A little cable bill history. Back in Aiken ten years ago, which is the furthest back I can find a bill, we were paying $62 a month for their cable service. In 2016 our bill jumped from $83 to $145 because we dropped AT&T’s DSL internet service for the speedier cable internet. Two years later it went from $164 down to ninety-five bucks because we dropped down to the very basic TV service. We had had probably 100 channels previously, but watched a half dozen of them. This cheaper option gave us what we really needed, just the big 4 networks, PBS and the Weather Channel. By the time we moved west it was up to a few bucks over the hundred dollar mark.
When we moved in here in Oregon we signed up with Spectrum. In 2020 for 125 channels and 500MBs internet speeds it was $134 a month. Because that was an introductory price it creeped up to $215 by this year. There was something about breaking the two hundred dollar that made it seem like that was too much for what we were getting.
Unlike Atlantic Broadband in Aiken, Spectrum’s 125 channel package is the lowest they offer. This is too bad because if they did offer a lower tier and we could save forty or so dollars, we’d have happily stayed. Again, all we really needed were the regular broadcast channels and ESPN for watching NFL football games. The day after the Super Bowl we drove down to the local Spectrum store, handed them their box and remote. The next bill we get from them will be a more reasonable $89 for their 1 Gig internet.
We have had a Roku box for about ten years that delivers all of our non-cable video entertainment. We’ve been paying $6.99 for the ad-free version of Discovery+ for HGTV & Food Network. Plus another $9.99 for Peacock Premium+ (ad-free) and a little over $4 a month more for GCN+ for watching pro cycling.
Probably the two most used apps on the Roku are Radio Paradise and YouTube.
If we we’re just reading a book or doing a jigsaw puzzle RP’s music was on in the background. Because Radio Paradise is listener supported I’ve been donating $5 a month to them for quite so time now. After the cable TV cancelation I bumped up that reoccurring donation to $10.
Whenever I watch car related stuff on YouTube on the PC I never get commercials, but when Donna watches it via the Roku on the TV she was getting a lot of very annoying ads mid video, so we have upped to YouTube Premium for $11.99 a month so she is much happier (and consequently so am I.)
What about NFL football when it starts back up in September? Where we live there isn’t a strong enough signal from the networks to just add a small indoor antenna, plus what about Monday Night Football on ESPN? Glad you asked. The cost savings from eliminating cable TV is roughly the equivalent of half the cost of YouTube TV or Hulu, both of which offer local broadcast stations and ESPN.
