It’s been about a year since I cut the wire and kicked the cable out of my life. And at the time, I didn’t (seriously) consider going back to cable once. The truth is I can. Sometimes I can reach for the cable, due to my roommates refusing to cut the cord (more on why below).
But, honestly, I haven’t watched cable TV all the time since I turned on my cable box. This is because the best cable TV alternatives are very “fixed” services. By that I mean, once you’ve invested in one – you chose Sling TV, but got involved in YouTube TV for a few months – it’s hard to feel like you have to go back.
For starters, your DVR is such a personal resource that going back to an empty slate with a new cable box feels like stepping back. But this is just the beginning of the big reasons why I stick with Sling TV. This is why I won’t be going back to cable, and what I hope Sling and YouTube TV will get better at.
I save hundreds
Our home cable TV plan costs about $127 per month, which we split. So, my sights set on Sling TV, which is the only wire-cutting service that has a good channel array under $65 (sorry Philo).
So, my cable bill was calculated at $762 per year. Thus, with Sling TV Blue, I spend $420 per year ($35 per month * 12), and save $342 per year.
Of course, this is about to get annoying for me, as I’m starting to get into Formula 1 which means I want ESPN channels, which means I’ll be spending some months an extra $25 a month to go from Sling Blue to Sling Orange & Blue, which adds channels ESPN. That means I’ll save less when F1 is in season. Fortunately, she’s on a break now, and it’s not a year-round sport.
Cloud Flow is a game changer
One major difference maker from Spectrum to Sling cable is that the entire service is available on the go. Most importantly, I can open my DVR anywhere.
On top of these savings (the main reason most people switch), I love the way Sling TV and its competitors work Everywhere. Yes, you might hear more about the “Cloud DVR” feature, which lets you catch up on the road no matter where you are, but the main difference maker from Spectrum to Sling cable is that the entire service is available on the go.
So, whenever I get a signal, I can tune in to whatever’s going on live. This means that I can watch all my channels when I’m waiting at a train station – an excellent advantage when you live in a city as unreliable on public transit as the New York Public Transit Authority.
Of course, this means that I can also pull out my cloud DVR on the go, too. Most importantly, anywhere I can log into Sling, I can open my DVR. That includes a recent vacation when I brought my Roku Streaming Stick 4K with me to Airbnb, where it worked like a charm.
Everything just works – and it’s fast
Switching channels can take a little longer to “load” than cable, as my colleague Mark Spoonauer pointed out when talking about how to cut the cord with YouTube TV. But regardless, I’m still routinely impressed with how the Sling TV app (which takes a moment or two to turn on) always feels more responsive and fast than my old cable box.
One of my top personal reasons for leaving the cable was the way the old cable box felt in use. Start-up times take minutes, slow-dirty hard drives make trimming your DVR feel like you’re cutting through quicksand and navigation menus still look like they started in the ’80s.
But … wire cutting services are not as live as cable
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Cable TV’s best feature is one that isn’t really promoted (perhaps because it’s hard to advertise). When I timed Sling against cable TV, I found the latter 70 seconds higher than the former. YouTube TV was a little better, 20-30 behind cable.
Neither of these services, if you ask me, have any good reason to be “behind” the cable. Cable must be the ancient elephant of the industry behind Wire cutting services. But for whatever reason, cable still has the advantage here. If Sling or YouTube TV could guarantee it was just as straightforward as cable, it could swing my money, even though I don’t really want to go to YouTube TV, which would make me pay the same amount I did
I hate playing Who Has Which Channel?
YouTube TV’s $65 per month costs $30 more than the Blue’s $35 per month Sling TV package. So you assume every channel in Sling Blue is on YouTube TV. she did. And I was wrong. At least, AXS, which I love on some second-tier pro wrestling shows, isn’t on YouTube TV.
But this is just a personal, narrative incident. The world of live TV services is filled with these strange questions. Fubo TV is marketed as a sports premiere streaming service, but it lacks TNT and TBS, which are essential to basketball and baseball games. Next, you have the case for the entire regional sports networks, which is why not much rope is cut at all. Many, if not most, RSN are kept in the $90 per month category of DirecTV Stream, a service that does nothing else to stand out, aside from being the most similar cable at this price.
Channel selection is important, and I understand that the free market means not all channels are available everywhere. But for regional sports networks to be so stuck, and for Fubo to miss some NBA playoffs, these things don’t make sense.
Outlook: Still better without cable
Sure, I’d like the Sling TV to fit in my old cable box and have my Yankees games on. I would like it to be as lively as a regular cable box too.
But the savings I get along with the portability of this service is a set of 1-2 knockouts that keep the cable cut. I’m also relying on a box with what appears to be a very slow 5400rpm hard drive.
Join me, cut the rope. Let me know how it goes in the comments below.
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