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About HotDog.com: How We Help You Find the Best Cable TV Alternative

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HotDog.com is one of the oldest cord-cutting resources on the web. Since 2011, we’ve helped consumers break the chains of their cable TV contracts with detailed and easy-to-understand information. In the process, our readers have saved millions.

Over the years, HotDog.com has become the go-to destination for cord-cutting tutorials, streaming reviews, and industry news. If it has to do with watching video content without a cable contract, you’ll likely find it here. And if you can’t, you can email us or post a comment, and we’ll try to help!

About HotDog.com

HotDog.com has been in business since 2011 but until recently we were called KillTheCableBill.com. Like many websites, it started as a single guy just trying to make sense of the world.

At the time, there was a lot of information about cutting the cord — too much information — with most of it wrong or incomplete. The website was meant to make sense of all of this. And it seemed to work because it not only became very popular, it also spawned its own community.

Over the years, the industry changed. In 2011, Netflix was still two years away from producing its first original show. It was just months after Hulu started charging for its service. Most important, it wasn’t until 2015 that the era of live TV streaming started with Sling TV. We were here through it all.

With all that change in the industry has come change to HotDog. It’s not a question of how to watch major TV events without cable. No one wonders if you need cable to watch The Bachelor (although if you want to know how we explain it). Now people want to know how to navigate a diverse and expanding selection of content that is poorly served by cable and satellite when it is served at all.

HotDog.com explains how to stream everything from speech tournaments at your local high school to cricket matches in rural India. It is a fantastic time for streaming entertainment. But as a result, viewers need more guidance than ever to find out what they want to watch and how they can watch it.

We are constantly producing new reviews, background content, tutorials, data studies, analysis, and news content about all aspects of the streaming experience. And we have been expanding into other fields beyond stream that are related. This includes hardware as well as technologies like VPNs that help cord-cutters make the best use of their resources.

Testimonials

HotDog has always had a sense of community and our readers look to us to solve problems. As a result, we get a lot of positive feedback.

  • “I wanted to thank you! I’ve dropped cable TV and I’m so much happier being able to select what I want to pay for and not being ripped off by [my cable company]! Thank you again!!” –Donna M
  • “This is a great site; it is very informative and helpful.” –Dan
  • “Just stumbled across your site… Best site I’ve seen on the subject.” –Renee M
  • “This is great, thanks for keeping people aware. As much as people want to save money by not pouring their hard-earned funds down the cable toilet, we also don’t want to be taken advantage of. Thanks again.” –Michelle N
  • “As always, you never fail to deliver [HotDog] with our dose of online reference to reducing cable bill costs. Thanks as always!” –Mikhail
  • “This is spectacular information, and it is very organized and easy to understand.” –Beth
  • Thanks for all the info on how to watch basic TV stations OTA via an antenna.” –Kathy S
  • “Thanks. Canceled Cable two months ago because of what I learned on [HotDog].” –Julie P
  • “Great Article. Thanks for inspiring me to make a change. Just Canceled Cable and have set up our Netflix queue with educational shows for my kids…” –Haylie
  • “Great information! Really enjoy reading about upcoming shows.” –Bill C
  • “Love your newsletter! I took your advice from last newsletter and got Paramount+ for .99 for first 2 months from my fire stick.” –Beverly C

On the other hand, we’ve also been criticized and teased for our new name:

  • “One word….STUPID.” –Irish Lass
  • “I think Hotdog.com is a ridiculous name for your function.” –Stephen B

HotDog.com Team

A dedicated team of cord-cutters runs HotDog.com.

Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is our Content Editor. He oversees the creation and maintenance of the material on HotDog.com as well as related products like our newsletter.

Being relentlessly contrarian, Frank grew up as a fan of the New York Mets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Atlanta Falcons despite growing up in San Francisco. He’s lost some of his interest in the NFL — being a Falcons fan will do that to you. And over the years, he’s grown to love the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors.

But more than sports, Frank loves video. How else could he watch one to two films every day? And those films are usually horror, a habit he developed watching Creature Features with his older brother and sister when he was frankly far too young.

He started streaming early, back in 2007 when Netflix introduced what seemed revolutionary even then, “instant watch,” or what would eventually become the totality of the company. Then Hulu started and he was hooked. Very little work got done in 2008.

Today, he streams pretty much everything while his library of thousands of Blu-rays and DVDs collects dust.

He is particularly interested in finding ways to stream all but forgotten TV shows from childhood, under-covered sporting events, or his own obsession, low-budget gems from the past that never got the attention they deserve.

You can find Frank all over the internet:

Alanna Baker

Alanna Baker is an Assistant Editor at HotDog.com.

Like her grandmother before her, Alanna likes to knit to pro football and baseball. She generally roots for the Rams or Chargers or Dodgers, or the underdog if LA isn’t playing.

She likes dry comedies, science fiction, and quirky fantasy — like Only Murders in the Building, The Expanse, and The Good Place.

Alanna hasn’t had a cable account in 15 years or more. She doesn’t just write about streaming TV and movies, she has lived it for more than a decade.

She is a self-described “English nerd for hire.” A writer/editor and closet hippie, she enjoys knitting, building LEGOs, armchair psychology, traveling the world with her family, and all things Disney.

Find out more about her here:

Sharon Amondi

Sharon Amondi is an Editorial Assistant at HotDog.com.

She’s a big motorsports fan with a general love for cars and high speeds. She started by watching the Safari Rallies and slowly got introduced to Formula 1 and NASCAR series races. Her favorite has to be the Truck Series because of its diversity of drivers.

Crime and investigative documentaries are also a big interest to Sharon. In another life, she thinks she might have tried being a private investigator or an investigative journalist. She also loves binge watching reality TV and comedy series.

Sharon appreciates insights and lessons that are packaged in amusing or moving anecdotes. She currently lives in Kenya and is excited about the new opportunities that streaming services are bringing to the African continent.

Other HotDog Staff

Contact Us

Have a question? Want to interview a spokesperson? Or perhaps you have a tip or article idea? You can get in touch with our Contact Page.

You can also reach us on social media:

Ditch “Big Cable” Now – 3 Simple Steps to Cut the Cord

  1. Pick the right streaming service
  2. Get the content you deserve with the best VPN.
  3. Supercharge your internet provider

That’s it — you’ll save money, take back control, and enjoy TV more!

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Frank Moraes
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29 replies on “About HotDog.com: How We Help You Find the Best Cable TV Alternative

Do you guys have an email address or something through which I can get in touch?

Hi Nancy! thanks for reaching out. No dumb questions ;). If your asking you are one of the smart ones – yes you can use existing coaxial cable i your house and simply hook your Antenna up to that. As for hooking up 2 TV's read the following article and let me know what additional questions you have: How to Connect Multiple TV’s to your OTA Antenna https://hotdog.com/how-to-connect-multiple-tvs-to-your-ota-antenna/

I am a NOVICE….trying to figure out how to cut the cable. Watched your video on Mohu antenna. I need to ask a dumb question…how does this work with 2 TV's….can I used my Comcast connection to connect the antenna? I just envision cable cords all over my house?

John Brillhart Very interesting. To get your name out there is going to take time and money (SEO). Maybe you look into geo-targeted google ads (adwords). Drive people in your area to a landing page and watch your conversion rates – just to see how things work out. test, optimize, repeat…. Ill keep thinking about this, but that is the first thing that comes to mind.

John Brillhart Very interesting. To get your name out there is going to take time and money (SEO). Maybe you look into geo-targeted google ads (adwords). Drive people in your area to a landing page and watch your conversion rates – just to see how things work out. test, optimize, repeat…. Ill keep thinking about this, but that is the first thing that comes to mind.

Hi Dave,

I'm in minneapolis. So far slow in closing sales. It's not hard to generate interest, but finding folks truly interested in making the leap is tougher. The main thing is marketing, my name isn't out there yet. Other thing? Husbands, I've lost so many sales because the husband is scared to move or thinks that he can somehow get a good deal from the cable company.

Hey John – interesting business model. where are you located? what type of response have you received so far?

Hey Dave, I own a cord-cutting consultant business (we follow each other on twitter) would you mind checking out my website and letting me know what you think http://www.cablealternatives.com. You can message me there or reply here, really appreciate it.

I have just seen the Amazon Fire Stick but cannot find info if it can record at a particular time and then playback later.
I have HughesNet satellite internet which has cheap bandwidth available from 2am till 8am. I am trying to figure out how to record Netflix and Amazon content during that timeframe.

Hi Sandy – thanks for reaching out. This is a very interesting idea. I have not read much about Amazon’s Fire Stick – but now that you have brought this up, I think ill tackle this topic very very soon. Please check back for my full review.

Amazon Fire Stick is a media player (Android OS) for Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu and similar services. It is also considered a micro-console since it can play games. It can’t record or play anything locally other than games.

Ive got the lifetime playon subsciption with many script added although I cannot stream them to my xbox. Any suggestions? I can see links to select but I get no output

Hello,

My name is Alex a media buyer at Ro2.biz, one of the fastest growing adnetworks.

We are offering CPM and CPC services based on performance and that's why our advertisers are offering CPM bids of up to $2.94 USD and CPC bids of up to $5.14 USD.

We are always trying to find good publishers to sell our inventory to, and as I went through your website I thought that you would fit perfectly within our network.

If you decide to join us please be informed that the minimum withdraw limit is $5.00 USD and all payments are made on request. This means that you will be able to withdraw your earnings whenever you want.

If you are willing to join our ranks please reply this email with your username and your website in order for us to be able to upgrade your account to Premium status and offer you better rates.

[link removed]


Reagards,
Alex Rizea
Ro2Biz Online Software SRL
010741 Bucharest Romania
Tel: +40727155755
Skype: rizea.alex
Mail: [email protected]
[link removed]

Have you looked into an Antenna yet? If not, start there. You get all the basic cable chanels for free in HD. In my opinion the solution is a simple one: Antenna + Hulu | Netflix | Web Content + Video Streaming Device = Financial Freedom

Hula is great Cable is so expensive you can go on line and watch shows good luck

so This is the year our cox cable contract runs out. I really want to cancel just TV and phone- keep the internet . I want to make sure I can still stream BBC, AMC, History, PBS, Science Fiction, ect. It looks like Hulu has some of these channels- but alas I am a novice. Any advice from other folks who are sick of paying over 100$ a month for junk we don't want or need to watch.

Thanks, I didn’t see this article. I picked up the lifetime plan. However, there are some streaming issues. In order to minimize those, I had to drop picture quality, which stinks.

That is a bummer. Maybe you can you jack up your Internet speed to accomidate? What streaming device do you use? I use a PS3 and it works great. I can get all the Hulu Web Only shows, along with a ton of other web channels that I otherwise would not be able to access on my ps3.

I play it through Roku. I cannot afford to increase my internet speed. It kind of defeats the purpose of ditching cable. The money I save on cable goes right back to the company to increase my speed, which is an extra charge, unless there are ways to do it that are less expensive.

skip the stream – do the “on demand”. Leave quality setting on AUTO.

Have it now for about 3 yrs. Linked it to the WDTV media hub – best investment ever. There’s a free trial (about a week or so) and they won’t even ask for a credit card until the free trial is up (assuming you wish to continue). DO IT! They also have DVR option – I don’t usually watch the streams except new – mostly go for the “on demand” options; so, the DVR didn’t make much sense to me. Have used it and it is high quality DVR. Get the lifetime license to playon … I bought it and never have been asked to pay another dime in three years time.

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