Cutting the Cord: Need some help

[Homerboy]

I'm hoping to cut the cord in the next 30 days or so. But I need to first figure out my best approach for still getting live sports.
I know I can get an antennae for local sports, but ideally I'd like a "package" to get the national stuff (ESPN, FS1 etc)
The best option I can find is Hulu with sports, but that is fairly pricey and also has a ton of other "live" TV channels that I just do not need. Is there anywhere that offers a straight SPORTS package?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mrblotto]

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/roku-streaming-services-advice.2566921/

 

[Homerboy]

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/roku-streaming-services-advice.2566921/

Thanks. Read it. Doesn't really cover sports though.
I REALLY wish there was just a damned "SPORTS ONLY" offering. I do not want any of the TLC, TNT, HGTV etc junk.

 

[NuclearNed]

For Sling, you have to buy their base package, which is about ~$25 a month, and then the sports package is $5 a month. It's a pretty good package. Since I'm mostly just a football fan, I pick up the sports package in the Fall/Winter, then drop it in Feb.

If you want free, PlutoTV has a bunch of sports channels, but I'm not sure how much mainstream sports they show.

 

[highland145]

What Ned said.
We have the orange/blue at the rental.....$47/mo (listing below)...but just orange gives you ESPN 1,2 and 3.

The Sling TV plus Sports

• ACC Network, A&E, AMC
• AXS TV, BBC, America, BET, Bloomberg, Television Bravo
• Cartoon Network, Cheddar, Cheddar Big News, Cinefest, CNN
• Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, Epix Drive-In
• ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Food Network, Fox (select markets)
• Fox Sports (select markets), FreeForm, FS1, FS2, Fuse, FX, FXX, HGTV
• History Channel, Hopster, IFC, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime
• Local Now, MotorTrend, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild
• NBC, NBC Sports, NBCSN, Newsy, NFL Network, Nick Jr.
• SYFY, TBS, Tennis Channel, TNT
• TLC, Travel Channel, Tribeca Shortlist, TruTV, USA, Viceland
• NBA, TV SEC Network (2 channels), Pac 12 Network
• ESPNU, ESPNEWS, NHL, Network, BeIN Sports, ESPN Goal Line
• ESPN Bases Loaded, Stadium, Outside TV, Motorsport.TV
• Tennis Channel, NFL RedZone, NBC Golf, Olympic Channel

 

[thestrangebrew1]

For Sling, you have to buy their base package, which is about ~$25 a month, and then the sports package is $5 a month. It's a pretty good package. Since I'm mostly just a football fan, I pick up the sports package in the Fall/Winter, then drop it in Feb.

If my wife didn't watch any reality tv crap ala kardashians or teen mom etc., I'd be all over this. We have DirecTVNow because she had to have mtv and E!

 

[dainthomas]

If my wife didn't watch any reality tv crap ala kardashians or teen mom etc., I'd be all over this. We have DirecTVNow because she had to have mtv and E!

Can she watch it on their websites? Sling is the way to go, but no one in my family bothers with any of those shows.

 

[Rifter]

IPTV

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Can she watch it on their websites? Sling is the way to go, but no one in my family bothers with any of those shows.

I don't think so. I think some of them only show clips or older seasons. I should ask her though, we pay $59.99/mo I think.

 

[Muse]

It's really live sports that attracts me to "the cord." But I haven't jumped for it. I tried Sling a couple times. Sucks. Quit before the free trials ended. The quality doesn't come close to my OTA (rooftop antenna) HDTV. Worse, all the stations I tried it with didn't support REW/PAUSE/FF. That right there is a show stopper for me. I don't want to watch any commercial unless I DECIDE TO.

But TBH I get to watch the great great majority of what I want to from OTA in the way of sports. Yeah, that's weekends for the most part. But weekends are stuffed with great live sports. And yeah, I can timeshift all of it. I never watch anything "live." I delay at least enough to FF through commercials. And I have my own DIY instant replay... as many times as I want.

It's cheap (no monthly charges). I have my old standby, a PCI HDTV card in my desktop and a projector in a dark room. Early in the year I bought three 43" TCL 4K Roku TVs, which support max 90 minutes timeshifting (PAUSE/REW/FF) via a 16GB flash drive in the USB port watching antenna TV. Not as cool as the HDTV card + app, but as long as I'm able to watch within 90 minutes it works out as well. And as long as I don't hit the wrong buttons, it's less buggy than the PC solution.

 

[RossMAN]

@Homerboy did you eventually cut the cord, how's it going? Any advice or suggestions you can offer?

Here are some other resources:

Your complete comparison guide to the streaming wars

Netflix or Hulu? HBO or Showtime? Disney Plus or HBO Max? Here’s help

www.polygon.com

Basic guide to Cord Cutting

I went through this years ago & am in the process of setting my parents up now. To simplify, there are 3 areas to focus on: 1. Internet 2. Phone 3. Television I'll be using my parent's setup as an example. They were paying $190 a month for a landline, 50-meg Internet, and cable TV (maybe 100...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

No care for sports - thus no care for the cable. If I REALLY wanted to see a game bad enough I would find a friend to watch it with or go to a bar.

Ultimately, just gotta switch what you're interested in... Only watch shows that are available via Hulu / Netflix. Good example for me is stand-up comedy, and Netflix has been putting TONS of money into stand-up comedians lately.

 

[Homerboy]

@Homerboy did you eventually cut the cord, how's it going? Any advice or suggestions you can offer?

Here are some other resources:

Your complete comparison guide to the streaming wars

Netflix or Hulu? HBO or Showtime? Disney Plus or HBO Max? Here’s help

www.polygon.com

Basic guide to Cord Cutting

I went through this years ago & am in the process of setting my parents up now. To simplify, there are 3 areas to focus on: 1. Internet 2. Phone 3. Television I'll be using my parent's setup as an example. They were paying $190 a month for a landline, 50-meg Internet, and cable TV (maybe 100...

forums.anandtech.com

I ended up not cutting it. AT&T gave me a sweet enough deal on 1Gbp up/down with cable and no data cap that it made sense to just keep it. My bill is lower than it's even been. Keeping cable only cost me $50/month more so it didn't make much sense to drop it, keep the internet and pay $30+/month for streaming services.

 

[Homerboy]

No care for sports - thus no care for the cable. If I REALLY wanted to see a game bad enough I would find a friend to watch it with or go to a bar.

Ultimately, just gotta switch what you're interested in... Only watch shows that are available via Hulu / Netflix. Good example for me is stand-up comedy, and Netflix has been putting TONS of money into stand-up comedians lately.

By this theory of "changing what you like" why not just change what you like entirely and not watch TV at all.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

By this theory of "changing what you like" why not just change what you like entirely and not watch TV at all.

You can go with that as well heh.

The point being if what is inhibiting you from cutting the cord is a show that isn't available on a streaming platform then the discussion is already over. If you can't live without that show and the show isn't streamed anywhere then why even ask the question?

 

[Midwayman]

I tried cutting not long ago. There were a couple issues

1. Online DVR space is pathetic for most services. I've had more DVR space for 15+ years.
2. They control if you can FF through commercials, even if you DVR it. On demand is almost always full commercials. Even DVR its a weird per channel mishmash.

Its almost as if they have learned nothing from other digital transitions.