Gizmodo - What It Will Really Cost to Ditch Cable for à la Carte TV?

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#168559 18-Mar-2015 12:55

An interesting article from Gizmodo, dateline today -

This is about cable TV in the USA but provides an interesting price comparison - all prices in USD

What it costs to cut the cord

    Sling TV: $20/month—includes ESPN, AMC, TBS, Cartoon Network, Food Network, etc. Plus $5 for each additional programming package including news, lifestyle, Hollywood, kids, sports. (This all excludes basic channels like Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.)
    Apple TV: $30-$40 (rumored)/month—25 channels including basic cable (except NBC); only available on Apple devices
    PlayStation Vue: $50-$80 (rumored)/month—75 channels from CBS, Fox, Scripps, and NBCUniversal.
    HBO Now: $15/month
    Netflix: $9/month (for new users)
    Hulu: $8/month
    Amazon Prime: $100/year (or about $8 a month)

So to get a comprehensive television viewing experience, you're looking at something like this:

    Sling TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $60-$85
    PlayStation Vue + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $90-$120
    Apple TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $70-$80

And if you're really serious about this TV subscription thing, the ultra mega package deal:

    Sling TV + PlayStation Vue + Apple TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $140-$205

EDIT: Sorry - should have posted this in Online streaming services.

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shk292

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#1261630 18-Mar-2015 13:18

This seems very biased to prove how good value cable is. Unless you want to spend every waking hour watching TV, it's not really necessary to have multiple services.

I have:
- Freeview $0 pm. On a PVR so it's effectively on demand
- BBC iPlayer $0 pm
- Netflix - $14 pm (UK sub)
- Unotelly - $3 (?) pm. Probably don't really need this now I've switched to Slingshot

So, $17pm, or $37 if you count the extra $20 to change from 80GB to unlimited VDSL

Result, far more TV than I and the family ever have time to watch. Much better quality and cheaper than Sky

Lias

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#1261656 18-Mar-2015 13:28

Torrents $0 per month :-) DRM free, HD quality, released within hours if not minutes of it airing anywhere in the world.. Hard to beat..

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

sep11guy

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#1261661 18-Mar-2015 13:33

Lias: Torrents $0 per month :-) DRM free, HD quality, released within hours if not minutes of it airing anywhere in the world.. Hard to beat..

But is that legal ?

timbosan

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#1261723 18-Mar-2015 14:28

Lias: Torrents $0 per month :-) DRM free, HD quality, released within hours if not minutes of it airing anywhere in the world.. Hard to beat..

If you want it available ASAP, look at Usenet, not Torrents. Still DRM free, HD quality, etc. And delivered auto-magically!

Eitsop

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#1261730 18-Mar-2015 14:35

you may alternate as well.. eg Hulu for 2 months, then lightbox for 2 months.. do block watching of programs?

hamish225

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#1261741 18-Mar-2015 14:50

timbosan:
Lias: Torrents $0 per month :-) DRM free, HD quality, released within hours if not minutes of it airing anywhere in the world.. Hard to beat..

If you want it available ASAP, look at Usenet, not Torrents. Still DRM free, HD quality, etc. And delivered auto-magically!

is usenet legal? a quick google tells me it costs $10 a month

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timbosan

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#1261753 18-Mar-2015 15:01

hamish225:
timbosan:
Lias: Torrents $0 per month :-) DRM free, HD quality, released within hours if not minutes of it airing anywhere in the world.. Hard to beat..

If you want it available ASAP, look at Usenet, not Torrents. Still DRM free, HD quality, etc. And delivered auto-magically!

is usenet legal? a quick google tells me it costs $10 a month

(sorry, going OT a bit, but it's not a quick answer)

Not a simple answer. The content on Usenet (in the respect of TV shows, movies, etc) is the same as on torrent sites, so (depending on your interpretation/love of the law) it is breaking copyright agreements. So if you torrent and have no issues with it (morally, not technically), then you can do the same with Usenet.

The $10 is a fee paid to either a Usenet host, or to an Index site. Or both.

Back in the good old days, most ISP's ran decent Usenet servers, however with the increase in media content, most stopped, and those that still have the servers don't carry the BINARY newsgroups, which is where all this stuff is. So there are places that offer Usenet servers that do contain all this content, but of course its not free (and if it is free, there are catches).

But to find this content you also need a Usenet Index server, which lets you find all the parts of each file (as in Usenet world they are split into parts, much like a ZIP or TAR file can be).

You don't have to pay for either services, but if you do, you will get faster downloads and the ability to get older content (older usually being more than 30 days), SSL, VPN's etc.

If you want to know more, google SickBeard, CouchPotatoe, sabnzbd, xsusenet, etc. It can be tough to get it all set up and understand (at least I found so when i started investigating) and there are lots of options with software, services, costs, etc.

chevrolux

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#1263533 19-Mar-2015 16:31

As many others have said, $12 for Usenet is a much better option.

Even if this article is essentially promoting how good value a cable/sat connection is, it makes the point that to get the spread of content you need to sign up to many many different services.

And then down here in NZ we need DNS (or VPN) services just to make them work which is just a hassle.

Usenet FTW.

Lazarui

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#1263586 19-Mar-2015 17:29

Sideface: An interesting article from Gizmodo, dateline today -

This is about cable TV in the USA but provides an interesting price comparison - all prices in USD

What it costs to cut the cord

    Sling TV: $20/month—includes ESPN, AMC, TBS, Cartoon Network, Food Network, etc. Plus $5 for each additional programming package including news, lifestyle, Hollywood, kids, sports. (This all excludes basic channels like Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.)
    Apple TV: $30-$40 (rumored)/month—25 channels including basic cable (except NBC); only available on Apple devices
    PlayStation Vue: $50-$80 (rumored)/month—75 channels from CBS, Fox, Scripps, and NBCUniversal.
    HBO Now: $15/month
    Netflix: $9/month (for new users)
    Hulu: $8/month
    Amazon Prime: $100/year (or about $8 a month)

So to get a comprehensive television viewing experience, you're looking at something like this:

    Sling TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $60-$85
    PlayStation Vue + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $90-$120
    Apple TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $70-$80

And if you're really serious about this TV subscription thing, the ultra mega package deal:

    Sling TV + PlayStation Vue + Apple TV + HBO Now + Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = $140-$205

EDIT: Sorry - should have posted this in Online streaming services.

I think this article is quite disingenuous, Sorry but your 'traditional' requires you to wait till a certain time to watch your show or record it to play back later. That is not on demand. Who would be silly enough to sign onto 6/7 different streaming services, and I see alot of cross over in these services. Also some of them show the same shows as others, you would pick a company that had what you wanted. Let alone that cable companies do not necessarily Have all the channels anyway. This is badly researched and badly explained.

Personally I'm fine with Netflix/Hulu that holds everything I want, I don't do pay per view and I don't do Sports (If I want to watch sports I will go to the pub I find it much more enjoyable).