs her Reds games? Get with it man and join the club it’s going to be a good year!

Lol I like them also but not as much as her. Shes one if their biggest fans, never misses a game ever. I think the Reds will definitely be very good this year though.

If it makes her happy then i am happy. She worked her whole life and is semi retired now so she has earned the free time that she has and if she wants to watch all of the Reds games thats her right to do so.

There's people on this forum that listen to multiple podcasts, watch lengthy Twitch streams of pinball, and pinball YouTube videos. I'd say there's zero difference between them and someone who watches every game of their favorite sports team.

I cut the cord 2yrs ago. My spectrum contract ended and and the rates were275.00! Yeah screw me for being a 20yr customer so bye bye.
I have Hulu live and Netflix. I’m very satisfied. With internet it’s 110.00 for all.
But it’s not perfect neither was spectrum.
I also like that I can watch anywhere.

We ditched Spectrum when tuning adapters came to our town (we escaped them for a long time) and the video quality turned to crap because of overcompression.

Interesting to see that SlingTV lost almost 100k subscribers in the 4th quarter. That's almost 5% of their total in one quarter. Eventually the crappy interface and poor video quality seems to be overcoming the cheap buy-in. Warms my heart to see people ditch mediocrity.

https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/dish-narrows-tv-subscriber-losses-in-q4-but-drops-sling-tv-customers-for-the-first-time-1203507445/

I think that has everything to do with losing Fox Sports. For the midwest (not sure about other regionals) Fox Sports (not FS1 or FS2) carried the local teams live. So if I wanted to watch Brewers or Bucks, I had to have Fox Sports. Sling was easily the most affordable option to watch this channel, and lost it around the middle of last year (I think that was when they lost it).

I know for a fact if Sling brought it back, I would subscribe to Sling right away for it. As it stands right now, I have zero desire to pay $40+ dollars for live TV. We have cut back to Hulu, DisneyPlus, and an antenna with DVR for a grand total of $12 per month.

Yep i think losing Fox Sports hurt them more than they thought it was going to. I would love to go back to SlingTV if they would get it back.

Not for me. We had a recurring problem with Sling where the screen would blackout. Sometimes it would come back, sometimes we had to jump to different channels to get it to come back. Tried different settings and couldn't get it to stop. Hulu, Disney, YoutubeTV, all don't do that.

Happy with YoutubeTV over the sling, and got to watch more Pro football.

I ended up with a Roku and Philo account. I wanted it for Discovery and History.....looked at YouTube for quite a while, but $20 beats $50 for channels I don't ever watch. 90% of what we watch is OTA, and the video quality is great. We get over 20 local channels, and they are just fine, and free.

I have a similar schedule, except my kids go to bed about an hour later, and I stay up later than I should most nights (1130 is early for me).

I don't normally "sit and watch" anything other than a Packer game - those are mandatory dedicated viewings. I normally have it on in the background, and have an incredible knack to catch key plays and moments (even when I'm napping, believe it or not). While it's on I'm normally hanging out with the kids, internetting, playing some games, or getting some work or house project done.

Actually playing pinball is very active.. meaning there's not a lot of time where you can pause and catch a play or two during a game. That's why I think a 'passive' game like darts or pool are really great for game rooms, as they allow you to take a break even between shots to tune into a ball game. As quickly as you paused, you can resume.

I find that a passive watch like that is plenty to keep up to date with your favorite team.

Yes and Yes. But other than the times when the kids were newborns, basically during the first month of their lives, I have always stayed up late.

At least you aren't telling us how to spend our money so to each their own.

I wanted to share, and ask others for updates, if anything has changed.

Currently, to get our Prime Channels, CBS, NBC, and ABC live, One must have an Antenna,
or Hulu Plus, or YoutubeTV. Other than several channels, additional Hulu programs, and a few dollars, the
main difference was YoutubeTV gives you more simultaneous streaming accounts.
In my case, enough to split the 5 streams into 2 properties.

Other there other services in the last year that carry Prime channels now, or have come into the game?

Locast is a controversial (to pay tv providers) nonprofit that carries local channels for several major markets.
https://www.locast.org/

wow. signed up for an account, watching the Philly news now and chromecasting to my 65" tv and the signal is awesome.

not sure how i never heard of this before

Don't get too used to it. Aereo did basically the same thing and was sued out of existence. Locast is being sued now. The only difference is they are (allegedly) non-profit in the service of the public interest. So they have a slim chance. But they could disappear next week or next month if it doesn't go their way.

Probably becasue they are a non-profit and are not in this to make money.....

True..... here is a nice little article explaining the two....
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190731/09020242689/big-four-broadcasters-sue-streaming-video-provider-locast-claim-aereo-20.shtml

Not "cutting the cord" per se, but we just turned in two of our Spectrum cable boxes in favor of Roku sticks for the bedroom and basement. By doing so, we avoid the monthly fee associated with those boxes. The Spectrum TV app on Roku has access to all your channels and actually looks better than the boxes did due to less compression.

I also called and did a little bitching about my bill. They're installing a faster modem in our home on Saturday, and we went from paying $195 to $130/mo with the same TV package we had.

I guess I'm happy with it.

The other nice thing about the Spectrum app is that it only shows you the channels you actually subscribe to, and not all channels in the galaxy. Not all of Charter's boxes had the ability to only show you the channels you actually subscribe to.

You can use the spectrum app outside of your home network too, it will just restrict the channels you are able to view.

Yeah! I found that to be a really nice plus as well. Definitely don't regret ditching the box.

If you have an antenna, you could use Tablo DVR which also has an app that allows you to stream your content to other devices.

I know the Tablo DVR and HD Homerun are the popular choices, but I use the AirTV device and love it.
https://www.airtv.net/products/airtv2/

It integrates with Sling, and if you don't use Sling (I don't anymore), you still get to use the Sling App without a subscription to Sling (but still with the Sling interface) to use the device and guide. The guide gives you up to three weeks of data at a time, and is completely free with no subscription. You can plug a USB hard drive into it, and recording is integrated into the Sling App from the hard drive, and the Sling app automatically sorts all of your recorded shows by season and episode, all with descriptions.

You can also playback your antenna live and recorded shows live from any mobile device with the app on it outside of your home network.

I know the features are basically the exact same as the Tablo and HD Homerun, but thought it was worth a mention because there are zero ongoing subscription costs for the guide service unlike some of the other devices.