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Football Fan's Cord Cutting Challenge
- Thread starter pc747
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The regular season is a few hours from being over and I have managed to keep from re-attaching the cord. It has been a challenge from some programs having a rocky start to other programs straight up failing in the end.
First I will say that if you are a diehard fan this will be very tough as you are going to have to rely on technology a lot to accomplish this feat. I could see people choosing to just go back to the cord as that seems like the sure thing. The one program I ended up getting rid of was USTVNOW. At the start of the season towards the middle I was ready to crown USTVNOW as a must for cord cutters. Unfortunately the company continued to struggle maintaining their servers or keeping around a staff that actually cared.
SlingTV ended up being a keeper for me as they continued to improve their service over the year. Funny how at the start of the season, when they had hiccups with their servers, I was ready to cut them. I stuck with them and am glad I did as I really commend what the people are doing over there at Sling. I know Sling may not be for everyone and there are plenty of free alternates. But we want to provide a solution for those looking to do it the "completely legal" way. And SlingTV finished their freshmen season strong. Hopefully they continue to add channels and the much needed 2nd viewer. Only being able to view the program from one device is going to be a turnoff. In a multi-family home it would be cheaper to get a cable subscription for those times when Monday Night Football is on at the same time as another show (cost of SlingTV $25 x 2= $50+ $40 for internet).
I had to rely heavily on the rabbit ears to watch the games, but that did not guarantee I would be able to catch my 9ers as I was outside of the team's viewing area. So when my team was not playing I either had to go to a sports bar or settle for listening to the team via NFL.com (provided there were no blackout restrictions).
Again I understand that for many this may not be an option as they would rather cut elsewhere to be able to watch their favorite team. And going to the bar may be out of the question, especially for people trying not to be around alcohol. I personally wanted to see this through as I did not want to pay upwards of $300 for a cable package of channels I don't watch.
First I will say that if you are a diehard fan this will be very tough as you are going to have to rely on technology a lot to accomplish this feat. I could see people choosing to just go back to the cord as that seems like the sure thing. The one program I ended up getting rid of was USTVNOW. At the start of the season towards the middle I was ready to crown USTVNOW as a must for cord cutters. Unfortunately the company continued to struggle maintaining their servers or keeping around a staff that actually cared.
SlingTV ended up being a keeper for me as they continued to improve their service over the year. Funny how at the start of the season, when they had hiccups with their servers, I was ready to cut them. I stuck with them and am glad I did as I really commend what the people are doing over there at Sling. I know Sling may not be for everyone and there are plenty of free alternates. But we want to provide a solution for those looking to do it the "completely legal" way. And SlingTV finished their freshmen season strong. Hopefully they continue to add channels and the much needed 2nd viewer. Only being able to view the program from one device is going to be a turnoff. In a multi-family home it would be cheaper to get a cable subscription for those times when Monday Night Football is on at the same time as another show (cost of SlingTV $25 x 2= $50+ $40 for internet).
I had to rely heavily on the rabbit ears to watch the games, but that did not guarantee I would be able to catch my 9ers as I was outside of the team's viewing area. So when my team was not playing I either had to go to a sports bar or settle for listening to the team via NFL.com (provided there were no blackout restrictions).
Again I understand that for many this may not be an option as they would rather cut elsewhere to be able to watch their favorite team. And going to the bar may be out of the question, especially for people trying not to be around alcohol. I personally wanted to see this through as I did not want to pay upwards of $300 for a cable package of channels I don't watch.
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2015-2016 season is over and I managed to stream or watch every game via rabbit ears. At times I was tempted to try Directv but in the end, especially after getting through the first few weeks, I found myself not needing it. Despite the deals offered through ATT, which really is not a deal unless you already had directv and att, I managed to keep the cord cut. After seeing the money I saved month after month I really have no desire to spend that kind of money on tv again. And with the SB able to be streamed this year it made for a choice option for cord cutters.
Now the season is over I can officially rank which apps or programs provided me the best choice option to be to watch the game. By the way I know there are many options that involve torrents and file sharing but those options will not be discussed.
1) Rabbit ears: At the end of the day over the air TV wins. Yeah most of the games are regional but they came in HD clear without the weather signal loss experienced with satellite. CBS, NBC, and Fox are free so why should I pay (enter cable company name) $100+ to watch it?
2) Sling TV: yeah this is hit or miss because this only show ESPN games and they are restricted from allowing you to watch the game via the Sling app on your phone (Verizon exclusivity rights with the NFL). So if you are at home and you have a streaming box you are golden. But if you are on the road and all you have is your phone then you are out of luck. This beg the question if this service is even worth $25 a month, and to answer that I have to say depending on what you use it for but I can easily understand the argument against.
Unranked) My top app at the start was USTVNOW, like Sling you had the ability to watch ESPN games plus they had regional games as well via Fox, CBS, and NBC. Now someone earlier in the season asked the question why pay for this option when you had the rabbit ears and here is my answer. The service broadcast out of the Pennsylvania area so for those not in that region it gave you another set of games to watch on Fox and CBS, unless it was the Fox game of the Week. With that said USTVNOW just could not get their act together. It just seem to go from a good service to crap literally during the first half of the season. People kept getting booted off with the system not recognizing your credentials for some reason. Services would not work and servers would crash. All the while it went from a service where a rep was there to fix the issue on the spot to you no longer being able to speak to anyone and being relegated to chasing them down via twitter. After months of service getting worse with no signs of it getting fixed I shut down my account. Now early on Sling ran into issues with their streaming but they did a good job not only providing customer support but improving the issues throughout the season. One improvement Sling made that I give kudos to was getting with Watchespn and allowing customers to watch content that way. This allowed customers an option to keep up with live sports even when the Sling servers went down.
At the end of the day the choice whether to have cable or not is up the each individual and their family. I can understand why people would rather just pay for the box. But for me I just remember time after time having all those channels and nothing to watch. I found myself watching content via Netflix, Hulu, or YT more and more so it was a natural progression for me to cut the cord. The only thing that held me back was football and after this season I now see no need for me to ever attach the cord again. Not saying I won't (ie a company come along with a deal to good to pass up) just saying there is not a "need". And at the end of the day I like having money in my pocket.
Anyway thanks for reading as this concludes the challenge.
Now the season is over I can officially rank which apps or programs provided me the best choice option to be to watch the game. By the way I know there are many options that involve torrents and file sharing but those options will not be discussed.
1) Rabbit ears: At the end of the day over the air TV wins. Yeah most of the games are regional but they came in HD clear without the weather signal loss experienced with satellite. CBS, NBC, and Fox are free so why should I pay (enter cable company name) $100+ to watch it?
2) Sling TV: yeah this is hit or miss because this only show ESPN games and they are restricted from allowing you to watch the game via the Sling app on your phone (Verizon exclusivity rights with the NFL). So if you are at home and you have a streaming box you are golden. But if you are on the road and all you have is your phone then you are out of luck. This beg the question if this service is even worth $25 a month, and to answer that I have to say depending on what you use it for but I can easily understand the argument against.
Unranked) My top app at the start was USTVNOW, like Sling you had the ability to watch ESPN games plus they had regional games as well via Fox, CBS, and NBC. Now someone earlier in the season asked the question why pay for this option when you had the rabbit ears and here is my answer. The service broadcast out of the Pennsylvania area so for those not in that region it gave you another set of games to watch on Fox and CBS, unless it was the Fox game of the Week. With that said USTVNOW just could not get their act together. It just seem to go from a good service to crap literally during the first half of the season. People kept getting booted off with the system not recognizing your credentials for some reason. Services would not work and servers would crash. All the while it went from a service where a rep was there to fix the issue on the spot to you no longer being able to speak to anyone and being relegated to chasing them down via twitter. After months of service getting worse with no signs of it getting fixed I shut down my account. Now early on Sling ran into issues with their streaming but they did a good job not only providing customer support but improving the issues throughout the season. One improvement Sling made that I give kudos to was getting with Watchespn and allowing customers to watch content that way. This allowed customers an option to keep up with live sports even when the Sling servers went down.
At the end of the day the choice whether to have cable or not is up the each individual and their family. I can understand why people would rather just pay for the box. But for me I just remember time after time having all those channels and nothing to watch. I found myself watching content via Netflix, Hulu, or YT more and more so it was a natural progression for me to cut the cord. The only thing that held me back was football and after this season I now see no need for me to ever attach the cord again. Not saying I won't (ie a company come along with a deal to good to pass up) just saying there is not a "need". And at the end of the day I like having money in my pocket.
Anyway thanks for reading as this concludes the challenge.
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Great comment @pc747 !
Glad to hear you were able to make it work for you.
1. Rabbit ears/OTA antennas rule! You won't get a better HD picture through any other source. Of course this also boils down to location, location, location! If you live in the boondocks and can't get a decent signal via rabbit ears, it's going to be difficult. However, these aren't your parents rabbit ears of the 70s. Most people don't realize there are so many brands available these days that will provide you excellent reception, even if you don't live "in town". You don't have to purchase the most expensive, but don't skimp either.
2. Cable/Satellite is a waste of money. As mentioned.....hundreds of channels with nothing of substance to watch gets old quick. I remember back in the day when people used to brag about how many channels they had. It didn't take long for folks to realize that nothing (worth watching at least) was on 90% of those channels.
3. Savings are huge.
Sure, you can purchase a half dozen subscriptions (Sling, HBOGo, Netflix etc) and your bill can easily add up to, and/or exceed your previous cable/satellite bill. However, 2-3 subscriptions will be more than sufficient for most folks. The great thing is, every subscription offers a 14-30 day free trial so you can decide which subscriptions are right for you.
A tip for new cord cutters:
When deciding on which subscriptions are right for you and your family, only subscribe to one free trial at a time. This will give you plenty of time to truly give it an honest test drive. If you've got 2-3 free trials going during the same time frame, there won't be enough time in the day to really see if it's right for you.
S5 tap'n
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