So I’ve been an on and off cord cutter for years now. It has been a strange experience for me since a few years ago I declared “screw cable, I can get everything I need through streaming!” and then I realized that I couldn’t watch the Olympics. In fact I didn’t even want to watch the live Olympics, I just wanted to watch the events through the NBCSN app which I found out requires an existing cable subscription.
So…I signed up for cable again. I actually did really enjoy using the NBCSN app, it was awesome – I could pick any of the events I wanted to watch and watch them at a normal hour of the day for me. Once the Olympics ended I cut the cord again, this time it was for real – bye bye cable.
Then I got into Golf and also learned the hard way that the Golf Channel had no streaming options, the only way to watch it was to get a cable subscription. Back again, cord re-attached. I’ll be honest – my stint with golf was short-lived, I still love the sport but once I had the golf channel and unlimited access to golf I learned that I didn’t actually watch it all that much.
Boom – cord cut…and this time it was for real. Or so I thought. Then I got into basketball, and I thought – okay, I can keep the cord disconnected because NBA League Pass had me covered. That’s when I learned that NBA League Pass actually locks you out of some games based on where you are…so I couldn’t watch some of the key games that I wanted to watch, the only way to access them was, doh – cable!
Cord re-attached. Now I could watch all the basketball I wanted to watch (Go Warriors!) and life was good. Then, a bit like golf, I started to watch less and less basketball and started to get much more interested in eSports. The good news about eSports is that 99% of the time the only place you can watch it is online. DOTA 2 is my game of choice and The International is the specific event that got me into it.
Now I realize, if I do watch sports (in case you haven’t learned I’ve never really been a die hard sports fan) it’s likely eSports these days. When I do watch actually TV shows or movies, it happens on Netflix or Hulu, there hasn’t been a single time when I’ve found that one of the shows we want to watch isn’t available on one of these two services. So I did it, last week I cut the cord.
While I’d love to say, this is the last time, based on my past experience I think it’s safe to say, we’ll see. What I do know is that what finally pushed me over the edge is Sling and their TV offerings which includes channels like BBC World News, ESPN, and many others that I usually had to rely on cable for. Then I learned about You Tube TV and I thought…hmmm maybe this would be a good option, so I signed up.
That’s when I learned about the major limitation with You Tube, if you have an Apple TV or Roku, you can’t watch it. Instead you have to open up the app on your phone and then steam it to your TV which is no exactly a seamless experience. All that being said, You Tube TV definitely has a solid channel lineup, but the lack of a native channel on Apple TV and Roku makes it a deal-breaker, for now.
What has your experience been like trying to cut the cord? Did you do it? If so have you gone back or forth like me?
