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Cable TV was once the ultimate entertainment necessity. Pumping hundreds of channels, many of which you never watched, into your home became the norm, and cable providers knew they had you on the hook with bundles that also included internet and phone service.
But not everyone wants to pay $200+ per month for a service they’re only half using, which prompted the rise of “cord cutting,” or doing away with traditional pay TV service and relying soley on streaming services for movies, TV shows, and live sports.
According to eMarketer, more than 35.4% of households in the US will no longer use pay TV by the end of 2024, a decline spurred in part by the pandemic and its dearth of live sports.
Companies like Comcast, Charter/Spectrum, and Altice are weathering the pay-TV subscriber loss easily because they also sell broadband service. Cord cutters need a hefty internet pipe to get the same quality of TV programming over the internet. If you have weak Wi-Fi, cord cutting is probably not for you.
A fast pipe is just the beginning. Here’s what you need to become a full-fledged cord cutter with access to (almost) everything you’d get via regular cable TV.
Over-the-Air Antennas and DVRs
Before we get into the apps/hardware you need to make it as a digital cord cutter, consider what you can still get via over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts of the major networks.
Major network affiliates in big cities still broadcast over the airwaves in HD—you just need an HD antenna to get the signal. Modern HD antennas don’t have to be mounted on the roof or take up as much space as a satellite dish. Many are simple affairs you set up next to the TV or flat units you hang in your window. That said, powerful outdoor antennas remain a viable option.
Before you jump on the antenna train, determine if OTA HD is an option for you. Visit AntennaWeb or TV Fool for a list of stations broadcasting nearby. If you can position your antenna facing the nearest broadcast transmitter, all the better. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get access to any stations, or to only a few. It happens.
Top-rated HDTV indoor antennas include the window-mountable Moho Leaf Metro, which plugs directly into a TV tuner. Outdoors, you could try the roof-mountable Antennas Direct ClearStream 1Max or 4Max models, with 40- and 70-mile ranges, respectively. Other antenna makers include 1byOne, Antop, and View TV.
Unless you’re living next door to the local broadcast tower, you will probably want signal amplification. Amps don’t make the signal stronger coming in the house; they make an already-low signal strong enough for the TV tuner to use. Even some of the flat antennas have amplification options, but amplification increases the antenna cost. Setup is easy, but you’ll have to play with antenna position to maximize reception—just like fiddling with rabbit ear antennas. Some outdoor antennas can work from inside, assuming they’re up high—say in your attic—and there isn’t a lot of obstruction.
You can use a TV antenna to watch live TV, sure, but this isn’t the 1970s. You need a digital video recorder (DVR) to capture shows to watch on-demand. The TiVo Edge for Antenna system has two tuners and 75 hours of recording storage for $349, but it also requires a $70 annual subscription. TiVo has some other OTA DVRs, as do companies like Tablo and Channel Master.
Media Hubs and Smart TVs
There are a lot of ways to watch internet-based streaming TV as a cord cutter.
Screen options include your phone, tablet, computer, or the TV itself. All are perfectly capable: just download the apps for the services you want. Big names like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube are available on most platforms. On a PC, visit their respective websites.
If you’ve got a decent laptop and a nice TV, an HDMI cable between them is all you need to be a cord cutter: stream on your laptop and watch on the big screen. You can also use your phone; the apps out there for casting or mirroring what you see on your iPhone or Android device to the TV are too numerous to mention.
Then there’s the TV itself. Leichtman Research says 80% of households in the US have a connected TV of some sort. Most modern sets are internet-connected “smart TVs” with apps and app stores. Use them to download most of the cord-cutting apps you’d want.
If you don’t have a smart TV, or you hate your smart TV’s interface, get a media streaming device. You may already have one in the form of a game console; Xbox and PlayStation platforms support most streaming apps (the Nintendo Switch only has Hulu, YouTube, and Funimation). Media streamers come in two other main forms: a thumb-drive-sized unit that plugs into the HDMI port on the TV or a larger hub that’s more of a set-top box.
Our Editors’ Choice products for the small “stick” media hubs include the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. If you don’t like Amazon, there’s also the Chromecast with Google TV, as well as devices from Roku. Amazon and Roku have also teamed up with TV makers like Toshiba and TCL to sell TVs with their software built in, so you don’t even need the stick or set-top box.
Our Top-Rated Media Streaming Devices
Know Your Cord-Cutting Services
The key to effective cord cuttery is being aware of what apps are available on your hardware of choice, knowing the programming on the various services, and figuring out just how much they’re going to cost you. Here’s a rundown.
On-Demand Streaming Services
These are the services you’re used to reading about the most. They’re subscription-based, let you watch whatever you want whenever you want, depending on availability, and offer original movies and series. Some originals are prestige programming, some are foreign imports, some are cheap junk—so a lot like all OTA TV.
Our Top-Rated Video Streaming Services
Live TV Streaming Services
For some services, it wasn’t enough to just provide on-demand shows. They wanted to take on cable itself, by providing a cable-television subscription experience over the internet. Live TV streaming services won’t necessarily give you super-granular control over content—it’s not really like you pay just for the few channels or shows you really want to watch. However, they provide access to a lot of content you might not otherwise get without a cable subscription—especially news and sports. (For more, read Hulu + Live TV vs. YouTube TV: Which Is Best for Cord Cutters?)
Our Top-Rated Live TV Streaming Services
Sports Streaming Services
Sports streaming is an odd duck in this world, where much of what you see is pre-aired and recorded. But fans want their sports live, and thankfully, our top live TV streaming services include excellent sports channels (fuboTV in particular, as it started with a sports focus) or as add-ons. You can also get premium sports channel add-ons on Amazon Prime Video.
We still pick Hulu + Live TV as the best live-streaming option, even for sports, as it features sports from BTN, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, Fox, NBC Gold, NBCSN, and more—in addition to local channels you get in your ZIP code. It’s also our top pick for streaming NFL and NBA games.
Our Top-Rated Sports Streaming Services
Premium Cable With Paid Streaming Services
Six years ago, the only way you could watch HBO online was by adding it to your cable subscription and tapping into HBO GO. But as the popularity of Game of Thrones exploded, HBO stepped into the 21st century and launched an online-only version of its premium channel in 2015. It has since evolved into HBO Max, and a number of other premium cable channels followed suit, from Showtime to Cinemax to Starz.
Our Top-Rated Premium TV Streaming Services
Consider the Cutting Cost
Cord cutting has its conveniences, but will it really save you cash? Chances are slim. Especially if you want access to ALL content. For that, you need subscriptions to all of the major services. That’s not cheap. And prices keep rising. Here’s a pre-tax breakdown without even factoring in live TV or sports needs:
That monthly total is…not insignificant.
If you keep cable alone, you’re not going to get access to much-discussed streaming originals like Stranger Things, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Star Trek: Discovery, The Boys, Ted Lasso, Loki, and too many more to mention. How you proceed as a cord cutter really depends on what you want to see. But it’s more likely than ever you’ll be a hybrid of cord cutter and cord haver (AKA a continued cable subscriber).
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