TV experiment

P

Paris23

Guest
After looking over PLUTO TV and FREE VEE, I was motivated this morning to cancel Netflix and Disney+. It’s going to save some money, and I think the free services will suit me better.
 
I also got rid of TV subscriptions (Netflix and Hulu). I missed it for a little while but I can always find something to watch on Pluto or FreeVee if I am in the mood for television. The only downside is ALL the commercials/ads with movies in FreeVee. Tried watching a movie with my husband a few weeks ago and we timed ad breaks...there was an ad break on average of every 7 minutes!
 
There are a lot of free channels if you use a Roku. We got rid of Cable probably 15 years ago. I used to watch Hulu when it was free but I don't really watch enough tv to justify paying for it.
 
Due to separate incidents regarding content, I dumped Netflix, Disney, and Hulu. I watch some free content on Roku as has been mentioned. I am a cord cutter in a larger sense, though, because I'm generally just consuming less TV, fewer movies, no newspapers. I'm exercising more at night and spending more time with family.
 
We get by just fine with a Roku and an antenna for local TV. We do get netflix, but that's it. Cable is just too expensive for what little time we have to watch it, not that there's much on anyway. We got MIL a Roku last Christmas and set it up for her. She raved about it after their cable got messed up and she lost all of her DVR'd shows- some of which were available free on Roku channel.

I use Pluto for background TV and with the kids last year. My morning duty was to watch a class during breakfast, so I'd put on the Nick en Español channel or Naruto subbed in Spanish.
 
We got rid of cable too. We use a variety of the mentioned subscription services but only pay with gift cards. None of these companies have my debit card. Our Netflix ran out so we won't buy another card until a show comes on that we want to see. It is more comfortable having no monthly commitment plan to any of them.
 
I got rid of cable a long time ago and recently got rid of Netflix. I don't miss the large cable bill, the commercials, or having to watch the show on their time frame. There was a good series once on cable that was on episode 8. Of course, I wanted to begin with episode 1, but that often isn't an option with cable. Even a DVR couldn't save me there.

The quality of programs on Netflix in my opinion has gone down. The few good shows I really enjoyed I either have watched or they have left Netflix. I found myself never watching Netflix, so only made sense to get rid of it. I don't miss it. I will have to check out Pluto TV.
 
We haven’t had cable in probably 5 years? We have a lot of streaming services: Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount+, Hulu, Disney+, Showtime.

We are both retired, and I watch shows in my craft room, and DH watches things in the TV room sometimes. We watch someth8 g together every evening.

We can’t get anything without an antenna as big as a cell tower, so we just don’t have local channels.
 
We're down to Netflix and Hulu on our Roku. We might turn on YouTube TV if there's enough on that we want to watch, but not right now.
 
I still have cable...price is too great not to these days for me, but I do have these streaming services & have a Roku. I only signed up the following when a great (hard to beat) promo was going on:

- Hulu
- Peacock
- Curiosity Stream
(- HBO Max - used to have)

It looks like the only thing I'll have to pay for separately IF I really want it is the Tennis Channel.
 
The other day a cable guy came knocking on my door. He said he was going around town asking people if they would like to sign up for cable again since he saw we had it previously but cancelled it. My husband pretty much told him that with all the streaming out there there's no real need for us to have cable. Plus, we're not even home that much to watch it. Just a waste of money for us.
 
Ms. I said:
I still have cable...price is too great not to these days for me, but I do have these streaming services & have a Roku. I only signed up the following when a great (hard to beat) promo was going on:

- Hulu
- Peacock
- Curiosity Stream
(- HBO Max - used to have)

It looks like the only thing I'll have to pay for separately IF I really want it is the Tennis Channel.
Click to expand...
I used to love HULU when it was free. I'm not paying for it though.
 
TeacherNY said:
I used to love HULU when it was free. I'm not paying for it though.
Click to expand...

I've been paying 99 cents/mo, so I'm sure that deal can't be beat. I still have it through the very end of Nov. I'll then cancel, unless they have another great deal.
 
Well, I finally don't have cable anymore sadly (not my choice)! I started doing some research on a few streaming services that contain multiple channels (Vidgo, Fubo TV, YouTubeTV) to see which of the most channels I like I can get for least money. If I really just want to go as low as I can, Sling Blue & adding on 2-3 add-ons is good enough & even that would be $57/mo.

Philo is really the most for the $, but I don't know if I'll like those 4-5, 6-min/hr commercials that I read about that you can't skip through.

YouTubeTV just doesn't have as many channels that I want as most otherservices for the $.

Vidgo - Plus plan at 112 channels for $60/mo is pretty good & has all except 1 channel I really want (Bravo), so not too bad. I'll have to really compare w/ Sling Blue above to see which I want more.
Then, they also has an $80/mo premium plan, so again, don't know if I want to pay that much & still not 2 more channels I'd like to have.

FuboTV - Has Pro plan at 136 channels for $70/mo & Elite plan for another 64 channels, $80/mo. But, now it's getting to be more than I want to pay, but surprsingly that $80 Elite still doesn't have 5 channels I want...even out of all that!

Hulu+ Live - $70/mo for tad over 75 channels just doesn't seem like enough compared to how many more channels I can get above for the same $.

I wanted to know more about Amazon Prime Video, but even at $8.99/mo it doesn't seem to be worth it from what I've learned. Every little channel you can think of is another $2.99+ monthly add-on.

I do currently have a few streaming services that I signed up for at various times when they had promos:

- Paramount+
- Hulu
- Peacock
- Curiosity Stream

What does everyone do for local channels these days since Locast is no longer around? I miss seeing the news on ch 2, 4, 5, 7, 11.

Anyone have any ongoing promo codes they can give me when I sign up for any of these services? I'll try a free trial or two for the ones I really want.
 
They used to have free trials of every channel but I guess they're all getting greedy and you have to pay for a whole month even if you want to try it out.
 
I love the British streaming services like Acorn and BritBox. They have such interesting shows. I signed up for some free trials and ended up keeping each of them for a month. If I know I'll have some time to watch I'll sign up again.
 
Ms. I said:
What does everyone do for local channels these days since Locast is no longer around? I miss seeing the news on ch 2, 4, 5, 7, 11.
Click to expand...
Antenna. Cable is way too expensive for what little we'd watch it, so our set-up is a Roku with a bunch of the free apps, netflix that we share with my mom (though that might be changing with the new policies), and an antenna for local tv. Unless you're very rural, everyone should be able to get at least your local broadcast networks (ABC, NBC etc, plus your PBS). Living in a big city, I can pick up about 40 channels with a $20 antenna. A lot of it is not high-interest programming, like old movies that didn't make it to "classic" status or the channel that shows nothing but old westerns, but I like H&I, START, and a few other channels. There's websites where you can plug in your location and they'll list what all channels you can get in and with what range of antenna.
 
I assume at around Black Friday/Chirstmastime, streaming services offer deals. Do they usually OR ever offer deals at any other times of the year?

I'm currently signed up w/ 4 services (Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, & Curiosity Stream) & got them all on some kind of deal totaling $122 for a year. I think that's good for all 4 of them! Eventually one at a time, I'd ALSO like to maybe try:

- Philo
- Sling Blue
- Vidgo
- Fubo TV
- DirecTV
- maybe YouTube TV

viola_x_wittrockiana, thanks for replying, maybe I'll look into that.
 
Nearly every TV show that has been out for awhile has TV series for free on DVD at public libraries. Can't do much better than free.
 
readingrules12 said:
Nearly every TV show that has been out for awhile has TV series for free on DVD at public libraries. Can't do much better than free.
Click to expand...

We don’t even own a DVD player anymore. I used to borrow shows and movies from out library, but they don’t have a huge selection since it’s such a small town.
 
Ima Teacher said:
We don’t even own a DVD player anymore. I used to borrow shows and movies from out library, but they don’t have a huge selection since it’s such a small town.
Click to expand...

We still have a VCR, and recently played a Disney sing along VHS tape for our two year-old granddaughter!
 
Sometimes I wish I still had a DVD player. We were playing DVDs on the computer but not for a while now. I loved to get Redbox videos or some from the library.
 
I still have a DVD player & have my DVD movies collection along w/ a new TV series that I enjoy watching repeatedly from time to time. I haven't tried renting from the library yet.
 
I like Pluto TV. Can usually find something to watch. If not, I use my DVD player and VCR (yes, I still have and use a VCR!).
 
I still have a couple of favorite TV shows on Netflix, so can't cancel it. In addition, it's very convenient. There is no need to search between channels or categories. It often offers suggestions for my taste. I also have other services like this so there's always what to watch.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
emiliaher said:
I only have Netflix and honestly have not enough time to watch all the new movies and tv shows there.
Click to expand...
Me too. I got a trial of 2 other streaming services just for fun and I ended up watching maybe 5 or 6 shows total in 2 months. Not really worth it for me to have multiple services.
 
Kerrberr said:
I still watch Netflix as I like its content. Though I canceled a cable tv about two years ago. I'm also thinking about addressing the mctv customer service here as this company offers not only tv but also Internet and phone services. I guess I'll give it a try.
Click to expand...
I cancelled cable in 2009 and haven't really missed it.
 
We also cut the cord about two years ago and bought an Android TV box. No regrets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top