How do you watch TV shows?

[Cherylny]

Mirjam asked all of us WHAT we were watching, but my question is HOW do you watch them?

Do you have cable, or are you like us - we have broadband, but we still have to use apps to see most of the popular shows. Maybe you "cut the cord" like a lot of people I know and just use apps.

We probably use Netflix the most, followed by Amazon Prime. We just added Paramount+ and we have Hulu, but don't watch it too much. We just added the Fox app (FX) there's quite a bit on it.

Tell me what you use.

[HavaDrPepper]

I'm a dinosaur. I still have cable and no streaming services. Well, I have Prime but haven't watched anything on it for a couple of years.

I tried cutting the cord about 6 years ago and only lasted 6 weeks. At that time some things I enjoyed watching were not available on streaming services and I missed them (also had another reason that is too long to explain). And, I get a discounted rate on cable since it is bundled with my internet. It is also a local company so any problems can be dealt with by calling a local number or walking into their office just 2 miles from my house.

[Kimberly27]

We cut the cord 12 years ago. We use Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus...We also bum off my inlaws for ESPN or other sports channels when there is a game on hubby wants to watch. We have an antenna in our attic for the basic channels...abc, nbc, cbs, fox etc...
My son's girlfriend has HBO Max so we have access to that one too. We don't watch a whole lot of TV. I have it on in the background while I am scrapping/working

[carrie1977]

We have DirecTV still...we really should get rid of it because I'm really the only one in my house that uses it. And we have just about every streaming service. It's so bad...we pay too much. lol

[bienejen]

We have cable and a couple streaming services - Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV.

[laurabobaura]

i watch the majority of my documentaries on netflix. you know. murdery stuff. lol

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

I'm a dinosaur. I still have cable and no streaming services. Well, I have Prime but haven't watched anything on it for a couple of years.

I tried cutting the cord about 6 years ago and only lasted 6 weeks. At that time some things I enjoyed watching were not available on streaming services and I missed them (also had another reason that is too long to explain). And, I get a discounted rate on cable since it is bundled with my internet. It is also a local company so any problems can be dealt with by calling a local number or walking into their office just 2 miles from my house.

I LOVED cable - we could access just about everything with Xfinity - I know so many people who cut the cord and it was just too complicated and they went back. My brother, who fancies himself very techy, even did it.

We moved to the middle of nowhere a couple of years ago and didn't have anything for months - we were forced to get Hulu to access anything. It's so different in the country.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Kimberly27

We cut the cord 12 years ago. We use Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus...We also bum off my inlaws for ESPN or other sports channels when there is a game on hubby wants to watch. We have an antenna in our attic for the basic channels...abc, nbc, cbs, fox etc...
My son's girlfriend has HBO Max so we have access to that one too. We don't watch a whole lot of TV. I have it on in the background while I am scrapping/working

Oh wow you cut the cord that long ago??? That's awesome! We "share" a few apps, too. LOL

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by carrie1977

We have DirecTV still...we really should get rid of it because I'm really the only one in my house that uses it. And we have just about every streaming service. It's so bad...we pay too much. lol

Yes, it does get a little expensive. We downloaded Peacock (I think) for a free trial and it's so expensive. I cancelled it at the end of the trial.

[iScrap]

We just use apps/streaming services. We have Hulu, Paramount+, Netflix, and Discovery+. We pay about $20 for all of those (we have Hulu @ .99/month right now). It's much cheaper than $50 for basic cable. Plus we would still pay for Netflix even with cable.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by bienejen

We have cable and a couple streaming services - Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV.

Oh, how do you like Apple? That's one we don't have.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by iScrap

We just use apps/streaming services. We have Hulu, Paramount+, Netflix, and Discovery+. We pay about $20 for all of those (we have Hulu @ .99/month right now). It's much cheaper than $50 for basic cable. Plus we would still pay for Netflix even with cable.

That's a great price for Hulu! It's the cheapest one we have, too. I'm like you, I NEED Netflix! LOL

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by laurabobaura

i watch the majority of my documentaries on netflix. you know. murdery stuff. lol

Haha - yes, Netflix is really good! We watch it the most, too.

[StacyLynn]

We still have cable... hubby doesn't want to get rid of it yet and we have a package deal (house phone, internet and cable) it would cost about the same to just drop cable right now. But we hardly ever watch live tv. We DVR everything and then watch later and FF through commercials.

We also have Apple TV, Netflix, Starz and Prime..... and my fave Disney+.

We will probably be adding Paramount+ soon too.

[nesser1981]

We have Youtube TV, and too many streaming services.

[Leablahblah]

I was born and raised in France and used to just have regular tv channel and that was enough. Then I moved to the US and made my life here and I HATE american television. I find the commercial breaks outrageous! In France we have one commercial every half hour. Here it's every what? 5-10min?? ridiculous!!

So we don't have tv or cable. We have Netflix and Prime and Disney+ and we use our smart tv to get on the apps.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by StacyLynn

We still have cable... hubby doesn't want to get rid of it yet and we have a package deal (house phone, internet and cable) it would cost about the same to just drop cable right now. But we hardly ever watch live tv. We DVR everything and then watch later and FF through commercials.

We also have Apple TV, Netflix, Starz and Prime..... and my fave Disney+.

We will probably be adding Paramount+ soon too.

Cable is what I miss + the "bundling". Sounds like you've got what we used to have. We really like Paramount+ BTW.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by nesser1981

We have Youtube TV, and too many streaming services.

Oh, that's fun. We have YouTube on our TV's too.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Leablahblah

I was born and raised in France and used to just have regular tv channel and that was enough. Then I moved to the US and made my life here and I HATE american television. I find the commercial breaks outrageous! In France we have one commercial every half hour. Here it's every what? 5-10min?? ridiculous!!

So we don't have tv or cable. We have Netflix and Prime and Disney+ and we use our smart tv to get on the apps.

We hate the commercials, too. Most of the streaming shows have none or very limited. Since we rarely watch regular TV, anymore, they make us crazy when we do!

[Ponytails]

We still have cable for hubby, so he can watch his sports. Only problem there is that you can't just get one or two sports channels... you have to pay for the whole premium & HD cable service. It's expensive, but he pays for it.

I subscribe to Netfilx, Disney+, Crave, and Amazon Prime. That's really all I need. The only TV show I watch anymore is Gray's Anatomy, and I could easily wait for Netflix for that one. The only reason I still actually watch it is because I've invested so many years into it already, I feel like I need to see it through!

[bienejen]

Originally Posted by Cherylny

Oh, how do you like Apple? That's one we don't have.

I haven't watched too much yet but just started Ted Lasso and I LOVE IT! I watched Finch with Tom Hanks and really enjoyed that too.

[Karen_]

We are the worst! We have cable AND streaming subscriptions. Lol. My hubby "needs" cable (Comcast) for sports stuff and we have our internet through them too. Then we have Netflix, Prime, Hulu (free with our cell plan), Disney Plus (also free with our cell plan). It's ridiculous how many places we can get shows and how hard it is to figure out what to watch and then where things are. Lol.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Ponytails

We still have cable for hubby, so he can watch his sports. Only problem there is that you can't just get one or two sports channels... you have to pay for the whole premium & HD cable service. It's expensive, but he pays for it.

I subscribe to Netfilx, Disney+, Crave, and Amazon Prime. That's really all I need. The only TV show I watch anymore is Gray's Anatomy, and I could easily wait for Netflix for that one. The only reason I still actually watch it is because I've invested so many years into it already, I feel like I need to see it through!

Oh, I remember how much some of them cost on top of the cable bill! My hubby had the Major League Baseball Channel - yikes! But he loved it so I was ok with it.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by bienejen

I haven't watched too much yet but just started Ted Lasso and I LOVE IT! I watched Finch with Tom Hanks and really enjoyed that too.

I was just wondering if it was worth it. I think it might be like Amazon Prime, but not sure. Thanks!

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Karen_

We are the worst! We have cable AND streaming subscriptions. Lol. My hubby "needs" cable (Comcast) for sports stuff and we have our internet through them too. Then we have Netflix, Prime, Hulu (free with our cell plan), Disney Plus (also free with our cell plan). It's ridiculous how many places we can get shows and how hard it is to figure out what to watch and then where things are. Lol.

You go girl - we used to have all of that, too. I miss my cable SO much!! It was SO easy! I like how you roll!!!

[tanyiadeskins]

I use my eldest daughter's Hulu, my youngest's Disney Plus, and they all use our Discovery + , Paramount Plus, and Netflix, then we all use my mother in law's YouTube premium and we get our HBO Max free from our phones lol

I recently downloaded a trial of Showtime just to watch the newest season of Dexter

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by tanyiadeskins

I use my eldest daughter's Hulu, my youngest's Disney Plus, and they all use our Discovery + , Paramount Plus, and Netflix, then we all use my mother in law's YouTube premium and we get our HBO Max free from our phones lol

I recently downloaded a trial of Showtime just to watch the newest season of Dexter

Ohhhhhhh, I LOVE it!!! Hey, they have to pay for it whether they use it or not. We are using one of our granddaughter's apps, and one of our daughters, too. YAY us!!

[laurabobaura]

Originally Posted by tanyiadeskins

I recently downloaded a trial of Showtime just to watch the newest season of Dexter

did you finish it??

[Pachimac]

We are getting ready to cut the cord. We have our streaming services, but we are not sure if we have covered every show we usually watch. I guess we'll find out - but at 230 a MONTH for cox, we can't afford NOT to cut the cord.

[MamaBee]

We were early adaptors for cutting the cord to cable... I think it's been 10 years now? But overtime, with all the subscriptions, I think we are paying just as much as we did when we had cable. *sigh* We really need to cut some of these out. Hubby is talking about going to YouTube TV to cut out some of these...

Right now we have Amazon Prime (which we never use the Tv part), Netflix (don't really watch this much, but there are a few shows I like), Hulu (get my broadcast shows), Paramount+ (they boys watch star trek), Peacock (this one can go, never use it), Discovery+ (one I watch the most), YouTube premium (I love youtube and watch it a lot), AppleTV (we go into burst, watching this...). With our cell phones we can get Hulu, ESPN and Disney... so... yeah. We used to have Sling... but thought I could get my Bravo shows on Peacock... nope, they don't release current seasons on the peacock.

[tanyiadeskins]

Originally Posted by laurabobaura

did you finish it??

In less than 24 hours lol

[knittingbec]

We have a bunch. Every now & then I think we should narrow it down to our most-used, but unfortunately, we all have a different most-used Hulu (me), Netflix (husband), Disney+ (kids) & Amazon Prime (my mom). HBO Max is included in our phone plan. We also get great reception on our antenna, most of the time, usually just for Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune when we have a chance to watch or some sports.

[lovely1m]

Probably 6 or 7 years ago, I got rid of cable after they tried to up my price significantly. Now we have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, Discovery +, and ESPN. It's kind of a lot, but still not as much as cable was supposed to be.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Pachimac

We are getting ready to cut the cord. We have our streaming services, but we are not sure if we have covered every show we usually watch. I guess we'll find out - but at 230 a MONTH for cox, we can't afford NOT to cut the cord.

Yikes!!! That's why people are cutting the cord. Here's what I would hold onto - you can always add apps - go for the "cutting"!!!

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

We were early adaptors for cutting the cord to cable... I think it's been 10 years now? But overtime, with all the subscriptions, I think we are paying just as much as we did when we had cable. *sigh* We really need to cut some of these out. Hubby is talking about going to YouTube TV to cut out some of these...

Right now we have Amazon Prime (which we never use the Tv part), Netflix (don't really watch this much, but there are a few shows I like), Hulu (get my broadcast shows), Paramount+ (they boys watch star trek), Peacock (this one can go, never use it), Discovery+ (one I watch the most), YouTube premium (I love youtube and watch it a lot), AppleTV (we go into burst, watching this...). With our cell phones we can get Hulu, ESPN and Disney... so... yeah. We used to have Sling... but thought I could get my Bravo shows on Peacock... nope, they don't release current seasons on the peacock.

You "early cord cutters" are my heroes! We talked about it years ago, just didn't have the gurs to do it.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by knittingbec

We have a bunch. Every now & then I think we should narrow it down to our most-used, but unfortunately, we all have a different most-used Hulu (me), Netflix (husband), Disney+ (kids) & Amazon Prime (my mom). HBO Max is included in our phone plan. We also get great reception on our antenna, most of the time, usually just for Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune when we have a chance to watch or some sports.

Nah - I say "keep them all" - you can always pare down, but why limit yourself? I love having lots of options!!

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

Probably 6 or 7 years ago, I got rid of cable after they tried to up my price significantly. Now we have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, Discovery +, and ESPN. It's kind of a lot, but still not as much as cable was supposed to be.

You would THINK the cable services would "get it by now", am I right?????

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by Cherylny

I LOVED cable - we could access just about everything with Xfinity - I know so many people who cut the cord and it was just too complicated and they went back. My brother, who fancies himself very techy, even did it.

We moved to the middle of nowhere a couple of years ago and didn't have anything for months - we were forced to get Hulu to access anything. It's so different in the country.

I live in a small town Ohio. Because of my location I could only get 3 over the air stations, NBC, CBS and Fox with an antenna, all 3 from the same town and owned by the same communications company so a news anchor on one of them is also on the other 2 stations. Only network programming is different and all non-network hours are filled with the same programming. My cable company does have a "cord cutters" subscription that you can at least get 2 more CBS stations out of large cities and an ABC station out of another city as well.

I can't complain about my cable price, it is very reasonable for what I get. Yeah, I could add subscription services and digital channel tiers if I wanted that would give me even more but I find that the basic tier of service suits me just fine. I have a few reality shows I actually watch. The rest of the day the TV is just on for background noise while I'm either on the computer or working around the house. My cable bill did increase in 2020 but only because I upped my internet speed

The other thing I found with streaming is the buffering... drives me nuts and my internet speed at the time wasn't even bad. So in the long run, cable is for me as long as it is available.

[stephc777]

We never have had cable. When the streaming services started coming on, we got netflix and have added others on/off as our interest in them ebbs/flows. Currently have hulu, netflix & disney+ plus amazon prime. We do have a antenna and get all the major networks plus all the little additional stations the local area networks broadcast. I never watch regular TV - my husband watches it for sports and sometimes for old westerns & war movies (definitely not my thing). I hate commercials (especially the repetitive ones - showing the exact same commercial within a single show). Nothing gets me to walk away from the TV faster.

[laurabobaura]

lol! i wasn't satisfied with the ending. i NEED MOAR. :P

Originally Posted by tanyiadeskins

In less than 24 hours lol

[mcurtt]

Never had cable... We just have a massive antenna on our roof that we rotate to pick up different stations. TV is DH's thing, I watch occasionally with him, but generally I am doing something else. We do buy DVDs and watch movies. Super low tech around here.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by Pachimac

We are getting ready to cut the cord. We have our streaming services, but we are not sure if we have covered every show we usually watch. I guess we'll find out - but at 230 a MONTH for cox, we can't afford NOT to cut the cord.

It's a big decision to cut the cord - I know exactly what you mean. Cable prices are rising so fast, though.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by mcurtt

Never had cable... We just have a massive antenna on our roof that we rotate to pick up different stations. TV is DH's thing, I watch occasionally with him, but generally I am doing something else. We do buy DVDs and watch movies. Super low tech around here.

It sounds like your antenna does the trick! We've never not had cable (Well, not since cable came into existence) until we moved to the country. I would have probably never cut the cord. We were forced to look at other options living as far in the country as we do.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by stephc777

We never have had cable. When the streaming services started coming on, we got netflix and have added others on/off as our interest in them ebbs/flows. Currently have hulu, netflix & disney+ plus amazon prime. We do have a antenna and get all the major networks plus all the little additional stations the local area networks broadcast. I never watch regular TV - my husband watches it for sports and sometimes for old westerns & war movies (definitely not my thing). I hate commercials (especially the repetitive ones - showing the exact same commercial within a single show). Nothing gets me to walk away from the TV faster.

I hear you on the commercials! We rarely watch regular TV anymore, but decided to catch up on Shark Tank the other night. They're maddening - commercials - that's all we saw. I told my hubby that was why I liked to watch streaming, although, some of them have "limited commercials" at the low prices. I think I'm going to bump a couple of them up to be commercial free.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

Probably 6 or 7 years ago, I got rid of cable after they tried to up my price significantly. Now we have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, Discovery +, and ESPN. It's kind of a lot, but still not as much as cable was supposed to be.

That sounds about right we have quite a few, too. If we like them, we keep them and if not, I cancel them before the trial period ends.

[Cherylny]

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

I live in a small town Ohio. Because of my location I could only get 3 over the air stations, NBC, CBS and Fox with an antenna, all 3 from the same town and owned by the same communications company so a news anchor on one of them is also on the other 2 stations. Only network programming is different and all non-network hours are filled with the same programming. My cable company does have a "cord cutters" subscription that you can at least get 2 more CBS stations out of large cities and an ABC station out of another city as well.

I can't complain about my cable price, it is very reasonable for what I get. Yeah, I could add subscription services and digital channel tiers if I wanted that would give me even more but I find that the basic tier of service suits me just fine. I have a few reality shows I actually watch. The rest of the day the TV is just on for background noise while I'm either on the computer or working around the house. My cable bill did increase in 2020 but only because I upped my internet speed

The other thing I found with streaming is the buffering... drives me nuts and my internet speed at the time wasn't even bad. So in the long run, cable is for me as long as it is available.

We got along, pretty much, with the basic tier of cable, too. There were a couple of shows that we used to watch that were on Showtime and HBO, so we paid for them for awhile. We don't have any trouble with buffering. I was afraid we would have, because that makes me crazy. We have really high speed internet, though - that's probably why we don't have a buffering problem.

[DawnMarch]

We have Cox cable with Tivo. I'd like to cut the cord but DH isn't ready. He prefers to record shows and just have them ready to watch rather than having to jump from site to site to watch his shows. Plus, he subscribes to the hockey channel to get all the hockey games (in the world, it seems like ). We have a package deal with our Cox fiberoptic internet so our internet would go up if we dropped cable. With all we watch and get for free because of cable (e.g., channels like Peacock streaming are free if you have a cable subscription), I'm not sure we'd save enough to make it worth it but I need to sit down and figure it out one of these days.

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by Cherylny

We got along, pretty much, with the basic tier of cable, too. There were a couple of shows that we used to watch that were on Showtime and HBO, so we paid for them for awhile. We don't have any trouble with buffering. I was afraid we would have, because that makes me crazy. We have really high speed internet, though - that's probably why we don't have a buffering problem.

I actually wonder if the buffering problems I have had at times is because I am the last person along the cable internet line in my neighborhood. I had a lot of problems with internet outages several years ago in early February. Couldn't get anything at all but my neighbors were all fine. Turns out a squirrel had chewed through the line before the area where my connection branched off. We had snow and ice and when warmer temps came and melted the ice on the line, it took out the line. That's when I found out I was the last person along the line.

And, when the schools shut down 2 years ago and students were doing remote schooling, my internet was so slow during the day. Besides others along the line doing remote, my neighbors who also have the same provider had 2 college students and 2 teachers in the house on the internet every day. If I tried to download a kit I bought it took forever. If I waited until after 10 at night, it zipped right along. And, again, my speed was not the slower speed available.

[meganmecrazy]

We cut the cord to cable way over 10 years ago and I don't miss it one bit! We watch things on Netflix mostly but also use Hulu and Amazon prime (where I just binge-watched Reacher which was amazing!!!).

[lizziej]

We've never had cable; we had DirecTV satellite. We cut that cord back in 2014 because we were paying $50 a month (I know - dirt cheap compared to most people) for almost nothing. Then we got a Roku streaming stick shortly thereafter. The only apps we pay for are PBS Passport ($5 a month), GAIAM TV (which is a yoga/exercise channel for $7 a month that I've probably used 3 times in the last 10 months), Hallmark Movies Now ($5 a month) and Disney+ (I think I last paid about $80 for the year, but we may not renew it again). I've never had Netflix, and I'm not interested in spending the money. Thank goodness my husband is not into sports. We save tons of money! I want to get Peacock Basic, and that is $5 a month, but I'm still on the fence about it. All these little fees can really start adding up. We have an antenna in our attic to get the local stations.

Although we don't like commercials, we endure them rather than paying money to skip them. My favorite free app is Tubi. It has a lot of movies and TV shows with ads. We have VUDU. It's a free app that has free movies with ads, but they also have a lot of movies that you can rent or buy, which we have done.