You don’t have to be a pro to get rid of your cable subscription—all you have to do is call your cable provider. But what you need to figure out is how will I get great entertainment to watch. The good news is that there are more options every day for finding excellent content. But quitting your cable subscription cold-turkey can be pretty intimidating, especially if you tend to watch a fair bit of cable. I am going to try to make it easier.
Living in Canada and being a cable user means you are paying a pretty penny for the convenience of cable surfing. The smaller TV packages will cost you around $60/month but if you have most of the channels that you actually want to watch it can easily run you over $100/month. So cutting your cable can save you a lot of money, or at least free up plenty of money to spend on your entertainment choices.
What do you want to watch?
First, you need to consider what you watch; or better yet, what you “want” to watch. What you actually watch may be different than what you want to because you tend to watch what is available. What you should consider is if I got rid of cable, and was left to my own devices (no pun intended), would I watch other more interesting programs? Would I watch more of the movies that I like or other programs like or Boardwalk Empire? You might even read more books, spend more time enjoying the outdoors, or see more live entertainment—whether it is at your local coffee bar or a big concert. Mixing it up a bit more is a lot less mundane and healthier too.
If you are an avid sports fan and spend most of your time watching hockey—the NFL, CFL, March Madness, World Cup, baseball, or perhaps even curling; then getting rid of cable might not be quite so feasible yet. Streaming sports events is still fairly limited, unless ironically you have a cable subscription. For instance, Rogers now owns the rights to Hockey night in Canada and they are blocking what CBC used to allow watching online for free. Streaming it is only available to their cable subscribers. Finding other sports online can also be difficult so hard-core sports fans may find it a bit disappointing when cutting their cable.
However, there is a large amount of other content available through a variety of other sources, some of it free and some that will cost a little bit. Nevertheless you should easily be able to spend less than your current cable bill while getting pretty well what you want. Your non-cable content will either come from the Internet, over the airwaves, or on disks.
Internet Based Content
There are lots of ways to stream Internet content through your TV. If you have already have a Smart TV then you are streaming, but if you don’t then there are quite a number of devices that are inexpensive and will provide you more and more content all the time. Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and MyGica are all devices that will work nicely. Roku 3 and Apple TV are the most popular because they have excellent interfaces with plenty of content. I like Roku slightly more because it has the most content and I like the interface a bit better, but if you have the Apple ecosystem already Apple TV is a great choice because of the ease of interoperability with your other devices. For more information, look at my previous posts on Apple vs. Roku, Roku vs. Chromecast, and another describing MyGica.
If you are a gamer, then gaming platforms like XBox or Playstation both are capable of streaming a variety of Internet content on to your TV. The Playstation gaming console is also Blu-Ray player, which is yet another bonus with this unit. If you are a gamer either choice is excellent, and for see this post for a comparison.
Most Blu-Ray players today are also streaming devices, but I wouldn’t recommend them as a replacement for your cable because I have yet to find one that has a good interface that has a decent amount of content. In addition they tend to be a bit slower than Rokus and Apple TVs, so they don’t always stream as smoothly as you might like.
Using your streaming device of choice, there is an immense amount of content available. Since this content comes from a wide variety of sources it isn’t quite as convenient as surfing the “guide” with your cable subscription, but once you figure out what you want to watch you can set up “Favourites” on your streaming devices or use Google to help you find what you are looking for.
Internet Streaming Content
Streaming content comes from a variety of sources; including subscription services like Netflix, CinemaNow, and Crackle; or websites like the US or Canadian networks (CBS, NBC, CBC, GlobalTV, etc.); or specialized apps on your streaming device of choice.
The first place I would look are subscription services like Netflix or CinemaNow. These are great services that provide a lot of content: movies, TV shows, documentaries, specials, and more—all at a very reasonable cost, especially when compared to your cable bill. I like them because there are no commercials, and you can binge watch multiple years of episodes of programs that you have been meaning to watch—like Breaking Bad, or Suits. They also have a lot of kids programming for the young ones so they will never be without suitable entertainment.
The TV networks also generally stream the episodes of all their most popular shows. They tend to archive them so you will need to watch them within a week or two of when the show originally aired. So if you are worried about missing your favorite cable shows like Survivor or ER, no worries as you will be able to stream it on to your TV, usually for free. The only catch with watching episodes of those popular shows is that aren’t usually available until after they aired on TV. However, they are usually available within a day, and for those of you that PVR it anyway the delay won’t be noticeable.
The cable companies have started recognize that many of their subscribers are looking to escape to Internet streaming content, so they are now offering Netflix-like options. Shomi is a subscription service that is offered by Rogers and Shaw, and Crave TV is one offered by Telus and Bell. Both are inexpensive and have different programming that you can’t find on cable. Shomi is a little more costly than Crave but provides some popular US programs like Sons of Anarchy that you won’t find on Crave.
Over the Air
Getting an antenna to pick up local signals “over-the-air” will provide additional free content, the amount will depend on where you live. The over-the-air signal is digital full high-definition content so the quality should be excellent, depending on your proximity to the broadcast towers. If you want to get some idea on what stations are available in your area, check out TV Fool. That site can tell you what stations are available in your area.
The local channels are a free option just requires purchasing some hardware: an antenna and a digital converter box. This is just a one-time expense that won’t break the bank. I reviewed the Homeworx HD Digital Converter Box and found it worked quite well with the Clearstream 4 Outdoor Antenna.
I wouldn’t rely on over-the-air as a great replacement for your cable, as the channels are few and will have some local content (news, community affairs, etc.)—a lot of interesting but likely not a large amount of entertainment value.
Blu-Ray Discs
The other thing to consider is with the money you save from your monthly cable subscription can be used to rent a lot more movies or other shows. A lot of those you can purchase from streaming sites, but also a lot can be obtained on Blu-Ray disc. Blu-Ray provides one of the highest quality pictures you will find and the selection is enormous. For instance Best Buy has over 2,500 different Blu-Ray movies to choose from plus a large selection of TV shows.
As you can see, cutting your cable may seem like an intimidating option, but there is a large selection of options available and it is getting bigger all the time. Once you are used to using other sources there is a good chance you will be financially better off while finding more interesting and entertaining content than a lot of the schlock you will find on cable.
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