The last few years have seen a revolution in TV. It is no longer necessary to be tied to a cable provider with a long contract. There are many live TV streaming services that are as good, or better, than what the cable companies provide. All this for a lot less money.
In a hurry? There’s lots of information below, but if you just want to start enjoying TV more while spending less money, you can’t go wrong with these services:
- FuboTV: Known for its outstanding sports coverage, Fubo’s 130+ live TV channels provide a broad selection that appeals to most people. FuboTV allows you to try out its service free for 7 days.
- Sling TV: Offers 40+ channels, including a couple of local network affiliates, for just $40.00/mo. Save 50% on Sling TV now!
- Hulu + Live TV: This industry leader in on-demand streaming offers 85+ live channels, covering a broad range of sports, entertainment, and family content. Try one month for $69.99.
- DIRECTV STREAM: The king of RSNs, this is the streaming service for MLB, NBA, and NHL fans. Check out its Choice Plan if you want to watch every game! A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.
Table Of Contents
Get all the details in our NFL Playoffs Viewer’s Guide! And learn how to watch the Super Bowl too!
We provide simple but detailed information for cord-cutters to get the best possible experience without cable. You will learn where and how to stream different channels, what individual streaming services offer, and how to be cost-effective with your chosen streaming device.
Whether you’re a sports fan, movie buff, parent with curious kids, or just a general TV consumer, we provide you with everything you need to leave your cable contract behind.
What’s Streaming Now?
Here’s the stuff we think deserves attention. It’s by no means complete, however! All times are Eastern.
Sporting Events This Week
There are no huge sporting events this week but still a lot of sports: NBA, NCAA basketball, NHL, Premier League, Ligue 1, and UEFA Champions.
This weekend, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour is back. It starts off with the US Open at the Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis with two days of play: Saturday, February 4th at on FS1 and then Sunday, February 5th at on Fox.
Bowling doesn’t get the respect it deserves but it still draws in millions of fans. Get all the details on watching in our Pro Bowling Viewer’s Guide.
Super Bowl LVII is still a weekend off:
- Sun Feb 12 : Super Bowl LVII — Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs (Fox)
Get all the details in our NFL Playoff Viewer’s Guide!
LeBron James is on the verge of becoming the NBA all-time points scorer. Learn how to watch it all with Sling TV!
Movies and TV Shows This Week
February is Black History Month, and there is no shortage of documentaries on people of color. PBS kicks things off for us a whole day early:
- Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World (Tue Jan 31 at 9 pm Eastern on PBS): Marking a half-century of hip-hop with a new docuseries highlighting the social justice aspects of the genre, Chuck D produces and hosts this retrospective, named for the 1989 Public Enemy hit.
- Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Thur Feb 2 on Peacock): In the mid-1960s, Lowndes County, Alabama had an 80% Black population, but not a single Black registered voter. Interviews with those who lived through it paired with archival footage are how Geeta Gandbhir (I Am Evidence) and Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI) tell the story of the local voting rights campaign that led to the Black Power movement.
- Killing County (Fri Feb 3 on Hulu): Colin Kaepernick teams up with ABC News Studios to keep a spotlight on police brutality and corruption with this docuseries about a hotel shooting in Bakersfield, California, and the aftermath.
- STAND (Fri Feb 3 at Eastern on Showtime): Two decades after he washed out of a promising NBA career for refusing to stand for the national anthem, civil rights activist Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf tells his story in his own words in this powerful docu-biography.
- 65th Grammy Awards (Sun Feb 5 at 8 pm Eastern on CBS/Paramount+): Last year’s Grammys featured several executive and co-executive producers of color, as well as implementing the official Grammy Awards Inclusion Rider – a direct response to the #grammyssowhite movement started in 2017. The result was a noticeably more diverse array of statue recipients. Time will tell if the inclusivity trend continues. Trevor Noah hosts live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
- 30 for 30: Bullies of Baltimore (Sun Feb 5 at Eastern on ESPN/ESPN+): The newest edition of the award-winning series centers on the 2000-01 Baltimore Ravens, who took their unbreakable defense – and audacious, bad-boy swagger – all the way to Super Bowl XXXV. With commentary from Shannon Sharpe, Ray Lewis, Rod Woodson, Jamal Lewis, and Marvin Lewis.
If you’re looking for something not quite so docu-reality, you could check these out:
- The Reading (Thur Feb 2 on BET+): Mo’Nique stars Emma Leeden, who recently lost her family to a home invasion, and becomes trapped inside her now-haunted house in this BET+ original horror movie.
- Harlem (Fri Feb 3 on Amazon Prime Video): Camille, Quinn, Tye, and Angie are back in Season 2 of the Prime Original series as four twenty-something friends chasing their dreams.
Other series debuts you won’t want to miss:
- Gunther’s Millions (Wed Feb 1 on Netflix): Four-part limited series documentary about a real-life canine Richie Rich (his great-grandsire inherited a $400 million trust fund) and his human staff.
- The Ark (Wed Feb 1 at 10 pm Eastern on Syfy/Peacock): Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong on this massive deep-space ship that’s humanity’s last, best hope for survival. From Dean Devlin (co-writer, Stargate, Independence Day) and Jonathan Glassner (showrunner, Stargate SG-1).
- Dear Edward (Thur Feb 2 on Apple TV+): A 12-year-old boy is the only survivor of a plane crash that kills his family and everyone else on board.
- History’s Greatest of All Time with Peyton Manning (Mon Feb 6 at 10 pm Eastern on History): Every week, a new set of 10 titans will be judged head-to-head by 100 experts and ranked with statistics by their accomplishments and legacies. A unique countdown show that celebrates the best of the best.
Plus a couple movies:
- Pamela, a Love Story (Tue Jan 31 on Netflix): Pamela Anderson takes back the narrative of her public (and private) life in this documentary that aims to be a sort of anti-Pam and Tommy Lee.
- Sam & Kate (Wed Feb 1 on Peacock): Jake Hoffman and Schuyler Fisk star in this romantic dramedy alongside their respective real-life parents Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek.
And some returning faves:
- Season 11 of My 600-lb Life on TLC: Dr. Nowzaradan is back on Wed Feb 1 at 8 pm Eastern with a new set of weigh-loss candidates.
- Season 22 of Say Yes To the Dress premieres Sat Feb 4 on TLC.
- Season 2 of Children Ruin Everything streams starting Fri Feb 3 on The Roku Channel.
Sign Up for a Free 7-Day Fubo Trial
Upcoming Sporting Events
The following events are coming up:
- Jan 14: UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs Gastelum (Viewer’s Guide)
- Jan 14 – Feb 12: NFL Playoffs (Viewer’s Guide)
- Jan 16 – Jan 29: Australian Open (Viewer’s Guide)
- Jan 22: The American Express (Viewer’s Guide)
- Feb 14 – Mar 15: UEFA Champions League — Round of 16 (Viewer’s Guide)
Why Get Rid of Cable TV?
Some reasons for getting rid of cable are obvious. But there are some that may not have occurred to you.
- Time: Too much television is a waste of time. If you cancel cable and only watch your favorite TV shows, you can spend more time with your friends and family.
- Money: A cable or satellite subscription costs many times more than it does to grab a simple on-demand plan with Hulu and Netflix. Cable is also more expensive than online cable replacement services with live TV channels, like FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV.
- Technology: Video streaming is the future of TV. Soon, all video entertainment will be via an online connection. You might as well get on board now, learn the tricks, and save money in the process.
- Information: Be more informed. Rather than be at the mercy of local news anchors, you will revert to more reputable news feeds like PBS, Bloomberg, CBS News, and LinkTV. For example, FuboTV provides 13 news and information channels, along with all the local affiliates in its base plan.
- Freedom: Cable and satellite providers normally tie you into a long contract, only to give you prices that are still higher than comparable streaming services. Getting rid of cable means getting rid of the contract. Go month-to-month and be flexible.
- Dignity: Stop getting ripped off! Calling up the cable company and canceling your cable will simply make you feel good.
Stream everything in one place. Check out the new FreeCast!
Best Streaming Services
Choosing the right streaming service is probably the most important decision that a cord-cutter will make. There is no absolute “best” streaming service. It all depends on what you want with your live TV streaming plan.
Some streaming services are free, like Peacock TV (although they have a premium plan). Sling TV offers value plans that are low-cost but offer a lot. And the full-featured plans of FuboTV, Hulu Live TV, and DIRECTV STREAM) provide what you would expect from a standard cable plan, but with different bonus features designed to appeal to all sorts of viewers’ needs.
Get access to all our detailed and up-to-date reviews of the major streaming services. You will also get links to free trials so you can make sure a service suits you before you buy.
Internet Without Cable?
Most cable TV subscribers also get their internet access from the same place. In many cases, there are other options for the internet. In some cases, cable is literally the only game in town.
We’ve put together everything that cord-cutters need to know about getting internet service. Even if your cable provider is tied in with your internet, you can probably get a reasonably-priced internet-only plan via a downgrade.
Cord-Cutting Wisdom
There are a lot of aspects of cord-cutting that newbies may be faced with. These range from what’s worth watching, to getting access to particular channels, to buying and installing specialized streaming and recording devices.
We discuss it all. Here are some of our most popular articles:
- How to Watch Local News Without Cable
- Setting Up your Streaming Service Parental Controls
- The Best DVR Without Subscription Fees
- The Best Ways to Get Internet Without Cable for Cord Cutters
- Watching Television in Spanish Without Cable.
Stream Major Events
Major TV events are still a big part of our social lives — just look at Facebook and Twitter during the Super Bowl or Academy Awards. Cord cutters have full access to these events.
For those just starting out, we have primers on how to stream the biggest happenings:
Stream Sports
Most major streaming services offer good access to live sports. The standout is FuboTV. But a good low-cost newcomer to the industry is Vidgo. We have articles about everything related to live streaming sports like:
Stream TV Shows
With live TV streaming, you never have to miss your favorite shows, mini-series, and films when they are broadcast live. Here are some of our articles about streaming some recent must-see TV titles:
2022 Black Friday Deals
We are coming up on Black Friday and the deals have already started trickling in. We have a round-up of everything that is happening and well-informed speculation about what will be coming:
2022 Black Friday Cord-Cutters’ Guide
Other Cyber Monday 2022 Deals
Here are all the Cyber Monday deals we are following:
Get Started Now
We understand that dumping cable is intimidating. So we’ve written a detailed step-by-step guide to the process on How to Watch TV Without Cable.
It also gives you an overview of all the top streaming services, desirable features to look for, and answers to the most frequently asked questions from to-be cord-cutters.
What are you waiting for? Get started now!
Ditch “Big Cable” Now – 3 Simple Steps to Cut the Cord
- Pick the right streaming service
- Get the content you deserve with the best VPN.
- Supercharge your internet provider
That’s it — you’ll save money, take back control, and enjoy TV more!
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