FREE NEWSLETTER
DURING A RECENT VISIT to retired friends in Florida, I learned about YouTube TV, a streaming service from Google with more than 85 channels. I decided to try it when my wife and I returned home. I initially kept my TV trial private. I wasn’t ready to introduce the idea to my wife, who doesn’t like change and would rather just stick with cable TV.
I thought YouTube TV worked well. I still had to sort a few things out, though, before adopting it wholesale. With seven TV sets in our home, we had different remotes, sound systems and varying levels of television smartness, from totally dumb to too clever for us. Some rooms had four remotes—yes, four—to control the cable box, TV, DVD and sound system.
Could we cut the cord and have only one remote control per TV? Even better, could we have an identical model remote in every room? I challenged myself to make the operation of every TV seem identical, regardless of its make, model or age.
With time, I succeeded. You’ll note, though, that I didn’t say my wife likes the new setup. Did I mention she hates change?
On the positive side, we’re saving money every month. YouTube TV isn’t free, but it’s a lot cheaper than our old Verizon cable service. I’ll get to our total savings—after accounting for the new streaming subscriptions and the equipment we purchased. But before I get to the bottom line, let me walk you through our transition, which was a journey of its own.
First, I placed an order with Verizon to remove all its cable boxes from our home. I got a response I wasn’t expecting. Yes, the company was losing me as a cable customer, but it was determined to hang on as my internet provider. The company offered me much faster service at a lower cost.
This gets a bit technical, but Verizon offered to upgrade my internet speed from 100 megabits per second to one gigabit, plus install three network extenders for whole house wi-fi. All this would cost me $5 less per month than my current rate. The company offered to fix this price for four years and top it off with a $200 Visa gift card.
I accepted this generous offer and set up an appointment for Verizon to install the new wi-fi equipment and remove its seven set-top boxes. I was joining the roughly six million Americans who cut the cable cord each year.
Canceling cable was just the start, of course. The key to making our visual entertainment uniform throughout the house was getting a Chromecast streaming device from Google. The device comes in two versions: standard HD and 4K, which are $30 and $50, respectively. I ordered seven, enough of each model to match the resolution of each television.
I ordered the Chromecast units directly from Google. The instructions were clear, and each room was set up in less than 15 minutes. You plug the device into a port on the back of your television and it allows you to wirelessly stream multiple services, like Netflix and YouTube TV.
Now came the hard part: learning new TV watching habits. There were new remotes and new channels. It took time, but we’re figuring it out. It’s not hard, just different. Fortunately, our friends with more experience in cord-cutting gave us a few practical suggestions.
They, like us, record different shows. They suggested setting up two users on the recorder so that our shows are sorted as either his or hers. They also suggested that my wife and I organize our TV guide displays differently because we have different favorite network lineups.
So far, the pluses far outweigh the minuses of having to learn a new entertainment system. And the savings are significant. To start, our Verizon savings were $180 per month, even with the added cost of the high-end streaming services.
In addition to cutting cable, I was able to cancel my costly SiriusXM subscription for my car because I now get YouTube TV on every tablet, cell phone and computer. I often use earbuds to listen to my shows while working and driving. Back in the day, it was called radio.
Now, I have to add back the costs. YouTube TV isn’t free, nor were the new Chromecast units and remotes I needed to purchase. When I net it all out, I estimate our savings to be $100 a month.
Our TV transition isn’t over, however. We expect to move to a continuing care retirement community, where the TV service is from someone other than Verizon. This will be one more change to cope with. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
Richard Hayman is a second-generation family business owner and inventor with three patents. He studied engineering at Cornell University and received a master’s degree from George Washington University. After his family’s business was purchased by a public company in 1999, Richard went on to enjoy several additional careers. He’s also been a STEM instructor for middle and high school students in after-school technology programs. Check out Richard’s previous articles.
Want to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up now. How about our daily alert about the site's latest posts? Join the list.
I cut the cable and got youtubetv as well. I set up Roku devices on 3 old TVs which makes it very easy to watch all apps on similar remotes. Remote can turn on TV as well. Even my wife understands it. Love Roku. Many free channels. Search is great. Very happy.
I wonder if you got to speak with an actual person from Verizon. Every time I’ve dealt with them, which is infrequent, I have to type my questions into a chatbot.
The easiest way to speak to a real person is to enter their system as a potential customer. If they can’t help you, you will be transferred to another real live person.
And if you “need” NFL Sunday Ticket (because you are a Philadelphia Eagles fan living near Chicago), then YouTubeTV is the way to go. If you have Verizon for your cell phones, you can get Home 5G-based Wi-Fi for a small fee ($30/month?).
I’ve never had cable. I called Comcast to come and install it about 35 years ago but they were late and I cancelled the appointment and never rescheduled it. I think I have saved thousands and thousands of dollars over those years for which I am very happy.
A source of information that helped in our cord cutting decision and streaming choices that you may find helpful. Easy to listen to and follow and information is updated frequently.
”MICHAEL SAVES”, on YouTube.
We’ve had YouTube TV for about 3 years. Love the unlimited ” library” of recorded shows so we can skip thru commercials and watch shows when it’s convenient. We can also access YouTube TV when we are traveling in our campervan, at least in the US. We tried it in Canada, but even with a VPN we couldn’t get it to work.
Recognizing the rate of the www’s upgrades ahead I knew I needed to stay up on www advances.
My(modem/router)with providers wi-fi, and OTA tv options.
Some new smart TVs exclude options for OTA tv. Driving internet providers proliferation. YouTube has become an invaluable resource.
Every provider wants to provide for your interests. Luckily I’m able to exist on OTA tv, plus the www’s streaming many apps of interest.
I’d suggest most streaming providers do afford a streaming option for NBC, ABC, and CBS RQuinn.
I know even my OTA tv option has (4.1,4.2,4.3, 4.4,4.5, and 15.1), all are OTA and WBZ = NBC.
Then it’s additionally provided streaming online.
A Roku TV dongle, on a smart TV, doubles all available channel options RQuinn.YouTube will help your insights on its set-up but iirc you mentioned it might be better addressed by your son, the contractor.
LG now has 8G TVs, few providers offer 8G service.
I hate change too, and my favorite shows aren’t shows, they’re European soccer games and Cubs baseball. So for me it’s still DirecTV after all these years. 500 channels and the cost is comparable because every year or so I call them and ask for new discounts. They always have them.
With the $$ I saved from kicking Verizon services out, my wife and I were able to signup for two annual gym memberships. Got the Amazon FireTV
…and you’re getting healthier to boot!
In my journey as a cord cutter, I’ve waved goodbye to Cable TV services. While I do rely on Internet from my cable provider, I’ve resisted the allure of high-bandwidth packages. Frankly, I find it perplexing why I’d need gigabytes when 100 megabytes more than suffices for top-notch 4K video and video conferencing.
To trim streaming costs, I’ve implemented a few strategies:
First off, I’ve embraced YouTube Premium to bid farewell to those pesky ads. It might seem counterintuitive to pay Google to spare me from advertisements, but the freedom it affords me is invaluable. With the time saved, I often find myself outdoors for a leisurely stroll or catching up with a neighbor.
Secondly, I’ve adopted a method of delayed gratification by subscribing to just one streaming service at a time, rotating every six months. By batching up my favorite shows, I still relish them without feeling overwhelmed by multiple subscriptions.
Now, my family labels me as stingy, but my motivation is not solely about pinching pennies. Instead, I’m diligently prioritizing how I invest my time—a resource far more precious than money for many of us here.
You nailed it. So glad we left cable years ago and learned the same things you mention here. Also got rid of V all together, went with 3G shared data for the two of us with X and life is good and less expensive. These companies go to great lengths to sell you far more than you really need – let the buyer beware.
We did it about 2 years ago after ATT refused to lower their monthly fee which I was able to do every year.
It started with Spectrum who offered me 500 Mbps for $39.99 with no additional tax for 4 years.
I already have a network at home so I just connected the new modem to it.
Then, I bought 4 fire sticks(Amazon) for my 4 TVs at $29.99 each including voice control (great feature=.
After checking all the options, YouTube TV made the most sense. I was also able to share the fees with my SIL.
Our bill for fast internet + TV went from $184 to under $80 and we don’t miss anything. It’s actually better, I can easily mirror my phone thru the TVs, and I can listen to the TV thru my headphones when my wife goes to sleep.
We also changed our watching habits. We now record almost everything even live news and sports and watch them on the same day but we skip all the commercials and BS talk.
Over at the Wall Street Journal, they took a stop-watch to three MLB games of varying overall length and found that the average three-hour game includes less than 18 minutes of actual baseball action. See link
The above is a lot of tech talk, if you are not a techie, you have a problem in this new world, and you can’t hide too long. Hint: if something doesn’t work, reboot/restart it.
That’s an awful lot of TVs… Why did you need the Chromecast boxes? I have YouTube TV and my smart TV receives it off my wifi network, same as my iPad, no boxes required. It is capable of receiving Netflix, Britbox etc. the same way. It’s not particularly new, either. I need to replace it with a newer one that also supports Bluetooth and will deliver sound to my hearing aids.
I didn’t need the Chromecast device for the Smart TV’s, but some units were older.
Making every TV operate identically was one of my goals for my wife. After her fall and resulting Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) she continues to have difficulties in coping with anything electronic and remotes are very challenging.
Why so many TV’s? Lots of reasons, many rooms, big family, and we have a split level and mobility issues. We’re also news junkies.
Sorry to hear about your wife. Sounds like you will have a lot of down-sizing ahead of the move….
The Amazon fire speed is amazing and what you need. I get above about 150-260 Mbps (even in the basement 120). Before I used to get 30 directly from the TV which caused delays and hanging.
$30 for a great tech is worth it, I want things to work effortlessly.
My wifi does fine. I used to have Spectrum and my TV would hang on Friday and Saturday nights. After I switched to A.T.&T. at a higher speed for the same cost, no more hangs,
Does YouTube TV give you the main channels like NBC, CBS and ABC?
Yes. Fox, CNN, and most sports. Lost Pirates and Penguins dropping cable. I don’t miss cable at all.
Yes. When you put in your Zip you get your local stations. Don’t forget, you can still get locals with an antenna as well.
Yes + local(https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/#base-plan). Google takes over the old guard.
The old guard got worse, for the best shows on the networks, they want you to pay over the regular fee, such as Peacock.
Netflix is by far the leader for the best shows.
Every day many cut the cord and join the new guard.
Not only does it give you those networks, it also gives you your local news from those networks. I’m pretty sold on it.
Richard Thank you for a most informative post. I am a late adapter and still use the free signal from the airwaves. There are only two televisions remaining with CRT displays and those analog to digital converter boxes purchased with a $40 dollar off coupon years ago. It’s getting about time for an up grade with newer technology and increased cost off set by the savings of the digital converter boxes over the years. And yes, my wife hates change too as it took months to warm up to the new telephone wireless handsets from the corded desk top touch tone without caller ID. So now the counter top is free of the caller ID box, the large desk top telephone and associated hook up wires.
Youtube TV is owned by Google. It’s like having Big Brother in your living room.
If you are surfing big brother is watching you. The only way to avoid it is to never be online, walk to your bank, take out cash, and worry about robbers.
Using checks is worse than digital.
Did you see a doctor? it’s in a generic database. Did you fly? it’s in the DB
Any application you did or applying to a job, yes, in the DB
Basically, start using only cash, no credit cards, drive to all your utilities, and pay in cash, you can hide in your basement and avoid the tech revolution that started decades ago. Everybody has been collecting data about you for many years.
I have a feeling that a lot of commenters are going to simply say “me too”. By the way, me too. My reasons are similar and so or are wives. In the beginning the main reason (besides the savings) I chose You Tube TV is that my wife doesn’t like change and YT TV’s guide is the most similar to the cable guide we’ve always had. But now we both love it…. well maybe one of us loves it and the other has gotten used to it
When we moved to our current home we made the decision to go Verizon WIFI and streaming.We’ve been happily using YouTubeTV since September. We also can use it at our beach home. In our beach community the only practical option for WIFI and cable is Xfinity. Their prices seem to escalate frequently. Since we plan to rent that house, we needed to think through what is required in a rental home. Our primary TV is not smart, so we have a cable box there. The bedrooms have smart TVs and just stream. Unfortunately this still costs over $200 a month. The service is good and reliable. To some degree the rental income covers the costs. It’s something I plan to keep my eye on.
We’ve gone the same route Richard. YouTube works great for us as well. We have 2 smart and 2 dumb TVs (1 using a fire stick, the other Roku) . I intend to replace the dumb TVs in the near future. Besides saving money I also like that YouTube has our local TV stations.