The Definitive Guide to Cord-Cutting in 2016, Based on Your Habits
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Credit
Tom Grillo
Here’s the state of cord-cutting in America today: It’s chaotic.
Consider what’s faced by people who want to end their TV subscriptions — otherwise known as cutting the cable cord. There are now multiple different streaming services and bills to juggle. And there are numerous streaming gadgets to choose from.
So to make moving away from cable cords easier, we teamed up with the Wirecutter, the product recommendations website, to compile the definitive guide to cord-cutting. The Wirecutter tested multiple services, streaming devices and antennas to come up with cord-cutter bundles for different types of people in 2016: movie buffs, sports addicts, fans of premium TV shows, binge watchers and families with children.
More on the results in a minute. First, let’s explain how we got to this point.
Every quarter for the last few years, hundreds of thousands of American households have put an end to their TV subscriptions, fed up with the costs of cable subscriptions, channels they never watch and the annoying commercials.
The cord-cutting movement peaked in 2011, when the cable sector bled 744,000 subscribers, according to the research firm SNL Kagan. Comcast and Time Warner responded by overhauling their cable boxes with simpler interfaces, but they managed only to diminish their losses. Last quarter, the damage count for cable was 298,000 lost subscribers. Countless other would-be customers now no longer bother to sign up in the first place.
At the same time, consumers’ viewing options have widened — perhaps by too much. Streaming video services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are increasingly investing in original programs that compete with traditional television shows. At office water coolers, conversations are happening around Netflix, Hulu and Amazon originals like “Luke Cage,” “Casual” and “Transparent.”
Yet cord cutters, faced with the plethora of streaming services and gadgets, remain a minority in the United States. SNL Kagan estimates that by last quarter, just 12 percent of American households subscribed to broadband internet services without a traditional TV package.
That’s where this definitive guide comes in. What we found was there is no one-size-fits-all solution because each streaming service carries a different catalog of content, and each gadget has access to different services.
The upshot: While Roku’s $50 streaming stick and Netflix are great for many purposes, you may want to use different devices or services depending on what you watch.
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via Photofest
For Movie Buffs
For movie buffs, there are plenty of cord-cutting options that will make any transition painless. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all have large film libraries for streaming — Amazon’s alone holds 18,400 titles, though the selection regularly changes because of agreements with content providers.
Netflix’s library has shrunk over time, as the company is no longer trying to offer the glut of back-catalog movies that every service seems to have. But Netflix has tried to compensate by focusing on movies it has exclusive licenses to, including those from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm.
Amazon focuses more on quantity, but without those exclusive titles the other services offer. For recent releases, Amazon, iTunes, the Google Play store and Vudu usually get digital versions of recent movies that can be purchased for $15 to $20, or rented for about $5, even before they’re available on disc.
For most people, Netflix will offer the best selection of new movies and original programming — and Google, Amazon or Apple will offer the best selection for rentals or purchases.
BEST SERVICE: Netflix plus à la carte rentals/purchases ($8 to $12/month)
BEST HARDWARE: Roku Streaming Stick ($50)
MOST AFFORDABLE: Roku Streaming Stick
ALSO WORKS WITH: Apple TV ($149), other Roku models
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Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency
For Sports Addicts
For those who love watching sports, a subscription to either PlayStation Vue or Sling TV gets you ESPN and Fox Sports 1, depending on your package. And each system offers additional sports channels, depending on your interests.
You may also want to watch over-the-air broadcast channels, especially for N.F.L. games. Most televisions have an over-the-air tuner built-in, so you will be able to get your local major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) using your existing TV hardware and an inexpensive antenna, such as the Antennas Direct ClearStream Eclipse ($40).
BEST SERVICE: PlayStation Vue ($30 to $45/month)
BEST HARDWARE: FireTV ($40 to $100) or Google Chromecast ($35)
MOST AFFORDABLE: Google Chromecast
ALSO WORKS WITH: Apple TV ($149), Roku ($50)
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Uncredited/HBO, via Associated Press
For Fans of ‘Game of Thrones’ and Other Premium Network Shows
No problem. HBO, Showtime and Starz can all be viewed on a phone, tablet or streaming device with a direct subscription — no cable or satellite subscription or long-term contract required. You will get access to each network’s original programming, as well as the movies each is currently showing, and you can watch from anywhere.
BEST HARDWARE: Roku Streaming Stick ($50)
MOST AFFORDABLE: Roku Streaming Stick or Google Chromecast ($35)
ALSO WORKS WITH: Apple TV ($149), other Roku models
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JoJo Whilden/Netflix
For TV Binge Watchers
Netflix and Amazon Instant Video are your best bets to binge-watch television shows. Each offers award-winning original content, including “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Master of None,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Making a Murderer” on Netflix; and on Amazon, “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle” and “The Man in the High Castle.”
For this original content, all episodes are released online at once. Each service also carries recent TV series, including “Better Call Saul” and “Mr. Robot,” shortly after the DVD release date.
If you don’t want to wait, you can usually purchase a “season pass” for current TV shows through iTunes, Amazon or Google Play at a cost of $20 to $30 per season usually. Google Play is generally the least expensive, offering savings of around 15 to 25 percent — and watch new episodes the day they’re aired on TV.
Hulu Plus focuses on current TV seasons, letting you watch them right after they air instead of when the season has ended. But it lacks many current popular shows.
BEST SERVICE: Netflix ($8 to $12/month) or Amazon ($99/year), or à la carte seasons
BEST HARDWARE: Roku Streaming Stick ($50)
MOST AFFORDABLE: Roku Streaming Stick
ALSO WORKS WITH: Fire TV ($40 to $100), other Roku Models, Apple TV ($149 — Google and Amazon require an iOS or macOS device)
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Richard Foreman Jr./Fox
For Children and Families
Netflix offers a wide selection of content, both educational and entertaining, along with original children’s programming like the recent “Voltron” reboot. It also offers the option to create a children’s profile that lets you limit viewing to particular ratings or age levels. In addition, Netflix has a new partnership with Disney that will make more Disney films available for streaming.
PBS Kids Now lets you stream recent episodes of PBS shows, and the selection is updated every week with the latest episodes of most shows. Amazon Instant Video also has children’s content and its own custom children’s programming, as well as FreeTime Unlimited, a selection of curated shows, apps and games for children for a monthly fee ($3 for Amazon Prime members, $5 for nonmembers). However, FreeTime Unlimited is available only on Amazon’s own hardware.
Sling TV also offers a children’s package for those who want to stream Nick Jr., Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Cartoon Network and more.
BEST SERVICE: Netflix ($8 to $12/month)
BEST HARDWARE: Roku Streaming Stick ($50)
MOST AFFORDABLE: Roku Streaming Stick (except for FreeTime Unlimited), Amazon Fire TV ($40 to $100)
ALSO WORKS WITH: Apple TV ($149), other Roku models
Why Cord-Cutting Still Isn’t Perfect
There are still downsides to cord-cutting. J.D. Power & Associates, a research firm that collects feedback on brands and products from consumers, said customer satisfaction scores were highest among “cord stackers” — people with traditional TV packages who also subscribed to online video services. What made cord cutters less satisfied were two factors: customer care and value, according to J.D. Power.
For customer care, cord cutters may run into problems more often than traditional TV subscribers, said Kirk Parsons, a senior director of telecommunications research at J.D. Power. The streaming content provider may be experiencing issues. For example, this month, Netflix suffered a failure after the release of the new show “Luke Cage.” Your Wi-Fi connection might be spotty, or your internet provider may be experiencing issues. It’s tough to tell.
For value, cutting the cord isn’t very cheap if you then subscribe to multiple services to gain access to a diverse set of content. For cable subscribers, paying one bill is less of a hassle than juggling multiple bills. And even after you subscribe to multiple streaming services, there is still some content that you may miss out on because it is available only via cable or satellite, like some TV shows or live sports events.
“I would love to have the ability to pick and choose what I want as opposed to having four different services,” Mr. Parsons said. “I think we’ll get there, but right now it’s frustrating for consumers to get what they want.”
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