Here’s How To Cut The Cord & Save Yourself Money

Here's How to cut the cord of cable & save money.
Here's How to cut the cord of cable & save money.
Here’s how to cut the cord of cable & save yourself money.

As prices go up, more people than ever are cancelling cable; Here’s how you can cut the cord and save money.

Let’s face it Millennials, paying thousands of dollars a year for cable TV sucks. With the average cable bill up 40% to $100 a month in just five years, more Millennials then ever have cut the cord. For Millennials – now 23 – 38 years old – 11% have never subscribed to cable at all. A whopping 25% have cut the cord altogether.

A concern we’ve heard numerous times is that people are afraid to miss their favorite TV shows or live sports events. We wouldn’t expect you to miss either of those, so we’ve got all of that covered for you too.

Read on to see how you can cut the cord of cable and save yourself a ton of money.

#1. Buy an Apple TV or Other Streaming Device

Cut the cord of cable with an Apple TV 4
The Apple TV 4 features Apple’s robust App Store with thousands of apps to watch TV shows, movies and play games.

There are numerous legal options for streaming your favorite TV shows and movies. From the Apple TV to an Amazon Fire TV to the Google Chromecast, a Roku or even your PlayStation 4. In our experience, we’ve found the best way to be the Apple TV 4. The Apple TV App Store features thousands of apps that allow you to stream your favorite TV shows and movies right to the TV it’s connected to. From premium channels like HBO and Starz! to ABC and FX, all of the major TV channels are covered. It even doubles as a gaming device!

#2. Subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime

Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video & Hulu carry thousands of TV shows and movies for you to stream.
Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video & Hulu are the 3 major players in the TV and movie streaming business.

We already know what you’re thinking: “But that means I’m going to be paying monthly again”?  That is correct, but by subscribing to Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime Instant Video, you’re able to watch an incredible amount of full seasons of your favorite shows for a low monthly price instead of $100+ per month.

Netflix is arguably the giant of the three, with a ton of full seasons of TV shows from all of the majors (& minors). Typically, you’ll be waiting a few months after the season finale before that season is available to stream. Additionally, Netflix has a ton of Emmy winning, high quality original content that is exclusive and original to them. From House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Marvel’s Daredevil, the Netflix original programming has something for everyone. Netflix is $11.99 per month for up to four users.

Amazon Prime Instant Video is another heavy hitter in the streaming industry. With thousands of movies and TV shows, Amazon Prime Instant Video is a great way to catch up on past seasons of your favorite TV shows.  They too have original content that has gotten a ton of Emmy Award love. These shows include Transparent, The Man in the High Castle and Bosch. If you subscribe to the $99 per year Amazon Prime package, it includes free 2 day shipping, unlimited photo storage, Amazon Prime Music streaming and more. Even better, Amazon Prime has a free 30 Day Trial for you to try out the service! Amazon Prime Instant Video is $8.99 per month for the streaming only service or $99 per year with the full Amazon Prime package.

Hulu is the third major player in the streaming business. While Hulu doesn’t have the prestige of the other two streamers original programming just yet, they do get a ton of TV episodes the day after they air and have thousands of shows and movies available on demand. They have even picked up series that were due to end but will now continue exclusively through Hulu including The Mindy Project & Nashville.  Currently, Hulu is $11.99 per month.

#3. Call and Cut the Cord!

cut the cable cord and save a ton of money
Cut the cord of cable and save a ton of money.

Once you’ve figured out which streaming service (or services) you want to go with, you’re ready to go. Keep in mind, you’ll have to continue to pay for internet service, so be ready to haggle with the poor customer service agent whose job it is to dissuade you. Make sure you’ve researched the prices of any internet providing competitors in your area as well as what your current company charges new customers for internet. This way, you’ll be an informed consumer and won’t overpay for internet service.

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Hit Up Your Family & Friends

Hit up your parents, family or other loved ones to see if they can create an e-mail for you on their cable account.
Talk to your parents, family or other loved ones to see if they can create an e-mail for you on their cable account.

If your parents or other family members or loved one are choosing to keep their able subscription, ask them to create an e-mail address for you on their account. This will allow you to log in to apps of Network and Cable TV shows and unlock even more content. Typically, this ranges from the entire television and movie catalog of that network (HBO) to full seasons of shows (Fox).

This step isn’t a necessity by any means, but will significantly add to the amount of content you have available to you in a timely fashion.

News and Sports

Apple TV features major league sporting apps to watch sporting events live
Every major sporting league has its own App on the Apple TV which allows subscribers to watch live games.

For news and sports fans, cutting the cable cord may seem like an impossibility. A few years ago that would have been a correct statement. Now, that’s all changed. Every single major sporting league has an app which you can subscribe to watch live games. While they all vary in pricing and features, all of them allow streaming of live games. Additionally, ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and all of the major networks featuring live sporting events and sports coverage through their own Apple TV app.

For the real sports junkies, many of the sporting apps even allow you to watch multiple games at once.

The MLB At Bat app for the Apple TV 4 allows you to watch multiple games at once
MLB At Bat app allows you to watch multiple games at once.

For news junkies, all of the major news networks have apps available.  CBS News, USA Today, CNN, ABC News, Bloomberg, WSJ and many more are available on the App Store. These news app often offer live streaming of their news channels in addition to recents news pieces and catalogued programming.

Load Up on Apps

There are nearly 10,000 apps for the Apple TV
There are nearly 10,000 apps on the App Store for the Apple TV. There are numerous apps available that feature incredible free content, including original programming, movies and TV shows. Here are a few to get you started:

TED app for Apple TV features the entire catalogue of TED talks
We’re huge fans of TED Talks here at Kyle2U, and the TED app for Apple TV is no different. It includes their entire library of TED talks on demand. You can create playlists and search by topic or speaker.

Crackle App for Apple TV features hundreds of classic and recent movies and tv shows.
Crackle is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and features hundreds of recent and classic movies and TV shows. They’ve been adding original content as well.

 

Popcornflix for Apple TV

 

Popcornflix is another app that features hundreds of free movies and TV shows absolutely free.

 

Pluto TV features hundreds of video channelsPluto TV looks like traditional linear television, but couldn’t be further away. It features hundreds of channels through it’s onscreen guide, that take you to never-ending video content destinations. They’ve cleverly grouped these channels together by themes such as Drive In Movies and After School Cartoons.

If you follow the steps we listed you’ll be able to cut the cord and put another couple hundred dollars back into your pocket each and every month without missing any of your favorite programming.

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