Longtime reader/fan. After reading on your blog about cutting the cable cord, I decided to take the plunge today. I was so excited to call Comcast and cut the cord. I bought a Roku and signed up for Hulu Plus. I set everything up and everything is working great.
However, I am freaking out a bit now after finding out on the FCC website that a digital antenna will be useless to me because all the signals for the broadcast networks are either weak or no signal at all in my area. I want to be able to watch the NFL in the fall! I really don't want to call my cable back and have to renew my cable just to get the big broadcast networks.
I hoping my fellow BOD readers can help me with this? What should I do? I thought for sure I'd be able to get HD broadcast channels for free using an antenna. I live in a city, its not like I'm out in the backwoods somewhere.
Please help with some suggestions anyone. Crawl back to Comcast and get just basic cable? Any other option to get HD broadcast channels?
Thanks Scott.
You don't get CBC over the air?
ReplyDelete"I was so excited to call Comcast and cut the cord"
ReplyDeleteum, ok
i don't know why some people act like switching from cable to over the top is some life affirming and empowering experience, or that it's some grand mantra and lifestyle to aspire to
I think the NFL started offering Sunday Ticket to Go as a stand alone last year but not positive. May be wrong. I have DirecTV but I remember they were giving away the free Ticket to Go with Madden pre order bundles.
ReplyDeletehaha i feel the same way you do, it also makes you seem like a cheap skate in a way. hear me out ppl before u get pissy, its just in the 28 years i been alive i found that most ppl i have encountered that say fuck cable are some of the cheapest people i have ever met in my life.
ReplyDeletei realize that some people do it to save money, and that's cool and all, but it seems like a lot of people think they're making some grand social "damn the man!" statement, or some grand existential statement about "i will not be held captive and watch my shows when THE EVIL NETWORKS AND THE CABLE EMPIRE" say i must watch them!"
ReplyDeleteI'd try the antenna before panicking. I'm not sure how isolated your area is, but I get about a dozen quality channels though mine, including some stations I didn't even know existed before.
ReplyDeleteoh i totally know how you feel my last roomate was like that, until i moved in and had to pay the cable myself. He had that attitude you described, but countless number of times i found him sitting there watching my cable so in the end what he really was is a cheapskate.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Fuck, how much are you really saving a month? This emailer obviously seems to like sports and he can't watch that anymore. You can't watch the news, get stuff like HBO or Showtime, and if programming is offered on your streaming service, you gotta wait to watch it.
ReplyDeletedid you tell the poor pakistani gentlemen on the other end "you'll never be the owner of me anymore maannnnn, i can now watch big bang theory when I WANT"
ReplyDeleteYou can do that on Demand though with cable. Cables awesome
ReplyDeleteit really is, im enjoying all the playoffs live, plus i have the baseball package and football package in the fall.
ReplyDeleteEverytime I see these threads, I just remember that scene in the Sopranos where Junior was going senile and went "I have cable"
ReplyDeleteits the new fad like driving hybrid cars and being vegetarian. Fuck I still drive a v8 Cadillac, and enjoy a nice rib eye.
ReplyDelete"i will not be held captive and watch my shows when THE EVIL NETWORKS AND THE CABLE EMPIRE say i must watch them!"
ReplyDeleteDo people really use this as a rationalization? I typically never watched my favorites when theyre scheduled. DVR or on Demand!!!
seems to be the sentiment of those who are cool enough to "cut the cord" and brag.
ReplyDeleteWatch the Aereo case at the Supreme Court. You suddenly care very much about this.
ReplyDeleteLots of places in Canada don't get CBC over the air anymore. Years upon years of cutbacks.
ReplyDeleteNope, CBC didn't go digital in Saskatoon. There's only a few major markets in Canada where they shelled out for the digital changeover. With the NHL's move to Rogers the MotherCorp is pretty much on their last legs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating idea. I hope they win and come up here with it and force Bell and Shaw into self-destruction.
ReplyDeleteBuy an amplified HD antenna from Amazon/Best Buy/Target and you should be good. There are a bunch of them on the market. I live ~15 miles from the nearest town and pull in everything unless the weather is shit.
ReplyDeleteFor what I watch, we save at least $50/month that satellite could provide and local cable is worse. Once I found myself never watching ESPN's garbage anymore, I couldn't justify what we have to pay for Disney's channels alone. It adds up to more than enough for most people as long as they're willing to suffer some inconvenience.
ReplyDeleteBut, the "cut the cord" empowering stuff is kinda silly.
Cutting the cable obviously isn't something that everyone can or should do, but the simple questions to ask oneself are how many shows/channels do you really watch, and how often? Speaking for myself, I still have cable, but I watch very few broadcast or cable TV shows anymore. I work evenings, 5 days a week. If a show isn't replayed later at night--like The Walking Dead on AMC--then I torrent download the handful of shows I do follow. Some shows I really like I wait and pick up season DVD sets.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile I watch a ton of YouTube, Crackle, Vudu digital movies, and lately the WWE Network--all on a Roku. If I wanted I could add Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, HBO & Showtime. There's NBA, MLB, ESPN & NHL for sports. I could watch FOX, CBS, NBC & dozens of local news channels. I have access to way more content than I have time to watch it.
Unfortunately I can't cut the cable just yet because there are others in my home who do still watch it, and I'm stuck with the old cable/phone/internet bundle package. But if I were by myself, I'd cut the cable in a heartbeat.
"Pfff. Try living in Saskatchewan, where you get 2 channels over the air and neither of them show hockey. "
ReplyDeleteThere's a Canadian channel that doesn't show hockey? Damn, you really do learn something new every day.
Yeah CBC really gored itself on its own sword. How the hell did it lose both the HNIC theme AND Ron MacLean? Not that hockey matters a lot anymore, but damn, these people have NO IDEA what they're doing.
ReplyDeleteCanadian cable is an absolute trainwreck. I know you were probably making the obvious joke about DURHURHURR CANADA ONLY KNOS HOCKEY LOLOLOLOL but literally everytime I see Americans complain about Comcast and such I laugh because our cable companies perform everything short of three-hole rape to its customers.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed anyone would hang on to Showtime considering they always lose their top film suppliers every few years (first they lost the Paramount/MGM/Lionsgate trifecta, then they lost Summit and now they just lost The Weinstein Company/Dimension Films. Who else is left for them to lose at this point, IFC Films?) and considering that all of their good programs are no longer on the air.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the reason for keeping Showtime at this point? Jim Rome? Old Universal films that already aired on HBO a few years ago? DreamWorks' whopping 2 new films a year (Even Orion at their most cash strapped released more films per year for crying out loud)?
On the plus side, Epix HD kicks many levels of ass and is everything Showtime is not. HBO is the only other channel that's even remotely in the same league as Epix.
again local teams blacked out.
ReplyDeleteESPN's "garbage" was three nip and tuck playoff games tonight.
ReplyDeleteI think people are going to be very disappointed as more and more people "cut the cord" and the costs go up. New programs cost money. As advertising disappears on cable/satellite that revenue has to be made up somewhere. That means moving ads to streaming services and higher prices for streaming services. Corporate America doesn't give up their dollars easily. I was complaining just yesterday about how when I first got my Kindle I was finding all kinds of good non-fiction (and wrestling) books for 5 bucks and under. Two years later I find the majority of titles to cost MORE than what I can get it for on Amazon in physical form. Almost every single title on my recommended list is between 10 and 14 dollars to buy on Kindle, despite the costs for publishers being less.
ReplyDeleteEven if there is a good game on ESPN, its ESPN so by law at least 2 out of every 3 commentators suck.
ReplyDeleteI do prefer the TNT guys, but I can handle Jeff Van
ReplyDeleteGundy and all the play by play guys are interchangeable. I like Hubie Brown. He's probably my favorite NBA color commentator. Don't like PJ Carlisemo.
Not sure I would agree that this was Muraco's last significant push He got a decent push with Superstar Graham managing him in mid to late 87 as "The Rock" (which always weirds me out when I hear him called that on commentary). Got to be on Hogan's team at Survivor, but ultimately he just wasn't' any good anymore and the push tapered off before he left WWF.
ReplyDeleteI went with over-the-air for about 5 years before getting cable last summer. Fighting with the antenna just wasn't worth the hassle. Charter can suck it but I don't really have anything to complain about. 100/month for cable, phone, and internet bundled.
ReplyDeleteI never watch there movies.
ReplyDelete1 word: Homeland
Fuck this cut the cord shit, here's a threadjack!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyGc-rJ2Vpg
Hulk Hogan on Johnny Carson in 1982, and already he's talking about Hulkamania taking America by storm. Very cool.
So, I shouldn't brag about being a cable cutting vegan that rescues dogs in my hybrid that runs on vegetable oil?
ReplyDeleteadding HBO, at least in theory, requires a cable account, or someone friendly who has one. Though Amazon now has a deal with them, so you can get a fair chunk of the HBO backlog through amazon (if not now, then soon).
ReplyDeleteDidn't Bettman kill hockey a few years back? Or have I simply blocked hockey out of my mind due to disowning whatever team used to exist in Toronto?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you get if you cross Don with a cow?
ReplyDeleteMoo-raco.
I was just about to post that.. i was going to get Aereo late last year, but I'm waiting until the case is over. If they win, I'm signing up the very next day!!
ReplyDeleteGreat point.
ReplyDeleteJohn Cena so does that AND kiss babies and fat women
ReplyDeleteI went from paying $160 to paying $60. With antenna I can watch NBC/CBS/Fox/ABC, so I miss nothing.
ReplyDeleteParallax has converted another. I cut the cord back in '07. Welcome. Anyway, to the question guy... there's plenty of sites you can find that stream live sports. Search for The First Row. Also, if you have a Roku, be sure to check out www.thenowhereman.com
ReplyDeleteHe does a lot of great stuff with Roku channels.
Exactly.
ReplyDeleteYears from now, as more and more people (and programming) go to internet programming, you don't think the cost of internet will be a lot higher than it is now?
I think you really can save a good amount if you don't care about watching TV all that much. But if you like to watch current stuff and especially sports, it's harder. I've kicked it around, but I pay $71 right now for Dish Network and if I dropped it, I could probably get down to about $40 (Netflix/Hulu/WWE/Amazon Prime/and probably something I'm leaving off). Most of my TV watching is just sort of meandering through the channels. One of the frustrating things with the subscription services is you have to go find things (First World Problem alert) and that's annoying if you just want to sit there and not think about it.
ReplyDeleteYou're pretty much screwed if you're a football fan. You may be able to find a site with an illegal stream, but the NFL goes after those sites and their owners/operators/hosts like a rabid pit bull and as such, not only are many too afraid to run one, there's virtually no chance one will stay active for any length of time.
ReplyDeleteReally, live sports in America are what keeps cable television afloat and companies like Comcast know it. That's why they pay the NFL, MLB, etc. ridiculous sums of money to air their programming and give the leagues carte blanche control over their blocks of the schedule.
If Roger Goodell decided to do a UFC Fight Pass style deal via NFL.com, cable companies would instantly lose a shitload of subscribers.
I think I got more mileage out of those LJN Thumb Wrestlers than any toy I ever had. Would play out matches...entire cards, really.
ReplyDeleteAnd ALL the boys respected the bookerman!
eating vegan, rescuing dogs and driving a car that is much cleaner are pretty good choices, though.
ReplyDeletearen't there cheap online services in the US and Canada (that broadcast all the tv programming online) as well?
ReplyDeletebecause that's how several people that I know are doing it: don't have cable, but pay for a streaming service that has all those tv channels.
actually there is a even a newer service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magine, started in Sweden, but the company is looking to expand) that doesn't take a fee for "basic cable" channels at all.
haha right, it makes ppl seem really smug that say that.
ReplyDeleteI need my HD sports, paying the bill sucks but it is what it is. HD sports are the best.
ReplyDeletei have directv and it is the Shit!
ReplyDeleteThe number 1 reason I can't commit to cutting the cord. Don't go a day without watching sports
ReplyDeleteNo way in hell I'm doing football season without cable.
ReplyDeletethe first row has pop up ads like woah, and seriously fucked my last lap top.
ReplyDeleteAhhh Just got Mickey D's breakfast and enjoying over 900 channels of cable, anyone else wanna sign my role call?
ReplyDelete#SaturdayMorningInfomercials
ReplyDeleteI'll take espn commentators over Joe Buck any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteI said that because because he did ringside hogan for the belt a few times here and challenged for it again.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the Graham alliance though.Muraco didn't have it anymore. That was more of a midcard push, IMO
I agree that live sports is basically what's saving American cable companies. I live in NY and watch almost every Knicks game, I know my dad watches almost every Yankees game, and we both watch all the football. Can't go without having those options available.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that a UFC Fight Pass thing but for the NFL would instantly hurt cable companies. There are so many NFL fans of all shapes and sizes, I'm not sure how many of them would be game for signing up for something like that. I also think the UFC fanbase is a lot more dedicated to UFC, where as one of the things that makes the NFL so successful is how many of its fans are merely "casual" sports fans. There would obviously be people who would be all in for that type of NFL service, but I think it'd be more of a niche thing than something that would cause the cable companies to instantly lose a shitload of subscribers.
It's why I don't cut the cord. Can't give up live sports
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't necessarily mean exactly like Fight Pass. Maybe a better way of saying it would be an expanded Red Zone Channel offered via NFL.com and on your XBox/PS3-4/etc. for a fixed yearly fee. All the games, highlights, RZC-style compilation programming, etc. I think a ton of football fans would pay for that if it came in at a lower cost than cable TV (and that's not hard to do).
ReplyDeleteI mean, it won't happen because there's no fee they can charge that will match the absurd sums they get from cable companies, but if it ever did, it would severely damage that revenue stream for Comcast/DirectTV/etc.
You are pretty much at the mercy of signal strength. http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ is a pretty good outline, but not perfect.
ReplyDeleteHomeland and Dexter were a really good reason to keep Showtime. Homeland's atrocious now and Dexter was atrocious but is now just dead. That said, I thought the first season of Ray Donovan was fantastic and I heard that show about sex was also really good.
ReplyDeleteWhoes the pretty lil girl on the Scott's facebook profile? How olds she now?
ReplyDeleteLawler?
ReplyDeleteI cut cable and don't miss it in the least. I never really watched much TV anyhow though, and no sports, so I'm not a great test case.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching Fulham/Hull, no infomercial here.
ReplyDeleteCable is wickedly expensive, like soul crushingly expensive. And many people aren't really all that happy with what you get for that massive expense, it's just a habit to keep buying it.
ReplyDeleteThose people are understandably a little bit giddy to cut the cord.
If you believe that cable is a good value, then you won't get that feeling.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteThanks to the WWE Network, is there any chance of you reviewing the first three Starrcade's?
I KNEW that was your motivation!
ReplyDeletealso u like to watch chrisley LIVE, you know it brah dont be bashful. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou don't know how to use it properly
ReplyDeleteYou look like youve seen better days... Those days are over for Lawler, I am Brian Christopher taking my father's role. Whose the girl btw?
ReplyDeleteStop trolling. If you disagree then say so, but you are just acting like a douche here.
ReplyDeletedafuq?
ReplyDeletePlaying with that antenna on Thanksgiving was my breaking point. I work a lot so I'm never home during the week, but it's just nice to know I can just flip the game on and relax on a lot of weekends. To me, that makes the bill worth it.
ReplyDeleteCheck out
ReplyDeletehttp://antennaweb.org
and
http://tvfool.com
You should be able to find an antenna that gets you what you need.
Hopefully this doesn't land me back in the spam filter but you can also check out http://getridofcable.net/antenna/ for more information
You ever visited Scott's facebook, theres the girl of my dream, I am 42 btw and I like touching preety girls like that!
ReplyDeleteBut man was Muraco roided up during his face run. And frankly some people should not be faces.
ReplyDeleteA pedophile gimmick on a wrestling board is probably the weirdest shit I've ever seen on the internet. And I've seen lemon party amd tub girl
ReplyDelete(Not touching Lawler or Feinstein with a 100-foot pole, in ANY manner)
ReplyDeleteBEFORE you cut the cord, do some research. See what's available to you through services like Netflix, Hulu, Crackle and various smaller apps that feature niche programming (technology news, old kung fu movies, a crap ton of religious services, etc). Cutting the cord is not for everyone. I read about people cancelling their cable/satellite and then being disappointed with what's available, then calling to get it all reinstalled. For myself, I was a cord cutter for 3 years, and didn't miss it at all. The only sport I follow is baseball, so I had MLB.TV; and I had Netflix. My antenna picked up the local channels for FOX, CBS, PBS, NBC. The only reason why I went back was because my ISP is really shitty and could not upgrade me to a higher speed for multiple users in the home, and I only really have one option here.
ReplyDeleteDo your homework, and find out if it's for you.
900 channels? 797 of which are paid advertising channels. "You're gonna love my nuts!"
ReplyDeleteSemi-related TJ: Looks like USA is working on securing a new deal for Raw. Good news.
ReplyDeleteSo, to recap, you didn't bother to test your signal before cutting the cord. You, sir or madam, are a fool. You deserve to go crawling back to your cable company, preferably through this door:
ReplyDeletehttp://download.lardlad.com/framegrabs/2F10/155.jpg
Antenna web said I was going to pick up like one channel over the air; I pick up a bunch of channels depending on where the antenna is positioned (moving it around 18" can change whether I get NBC or CBS.) I think one adnavtage I might enjoy is even though it's a indoor antenna, I'm on the second floor of a building with relatively high elevation.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the original emailer, I'd take the plunge with the antenna and see what happens. If he can go for an outdoor antenna mounted on his roof, all the better.
He's gonna get banned for sure. And hopefully punched in the face.
ReplyDeleteThose aren't legal though. Although there is a court case pending for something that is kind of skirting the law, Arveo or something?
ReplyDeleteI hate the cable companies charging
ReplyDeleteA premium for HD when I can pull that shit out of thin air for free with an antenna.
I am pretty nervous about that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he was basically immobile at that point. Plus, the only thing different he did as a face was wear a Tie-dye shirt.
ReplyDeleteAnd those Dino Bravo matches were awful.
If not you would show them a second use for the thumbholes.
ReplyDelete