It’s been a year since we dropped our Uverse tv subscription of $116/mo (3 tv’s, HD, Showtime) and put up an antennae for over the air (OTA) reception. Since I last wrote about this we’ve added an additional $70 pre-amp (to help with the picture when trees are fully leafed out and wet!). I’m very satisfied that we made the switch. There are a few things we miss, but there are streaming workarounds for most. The picture on network shows is phenomenal, better than cable. Sometimes when there are temperature inversions or other environmental issues, we’ll get pixelization, but not often on the most popular channels.
We’ve found that we do buy a few things from iTunes, such as the TNT series Falling Skies and The Closer. We’ve maybe spent $100 on content.
Adding things up, you have:
Antennae & amps $275
TiVo (w/wireless) $170
Year of TiVo service $240
Hulu+ (6 mos free w/TiVo) $48
iTunes video content $100 (tv shows)
Tour de France app for Jan’s iPad $15
That’s $848. Saved $1400. Net $552 savings, year one. Without equipment purchases, projected year 2 savings ~$950.
How much do you really like (and watch!) cable?
Comments: TiVo does Hulu streaming, and non-Prime Amazon, and Netflix.
Caveats: I already was paying for Netflix subscription, so that doesn’t count. We have Amazon Prime which pays for itself with shipping savings, so streaming via that doesn’t count. I have a Mac Mini hooked up as my media center PC for Amazon Prime streaming.
Downsides: no ESPN. ESPN3 streaming works, since we still have Uverse as our ISP.