Cutting The Cord and Ditching Dish

Remember when I wrote a post about our 12 month spending analysis, and how 5.5% of our expenses are utilities, of which a good chunk is our monthly satellite TV?  After a few weeks of research, we finally made the leap to cutting the cord!  We are now officially TV streaming people. 

We, along with most people, didn’t really understand how far streaming live TV has come in the last two years.  There are actually many choices to stream live TV.  There’s Hulu Live, Playstation Vue, Sling TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now, DirecTV Now, etc.  For our needs, we evaluated Hulu Live and YouTube TV.  Most of these live streaming TV services will offer a free trial of a few days to a week so you can try out how streaming TV works, how it looks and functions, and how the interface works.  We did a week of free trial with Hulu Live, then did 5 day trial of YouTube TV. 

Here were the functions we were most concerned about, and how the two services stacked up.

1. Channel Selection:  YouTube TV has over 70 channels, while Hulu Live has almost the exact same number, but also includes Hulu original content and on-demand catalog.  There really wasn’t any major differences in channel selection.  We were mainly concerned about sports channels such as Big Ten Network, FS1, ESPN, CBS Sports Network, etc. and they all have them.
2. Cost:  YouTube TV is $49.99/month.  Hulu Live is $45/month.  We also looked at AT&T TV Now, which has a $50/month plan and a $70/month plan.  For AT&T TV Now, you only get the Big Ten Network on the $70/month tier, so we eliminated them immediately.
3. Cloud DVR:  Hulu Live gives you only 50 hours on their cloud DVR, while YouTube TV gives you UNLIMITED DVR and keeps the recordings for 9 months.  And you only have to tell it what your favorite sports teams are, and it will record every single game that your team is airing. Same with favorite shows. I dig it!
4. Number of Simultaneous Devices/Streams:  Hulu TV allows 2 devices/streams, while YouTube TV allows 3 devices/streams.  You can watch on your smart TV, Roku, Fire stick, iPad, iPhone.  We watched the Ohio State football game while at the airport, on our iPad.
5. Skipping Commercials:  Hulu TV doesn’t allow you to skip commercials (even on DVR recordings), unless you pay an additional $10/month.  YouTube TV allows commercial skip on shows that aren’t available on-demand.

The streaming picture quality was pretty much the same between Hulu Live and YouTube TV.  

A frequent question that we’ve gotten from family/friends is:  Can you get big events like the Super Bowl, the Oscars, etc.?  Well YES.  It is EXACTLY the same as cable/satellite TV, except much much cheaper!  (And you don’t pay taxes/fees like cable/satellite.  The price IS the amount you’re charged.)  We have over 70 channels of live TV, including all local channels, major networks, major cable channels, sports channels, etc.  When we looked at which channels we actually watch, it was only a handful.  Cable/satellite claims to give you hundreds of channels, but most of it is useless channels that we never watched, such as shopping channels, religious channels, double-counted HD vs SD channels, etc.  The only channel that I want to watch that isn’t available on YouTube TV is the Hallmark Channel, and I plan to pay for a month of Hallmark streaming for $7 during the holidays. 

After our free trials, we decided that YouTube TV best fit our needs and signed up!  I called a couple of days ago to cancel Dish Network. They offered to lower our monthly bill from $124 to $80. Too little, too late! I kept saying "no thank you, I just want to cancel the service". After three times, he finally gave up and gave me the deets on returning the equipment.  We are saving almost $75/month! And good riddance to Dish Network. Seriously. Why would I pay hardware rental fees for three TVs, when I can stream live TV with every channel I want to watch, on all three TVs, without equipment rental. Also no contract, so I can come and go as I please. Bye Felicia! Better late than never! And I’m saving $900/year!  Woohoo!