ADVENTURES IN CORD CUTTING – PART NINE – $32 A MONTH. [UPDATED TO $28 PER MONTH]

JUNE 11, 2014 2 COMMENTS

So, where were we? Oh, yeah. We bit the bullet on the TiVo and decided to go for a lifetime subscription. (Whose lifetime? My lifetime? Your lifetime? — this was the standard issue line in the video store I worked at in New York 30 years ago. We offered a 5 year membership, back when you needed a membership, and, when customers asked why not a lifetime membership, we were instructed to ask that. We were basically taught to be dicks.) There was a small hitch. I was informed by TiVo when I got the first machine this year that we could change our subscription from monthly to lifetime at any time and not have to pay for the full year. This is in contrast to what is written on the website so I bitched and moaned about it. Also, that I couldn’t find anything on the site that offered a discount to previous customers. Tivo’s customer support has always been terrific and, after a couple minutes on hold, they waived the rest of the year and allowed me to just switch over, paying of course. But, not paying the full freight. I was also given the previous subscriber difference. Hey, it’s significant. $400 vs. $500. If the Tivo lasts 5 years that’s $6.67 a month vs $8.33. This is important as we look at the monthly savings of cord cutting. It’s that savings that will reflect in our purchases of shows we will no longer be able to watch live: Mad Men, The Americans, Orphan Black, The Walking Dead. In some cases, by the time we get to them, they will already be available on many of the devices we use. So, that’s a big deal. And a significant drop from the $13 we were paying for the ala cart TiVo Service. The fellow at TiVo also wanted to know about the OTA antennae we were using. He expected it to be Mohu or something.  It wasn’t. It’s this: Amazon Digital Antenna But, now Amazon has an even cheaper one: Amazon Digital Antenna Cheaperand I would try that before the more expensive one. We might run a MoCa line from the Tivo downstairs to the other tv but I have a feeling that we won’t want to. The streaming might just be enough. So, what’s stopping the full trigger pull? HBO. “Why not just use a friend’s subscription?” That’s a possibility, and we could pay them a monthly share cost, but the Roku box is really finicky. Sometimes it takes a LONG time to load and then needs to reload and then just freezes and it’s not reliable. Now, it’s fine for me to watch, say, Game of Thrones online, but Beth isn’t much of an online watcher. She prefers to curl up on the couch and enjoy herself. And I don’t blame her. So, it’s really just an True Blood waiting game. With the proration of the TiVo lifetime here’s where we stand:

Netflix – $9 a month (OR thereabouts. There’s going to be pay hikes for this and others down the line)

Amazon Prime – $99 a year or $8.25 $4 a month (in a Facebook conversation it was discussed and I agreed that it’s not fair to offload the entire cost of Amazon Prime to the video part. We use it to purchase items less than $35 far more often and now, with Amazon Music, some of the cost needs to be allocated there. So, I’ve cut the cost of Amazon in half. It should still probably be lower)

Hulu Plus – $8 a month (Necessary for Network/Comedy Central shows on the downstairs TV plus there’s stuff the kids like)

TiVo – $6.67 (down from $13 a month, based on 5 year projection.)

Total for more TV than we really can watch: $31.92 $28.32

$31.92 $28.32 a MONTH.

If we were just paying $100 for cable, we save $68 a month. Over $800 a year as projected in an earlier post. If we bought the most expensive shows, like Girls or Game of Thrones on Vudu or some other service at $40 a pop, we could still buy 20 shows and break even. But, we won’t because, seriously, who has that kind of time??? $32 $28 bucks a month. It’s a steal.