By Calvin Croucher
Do you still get your TV content through Cable or Satellite? Or are you among the nearly 65% of the population who are planning to or have already “cut the cord” in favor of free and subscription based streaming service? Have you gone a step further and now watch TV for free using an antenna?
How many times have you seen a Cable company commercial where they try to tell you that you will pay more if you stream? The truth is cord cutting can be completely free or it could cost more than your current cable or satellite TV service. It all depends on what you watch and which subscription service you choose.
If you are someone who primarily watches local network TV, after installing a digital antenna, your monthly cost could be completely FREE. If on the other hand, you watch premium TV content your monthly cost will be based on what subscription services you want. One important difference between Cable and streaming is with streaming there are no contracts and you can cancel services any time you want.
How much does it cost to switch from Cable or Satellite to streaming or OTA? After switching what will you save? Let's look at a few examples. We will assume you are currently paying $150/month for Cable TV. To switch, you may need internet service which will cost approx $50/mo. If you go with free antenna based TV, you would first need to add a UHF/VHF antenna (especially in our area) which will cost approximately $125. You may want to add an optional DVR so you can record and watch TV at any time. That will cost $100. If you have multiple TVs you may want to add an optional streaming stick at $50/TV. This sounds like a lot but in reality your return on investment (ROI) for the internet with OTA TV is only 2.8 months with an annual savings of $1,200. If you go with the internet and a streaming service like Sling TV Blue (with 40 premium channels) your ROI would be 5 months with an annual savings of $660!
Don’t forget that with streaming you have hundreds of free services like Pluto TV, Tubi TV, Crackle TV, XUMO and many more. All with thousands of live and on-demand TV and movies.
If you’d like to calculate the cost savings possible from cord cutting, the Colonial Heritage Tech Club has developed a simple cord cutting calculator that will determine your ROI and annual cost savings.
Visit us on our Tech Club website, Facebook or Nextdoor. We’d love to hear about some of your own cord cutting experiences.
