So Kasmar, you are our television guru, and you recently updated your advice about cutting the cord.
It's never been more viable to cut the cord, but that doesn't mean that it's easy or simple.
What's kind of the most important thing that you think people should consider when their thinking about getting out of a regular pay T.V. subscription?
Yeah, I mean that's the real thing.
It's like if you've never had cable then it's easy.
You know what you're getting.
But if you're one of these people who.
Decided hey, I've had cable for a long time.
I've got a DVR.
I'm used to these kinds of things.
When you go to get rid of it, you're gonna be losing some stuff.
So the main thing to consider is the money you're gonna save.
If you have just Internet, versus your bundle, versus your packaging, I always tell people, try to negotiate with your cable company.
Call them up, or, if there's a couple in your neighborhood, if you're lucky enough to have some competition, call them up and be like, hey, dude, I'm quitting cable.
Can you cut me a deal?
So the best way in that sense to cut the cord is to not cut the cord?
Well, let's say they can't match your price because this is the one of the things to consider.
Then you go, okay fine, time to cut the cord, then you can consider one of these live TV streaming services or you can put up an antenna.
Those are the two best ways to get sort of the replacement for cable.
The other thing is, if you're a sports lover, make sure that this particular team that you follow is gonna be available.
That's really the main thing that keeps a lot of people on cable.
Yeah.
Is these regional sports networks, where the only way to get it is if you have your cable subscription.
But a lot of new live tv streaming services, like fubo tv, like youtube tv, actually do have these rsn's now, so, They actually allow you to go ahead and do that, it's really cool.
What about beyond live TV stuff that you'll be losing?
What about on demand things?
Do you think that there's ways people can cobble together a package that works for them?
Yes, I feel like Hulu is your friend.
[LAUGH]
If you really like to use a lot of on-demand Hulu Which just the basic service has a tremendous amount of stuff available on demand.
Really, if you're watching on demand, cable is the worst way to do it.
I mean, between Netflix, Hulu, and even the network apps, if you want to go that deep, available on any of these devices, you can get a lot of stuff available immediately to stream, and you don't have to worry about a cable subscription to do it.
Yeah.
What about people, you know, part of the problem with cutting the cord is that it's so hard to figure out what it is, how you can get those things that you want.
Because everybody is an individual.
They all have different tastes and priorities.
What do you recommend for people who May not know about things that are available to them.
Is there anything out there that people might not be aware that they can try?
Yeah, the easiest thing is to just sit down write down your list of must-have shows.
And it's a lot harder if you have a family, everybody has to be considered, and figure out what shows you're gonna live with, which shows you can go without, which networks they're on.
It takes a little bit of work, but then once you have that list, the internet is your friend and at c|net for example we have a whole list of For example, all the various channels carried on each of these live TV services.
Whether they're actually available in your area.
For example, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX are only available in most of these metropolitan areas.
If you live a little bit further away from the city, You may not be able to get them.
So, those sorts of things you're gonna have to figure out on your own.
Or again, if you want to put up an antenna that's a whole other thing.
And that's a great way to save a lot of money on your cable subscription is to put up an antenna and see what you get.
They're cheap, you can connect it to your T.V. right now and just kinda experiment.
