Tips for cord cutters are big business these days. Our recommendation is that y’all give them some real, hard thought because if things keep going this way, you might not have any choice but to, you know, move on:
by Ty Pendlebury, David Katzmaier
Cable TV can seem a lot like a landline phone: an unnecessary expense shacked by outdated hardware. All the cool kids, and a lot of the cool grownups, are cutting the cable TV cord.
If you want to join them but don’t want to ditch live TV completely, you’ve come to the right place. Live TV streaming services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now let you watch most if not all of your favorite live TV channels — from ABC to CBS to CNN to ESPN to Fox News to Nickelodeon — streamed over the Internet. And the monthly fee is likely far less than you’re paying the cable company for TV.
Prices start at $15 per month with no extra fees or contracts. In place of a cable box, you’ll use an app on your Smart TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. And you can watch at home or on the go via a phone or tablet, or even a PC browser.
These services have plenty of benefits — no more cable fees, no more contracts, yay! — but the savings can be outweighed by other downsides such as internet fees, DVR restrictions, buffering and a lack of things to watch, especially live sports. Chances are your local cable service has more channels.
With all that in mind, here’s a guide to brave new world of live TV streaming over the internet, as well as other cord-cutting options available today….