I live in an area monopolized by one internet service/cable TV provider, and was once their digital slave–but that was before I became fed up.
Throughout the years, as a customer, I experienced extended periods of internet and TV outages. During one outage, I was told by my cable company that the problem could not be fixed, because a failing piece of equipment was located in a locked room, in a privately-owned building, and the owner had left the area to go on a month’s vacation so could not be reached.
Seriously.
After years of infuriating customer service and steadily increasing cable bills–which often led to monthly financial crises, such as, “Do I pay the cable or electric bill? Wait, I can’t have cable without electricity!”–I cut the cord. I bought a Roku TV for under $200 and switched to internet service. My voice was almost tremulous with joy when I told my cable company to “terminate my cable TV–effective immediately.â€
I’ve had internet TV for about three months now, and while I was exuberant over “cutting the cord,†there are some pros and cons to internet-only TV you should know, before you do the same:
The Pros:
1. A Glutton of Content to Choose From
I subscribed to Sling TV’s service.
My “must-have†channels are MSNBC, CNN, HBO, and AMC. According to Sling’s website, I can access these channels with the “Orange and Blue†subscription service, which costs $40.00 per month, plus another $15.00 for HBO. My subscription includes 50 channels, including SyFy, A&E, ESPN, Comedy Central, and more. However, I did notice that the service does not include another of my favorites, the Investigation Discovery channel.
After poking around the settings on my Roku TV, I discovered that, in addition to Sling, I could sign up for other TV streaming services like Hulu and Crackle. Hulu features my favorite Investigation Discovery shows, so I’ve signed up for that as well, costing me an additional $10.00 per month.
Sling and Hulu also have entire series of old TV shows, such as All in the Family, What’s Happening, Star Trek, and more.
With internet TV, there is a lot of content to choose from, including independent internet channels. I can select a channel that includes content on dogs, or one featuring movies, or one that showcases programs made by and for African Americans. Most of these internet channels are also free.
2. Limited or No Commercials
For a little extra per month, some streaming services allow you to opt-out of watching commercials. If you don’t, the amount of commercials played on internet TV are still far less than on network TV, and you can even choose the type of commercials you would prefer to see. However, they do get very repetitive if you are binge watching
3. On-Demand Viewing
You can live-stream shows during their actual network broadcast time, or you can watch content, really, whenever you want, after it’s been added to a channel.
4. Savings
In comparison to my cable service, I was paying $145 monthly for slightly better than basic cable plus HBO, and $45 for high-speed internet. I still have the internet, but after cutting out cable, I’ve reduced my TV bill to $55 a month.
5. All-In-One Entertainment Hub
My Roku TV is my entertainment hub. I can connect my Xbox, a media server, my PC, and any device where my content lives.
6. Streaming to Multiple TVs via One Account
What I like about the Sling Blue and Orange account is that I can stream up to four TVs (or any other devices) with my one account. The Blue account provides three streams and the Orange, just a single stream.
See the cons on the next page.
The Cons:
1. Savings May Not Be That Great, Depending Where You Live
Although I have substantial savings with internet TV, this is not the case for everyone. When discussing the service with a friend, he calculated that he actually wouldn’t have any significant savings were he to cut the cord. The reason for this is that he lives in an area where he has the option to choose service from multiple providers, and this keeps his monthly bills competitive.
2. You Need Robust Wi-Fi
I can’t stress this enough–to take advantage of streamed TV, you need a good, fairly new router.
If you have an old router from 10 years ago, you will have to upgrade to one that’s dual-band–offering a 2.4 GHz and  5GHz wireless network–made within, at least, the last five years. Connect any device used for internet TV–Roku, Amazon Fire, PlayStation Vue, and so forth–to the 5 GHz Wi-Fi, for a broader signal able to handle the rigors of streamed video better.
3. Your Favorite Shows on Cable May Not Be Available for Live-Stream or in Their Entirety
I was kind of bummed by the fact that, although my service did come with MSNBC, I was unable to live-stream any of the network’s shows. In fact, I can’t even watch the actual network broadcast lineup in its entirety. I can watch most of The Rachel Maddow Show in clips on Roku, the day after its original broadcast. NBC News and CBS News also works similarly. However, the networks are increasingly catering to their digital audience by offering extra content that isn’t broadcast on the networks.
4. You Have to Hunt Through a Lot of Screens to Find Content
You have to search through quite a few screens and categories to find the content you want–at least with Hulu and Roku. This may take some getting used to, for someone who is just used to scrolling through a guide on-screen.
5. No Internet, No TV
Of course, the biggest con: If your internet goes down–so does your TV!