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Watch all the Games for a Fraction of the Price: A Primer to Cord-cutting

Apartment Living

Sports fans need to be able to enjoy their games. Ideally, this means following a team around the country and making sure that the stands are always raucous with the sounds of screaming support. Unfortunately, most fans have responsibilities that prevent them from becoming a permanent fixture at every game. For them, unless they want pay a visit to a sports bar every time a game is being played, keeping up with the action on the TVs in their apartments is really the only viable alternative; to do that, they need cable or a satellite connection. But what happens when the price of cable just gets too expensive? Well, that’s when they cut the cord.
From sports fans to movie buffs and everyone in between, TV viewers across the country are slashing their monthly bills big time by cutting the cable cord. With cable costs climbing for packages that include channels that many customers don’t want—and with major players like HBO and CBS soon launching their own stand-alone streaming services to compete with Netflix—it’s little wonder that more and more cable and satellite customers are joining the cord-cutting revolution, and saying “so long” to their service providers forever.
However, for many TV viewers who would like to free themselves from the cable tether they’ve come to depend on over the years, cutting the cord just seems too risky. After all, saving money is all well and good, but if it means missing out on the big game, then is it really worth it? If you find yourself in that category, here’s a cord-cutting primer to help you make the move and save money without having to give up your favorite TV programs.
ForRent.com - Watch all the Games for a Fraction of the Price: A Primer to Cord-cutting
 
What is cord-cutting?
First off, cord-cutting simply means dropping expensive cable providers, and sourcing your TV entertainment from local over the air (OAT) broadcasts and Internet broadcasting services such as Netflix, Apple TV, and Hulu. Along with cutting out unwanted channels and dramatically reducing the amount of advertising viewers are exposed to, cord-cutting can also mean big savings. In fact, serious cord-cutting proponents claim that the practice can save cable subscribers as much as $120 per month.
With more and more entertainment solutions becoming available on the Internet, cord-cutting is gaining major momentum. Still, cord-cutting is a matter of demographics, and there are certain questions all TV viewers should ask to make sure they don’t cut the cord prematurely. Questions such as:
Q: How big of a sports fan am I?
Over the years cable has been a must-have for hardcore sports fans. After all, sporting events are best watched live, and the leagues have signed some very lucrative contracts that have kept televised sports tied up on cable. But that may change. As mentioned recently in the Wall Street Journal, the NBA just struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Disney-ESPN to develop, “a new online video service that would show live regular-season games” and will be “open to people who aren’t cable or satellite TV customers.”  Likewise, Dish Network has recently announced that it will be providing an internet TV service called Sling TV, which will allow sports enthusiasts to watch games via ESPN—and will also offer access to the Disney channel, TNT, CNN, and more—all contract free and able to be streamed directly to a number of internet-enabled devices at a fraction of normal satellite costs. With the probability of other leagues and networks following suit, all four major sports leagues in the U.S. likely will soon be making a significant portion of their content available via the Internet, thus cutting out the need for a cable or satellite TV subscription. Still, it may be a few years before you can watch all of the games over a live internet feed directly to your apartment.
Q: Do I mainly watch dramatic cable dramas?
If you find yourself texting, posting, and chatting with friends about the latest, greatest episodes of Game of Thrones or Orange is the New Black, because those shows are pretty much all you’re watching, chances are you’ve already cut the cord in favor of a HBO or Netflix subscription. And even if you’re totally into shows such as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, or Mad Men—all of which became huge hits on AMC—you can still cut the cord and eventually catch, and even “binge watch,” all of the episodes on Netflix. Add streaming services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime to the mix, not to mention on-demand video services like iTunes or Amazon Instant Video, and you’ll have all the dramatic content you can handle.
Q: What about the kids?     
Cable and satellite packages have lots of kid-friendly content. And if you have kids, you need to take that into consideration before cutting the cord. Still, as pointed out in a recent online article by Time, players in the online entertainment industry are investing heavily in children’s programming. According to the article, with Disney and Nickelodeon scoring huge ratings and revenue with kid-friendly programs on cable, “Amazon and Netflix are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to scoop up the best kids’ content from cable and to fund production of original shows that they hope will become the next “Dora the Explorer” or “SpongeBob.” While families with kids are currently more apt to keep cable or satellite around, new kid-friendly programs from online streamers will result in more cable and satellite providers getting kicked to the curb.
ForRent.com - Watch all the Games for a Fraction of the Price: A Primer to Cord-cutting
 
Q: How do I get started?
The first step towards cutting the cord is to take a critical look at the type of programming your current cable or satellite service provides, how much of that content you are actually enjoying, and how much you are paying for it. You also need to factor in your viewing habits as well. If you are all about live programming and you like to watch new shows the day they premiere, then it’s probably best to hold off on cutting the cord. Once you have a handle on your entertainment consumption and viewing habits you can start looking at which streaming services might give you the same entertainment options without disrupting your current viewing behaviors.
Once you’ve answered these questions for yourself, if you still feel as though cord-cutting is the right choice for you, you’re going to need to follow a few steps:

  1. Get an antenna

Buying an antenna for your television may seem like a step in the wrong direction, but in actuality, it’s one of the most important things that you can do if you want to free yourself from net of cable. A modern antenna can make it possible for you to pick up dozens of channels in crisp HD. The antenna’s themselves generally cost less than twenty dollars and don’t require any special training to install. You can determine which channels are available through OTA broadcasts in your area by visiting Tvfool.com. An OTA antenna may be a necessity if you don’t want to miss out on local news or sports games.

  1. Weigh your online options

Online streaming services allow subscribers to view programming—movies and television—for a flat monthly rate. Netflix is the probably the most popular streaming service, offering full television seasons, films both new and old, documentaries, and even critically acclaimed original series, all without any advertising to interrupt your viewing experience. Hulu+ offers movies and TV shows as well, although you’ll have to sit through an ad or two before it gives you access to your program. However, Hulu generally gets new episodes of television programs much more quickly than does Netflix, meaning that you’ll have an easier time keeping up with the storylines as they happen. Amazon Instant Video (free with an Amazon Prime membership) doesn’t really compare to Netflix or Hulu for sheer volume of programming, but you may still find something great that you wouldn’t be able to access through any of the other big names—and if you’ve already signed up for Prime for the free two-day shipping, then you may as well enjoy some free entertainment. Apple TV (one-time charge for device, plus standard net-streaming fees) tries to bring everything together by pulling programs from various online-streaming sites and allowing users to watch them on their TVs.
In order to get the most out of their cord-cutting experience, many users will subscribe to multiple services, and still end up saving money over basic cable fees.

  1. Join the club

Across the nation, cord-cutting is becoming a very popular choice among television enthusiasts, sports fans, and movie buffs. However, each of these subgroups, and even the individuals who make up these groups, all have different specific needs when it comes to their home entertainment. The downside of this fact is that your needs are probably too specific to address here. The upside is that an entire online community has grown from cord-cutting, and by accessing the Cordcutter Forum (as well as other online cord-cutting sites), you’ll have a good chance of tracking down someone with similar interests who can give you personalized tips on how to make the most of the experience.

  1. Cut the cord

Once you’ve done your research and set the stage, the last step is to actually cut the cord itself. Well, no, not literally. What we mean to say is that you need to contact your cable provider and tell them that it’s over. They may try to counter with some special offer or another, and if you feel as though the offer is worth it to you, then by all means take them up on it. Just remember that there’s a good chance that you’ll eventually be back in the same position. By cutting the cord now, you take your first step into a larger world. Of course, if that all sounds too final to you, you can instead cut the cord in increments by starting with a basic cable or satellite subscription and adding an antenna and some streaming services “a la carte” to give you more choices for less than a more expensive cable package would cost. Just be aware that as you add more and more stand-alone services your monthly expenditure can add up very quickly.
For those looking to cut the cord entirely, it’s estimated that combining current streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access, and HBO’s new service could cut your monthly cable and television service by as much as one-half. With that kind of savings, it’s little wonder that the cord-cutting trend is becoming a full-fledged revolution.