🍿 2022-04-07 11:10:02 – Paris/France.
A little over three years ago, I predicted that the golden age of Streaming — when prices were low and TV shows and movies were concentrated in a few apps — was about to end. Not only was I right, but unfortunately, I was right with a vengeance.
It used to be true that ditching cable, keeping your internet service, and getting your TV shows and movies online could save you a lot of money. While it's still cheaper than keeping old-fashioned cable TV service, the savings gap is narrowing.
In fact, the cord-cutting landscape has changed so much that, in this year's guide to the Streaming, I am making a major change to the standing advice I have given since I started writing these columns nine years ago. Also, because things are much more complicated, this year's guide is in two parts, with the second installment coming next week.
This week, I'm going to help you figure out if cord cutting is right for you, and what internet connection you'll need. Next week, I'll show you how to switch to Streaming while saving money.
Is cord cutting for you?
Although more and more people are giving up cable TV every year, it's still the primary way most people watch TV...but not a lot. Pew Research reported that 56% of Americans got their TV via cable or satellite in 2021, up from 76% in 2015, and most of them switched to satellite services. Streaming. Comcast alone lost 1,5 million cable subscribers last year.
I gave up cable TV in 2013, saving $1 a year. Our TV habits were simple. There were only two of us at home and we weren't channel surfers, rather we watched a dozen shows regularly throughout the year and rented movies through iTunes or Amazon.com. Back then, we paid for season-long iTunes passes to watch our ad-free favorites, and we had a subscription Netflix. None of us play sports.
The ecosystem of Streaming today is very different. With several services storing older content and spawning new shows and movies, it's not that simple. While none of them bind you to contracts, and you can add or remove more as needed, you almost need a spreadsheet to keep track of which show is where. More on handling this next week.
Plus, there's what I call “fake cable” like AT&T's YouTube TV, Sling, and DirecTV Stream. These packages mimic the old school cable structure. If you're an internet user who clicks through channels looking for something to watch, or you enjoy the organization that cable brings to TV, this might make sense. But they're subject to the same price increases as cable — sometimes more than once a year — as well as annoying arguments over whether a specific channel is on.
Plus, you end up paying to access a lot of channels that you might not need or want. The average person regularly watches only 10 to 12 cable or broadcast channels, but the average cable subscriber has access to 192 channels, according to research by CordCutting.com. Although most fake cable streaming services don't offer that many channels, their subscribers probably only watch a fraction of them.
Although sport is no longer banned in Streaming, you'll pay big bucks for league apps or have to stick to cable if you're a die-hard fan who wants to watch all of your team's games. There are bogus cable packages or add-ons with sports offerings, including fuboTV, but these are usually more expensive and may not have all of your favorite teams' games.
If you can live within those parameters — or are willing to pay the money to get around them — then cord cutting may work for you. Even so, you will need an internet connection with the muscle for this to happen.
Get the speed you need
While the truth is that you don't need the fastest internet service available to decently stream video, the equation gets more complicated when multiple people in your home are engaged in high-speed activity at the same time. If you're trying to binge on the latest season of "Bridgerton" at the same time your partner is hosting a career-critical Zoom conference and your kids are battling it out in "Elden Ring," you'll need a bigger pipe.
What is the size of a pipe? Netflix has a handy guide on its site showing the speed required for different types of Streaming video. High definition, the most common type for televisions, computers and smartphones, requires a surprisingly low bit rate of 5 megabits per second. But if you have a device that uses 4K Ultra HD, you'll need at least 15 Mbps per second. And if you have other TVs and devices that play different things at once, you'll need multiples of these numbers.
In general, I would recommend a download speed of at least 100 Mbps for a two-person household, and at least double that for three to four. If there are a lot of 4K videos and online games at the same time, switch to at least 500 Mbps.
You should also keep in mind that some providers have data caps. If you exceed these limits, you could face surcharges or even have your speeds throttled. When we got a 4K TV, our usage nearly doubled every month, although we were still below Comcast's 1,2 terabyte per month limit. (We don't game, but there are a lot of conference calls.) Fiber providers such as AT&T generally don't have data caps, while cable companies do.
If you've determined that you want to ditch cable TV and you have an internet connection that can handle it, you're ready to figure out how to get the shows and movies you want. We'll dive into that next week.
dsilverman@outlook.com
twitter.com/dsilverman
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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