bitman
If I could overcome my "need" to watch the NFL, NCAA & MLB (with occasional NHL) I would cut off cable and entertain myself with youtube and other things.
 
Tough talk from someone on the hook huh. 
 

I think you can watch all your sports with the Fire Stick + Kodi (free app).
 
I also watch a lot of NFL, NBA, and Cricket......so will be looking into that.

Cable companies are losing subscribers in droves. When I went to return my cable boxes, I had to take a number and wait half an hour. The place was crowded, and not a single person was there to buy services. Every one of them had a box or bag of electronics in hand.
 
That was two years ago. I don't miss it at all. Whatever video entertainment needs I have are satisfied by Netflix, YouTube and DVDs. I have a $30 antenna attached to one TV in the kitchen for watching the morning news and football. I still pay what I consider an exorbitant amount for a fast internet connection, but it's substantially less than when I had cable TV.

Well we're going basic cable in the living room (for the Broncos really) and sling there and everywhere else which will give us everything but root sports.
At least the Rockies can't break my heart this summer.
 
This should drop the bill quite substantially.

I've been at the transition point over the last month. After a merger, my bill went up 60.00 a month. I'm still doing the cable internet, but Google Fiber should be finished in a couple of months, and I'll use them for internet in the future.
 
For TV it's a combination of Antenna, Netflix, and Sling. Sling is way cheaper than cable, the quality is better, and I can add/takeaway channels based on what I want to see. I can do it all online myself with no contract. So, if I want Game of Thrones, I just pay extra for a couple of months and cancel when it's over. There's also lots of streaming. They had a recent promotion, and sent me a Roku Premiere for free. 

Amazon Fire TV stick is what my sister suggests I get when I get to Shreveport. I don't like Charter and they are so overpriced due to monopoly in this area. 

Mesh
...
I think you can watch all your sports with the Fire Stick + Kodi (free app).
 
I also watch a lot of NFL, NBA, and Cricket......so will be looking into that.

Mostly soccer for me ..."fire Stick" ... what's that?

Resonant Serpent
I've been at the transition point over the last month. After a merger, my bill went up 60.00 a month. I'm still doing the cable internet, but Google Fiber should be finished in a couple of months, and I'll use them for internet in the future.
 ...
 

FIBER, is generally used for business accounts only and its cost is at least twice to three times the regular home use price. 
 
You must remember that when CABLE does a city block it could be as much as 100K depending on the number of ports and what not, however, when FIBER does a coty block, these costs can be as much as 200K and more. One imagines that Fiber will become less expensive in the future, but I doubt it. It hasn't for 10 years, and things like Google are promising cardboard stars and imaginary services, that you will pay for in droves, specially by the time they join up with the likes of AT&T and/or Verizon and such, which basically is a way to use the advertising cash cow from Google and Yahoo, to help pay for the wiring. Not that most phone companies are not cash cowing all along, but the expanse changes the bottom line some, and they could easily say that the first couple of years the acquisition was the problem and the cost, and misrepresent the facts so you and I do not know what is really happening.
 
There is no way, probably for the foreseen 5 to 10 years, that any company will offer FIBER to residential service, as they have the same issue as the Cable Companies ... not enough bandwidth!
 
Some companies have tried to bring "FIBER" (made in plastic and cardboard) to some areas, but basically these will remain in the really big cities (even Portland is very limited in FIBER), so the costs are covered.
 
Be careful with what you are signing up for and see that you traceroute and check the connections ... and find them going through the exact same places as everything else ... so its FIBER for 5 miles and the phone company for the rest! 

bayoubill
Amazon Fire TV stick is what my sister suggests I get when I get to Shreveport. I don't like Charter and they are so overpriced due to monopoly in this area. 

Bill, cable is not as much of a monopoly as the phone companies are. Even the cell phone thing. In the end, CABLE has to be wired on the street, and its quality is imperative so you can have the 100 internet service and the HD television and the phone on the VOIP process in house (outside it goes via the phone companies). With the cost involved, the price is actually not bad ... and please read the above post I made ... the real cause of the price hikes and issues is the number of conglomerates that rip you in charges, like DI, ES, UNI, and many others, that want to ensure that their "stars" get paid so folks want the programs, and they can force this on the cable company, or dish companies. For this reason, many of these companies are turning to their own productions, so they do not have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on borderline programming, like another game show, that is setup to make you feel like it is a great show, and it isn't ... !!! The cable company has little to do with those.
 
12 years ago, when I first started at the cable company, I tried unsuccessfully to get a show going on foreign film, with information about the directors and its history, and more reliant on international film than the American bruhaha channel. Considering they could pay me small, and then the majority of films are on the public domain, and cheap ... you can show a Bunuel film nowadays for under $50 bux, the show would be a steal if it was pleasant and helped bring an older audience to it ... however, the folks there (Tri Cities) were small town cowboys and they did not know anything about film, and sadly it was dumped. And that is STILL not done, btw. 
 
Heck, one could even do this for music and bands of select choice and styles, and even provide more jazz and experimental music and interest ... like the boards and other places are showing ... but cable would rather use that time on PSA ... ohhh excuse me ... a religious show, which should not be considered a PSA!

I guess the value of anything is really up to the individual. I can why some people opt to go off of cable. I pay about 180 a month for my phone, internet and HD cable. If we were to omit our phone and use our cell phones as home phones we could save some money. Trimming everything down to bare minimum my internet would be in the neighborhood of 60-70 dollars. If I wanted to cut it out altogether I could piggyback my computers to my cell phone to access internet from home but would likely be much slower.
 
I'm on comcast and they bought Netflix, so they have it integrated well into their lineup of movies. Makes it easy to look at both. The new voice remote lets me talk into the remote and it automatically looks up shows. Other pluses are the ability to DVR shows and keep them in the cloud. I guess I'm hooked on the new sleek interface. Another big plus is xfinity hot spots. Anyone on xfinity can use their passwords anywhere in the area to get wireless on the run.
 
I would need to invest in a decent antennae and run hookups to 4 TVs if I decided to move away from cable. Loosing the current internet system isn't really a consideration because I have so much tied into or through it. I have Alexa connected to my lights and thermostat. My security system and cameras are also using my internet connection. Heck I have two wireless routers because I already had one when they put in the upgraded hardware and router. So I have two wireless connections both with 2g and 5g. 4 total.That doesn't begin to cover my wireless and wired tablets and computers.
 
I guess I'm too wired :)

I was paying $212/mo for internet, cable and phone without premium channels. I hated renting garbage equipment and  finally got fed up and bit the bullet to cut the cable here’s what I ended up doing:
 
I purchased an antenna, modem, router, a pc, an external tuner, a wireless keyboard and a tv remote that doubles as a mouse. Everything runs through Windows 7 Media Center on the PC and goes out on hdmi  to my surround sound receiver. I get local channels with the antennae via a tv menu that comes up in Windows media center, the pc will record just like a dvr. I already had a Netflix account so I access that through the pc as well. I signed up for Sling TV to get ESPN and a bunch of other channels @ $20/mo. I paid $100 for a Ooma device to get a land line for $8/mo. I cancelled cable and phone from Comcast an now pay $50/mo for an internet connection. I hired a guy to build the pc and get it all set up and dialed in. The picture quality with the antennae is better than what I was getting from Comcast.
I spent about $1500 to cut the cable but it paid for itself in less than a year with a lot of hardware to show for it. The whole setup is pretty intuitive and my wife and 8 yo son have no problem navigating it. The pc is cool to have connected and I have all my music, family photos, videos, a bunch of movies, dvr recordings, Pandora, Youtube, etc. on it.
It’s a pretty slick setup and I save about $135/mo. I realize this reads like an advertisement but it’s not, I just hate paying Comcast.
Bit is right, people are fleeing cable in droves.
 
Rocky