r/cordcutters
So, first thing?s first. What does it mean to be a ?cord cutter?? The term ?cord cutter? is used to refer to a growing community of people who are cutting ties, so to speak, with traditional cable companies. Cord cutters are those of us who have gone completely digital when it comes to the ways in which we access our media and entertainment content. Instead of paying $50, $60, or $70 a month for traditional cable plans (and their unavoidable commercials, preprogrammed broadcast schedules, and overall inconvenience and price), cord-cutters have opted to go rogue, building their own more customizable plans off of the building blocks of all of the digital streaming services at our disposal.
As a cord cutter myself, I have full control of what content I pay for. I know exactly what my money is going to, and it is not so much a somewhat arbitrary grouping of networks, many of which I won't bother to watch ever anyway (why should I be paying for, say, the Home and Garden Network when I know that is something I'll never tune into?). So, instead, I have crafted a list of individual streaming services, all of which produce or carry the content that I know I want.
Just to give you a taste of what I am talking about, here is my personalized list of services: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO. These are the only services that I pay for monthly. With this particular combination of streaming sites, I can be pretty much guaranteed to be able to view almost all the content that I want to see, without paying extra for networks that I don't care about. And I'm able to manage this for under $40 a month - which is a lower cost than even the most basic cable package.
Many people find that cutting the cord comes with some challenges, such as how to watch their favorite shows when they air on, say, NBC. For some of the NBC shows that I like, Hulu adds them to their service the next day so I can watch them. But if I can't wait, there are other tools and services out there that I can use to solve the problem.
I may watch the show as it airs, or I may watch it later when it is available for free on the internet, through a streaming service, or by watching it on television with a digital antenna.
The point is that there are many ways to watch cable TV without using a traditional cable service provider. With just a little bit of planning and ingenuity, most of the old model of cable TV viewing can be bypassed. Cord cutting may not be for everyone, but if you feel like you're spending too much money on your monthly cable bill, it's worth considering.
There are plenty of resources available online for those who wish to ditch their cable service. If I were you, I would save myself the trouble of trying to dig through pages and pages of Google search results and just head straight to Reddit - the front page of the internet. Anyone familiar with Reddit knows that there is a subreddit devoted entirely to cord cutting called r/CordCutters. This subreddit is filled with helpful information and tutorials on how to avoid traditional cable providers.
There are only a few times a year that I need to consult r/CordCutters - for instance, when there is an awards show, a political debate, or any other big live event that is particularly difficult to find a stream of. But when I do find that I need it, it always comes in handy.
History
Since streaming services have become more prevalent, people have gradually started cutting the cord. This movement has been growing since the early days of YouTube and Netflix, when people found alternate ways to watch TV and movies. nowadays, of course, you can pretty much find anything on the internet if you know where to look. And r/CordCutters has been a community that helps people navigate this terrain since it was founded on January 19th of 2011.
The act of cutting the cord, or not having a cable subscription, is much older than 2011. It has been going on for years before this subreddit even launched. People were cutting the cord and sharing information on how to subvert traditional cable on other message boards and word of mouth. Free TV and movie streaming sites predate Netflix, actually. P2P file sharing and torrenting were a beacon of free media for years before that even.
Actually, it could be argued that there were cord-cutters even before the internet became the institution it is today. I'm thinking of black box cable of the 80s and 90s, wherein morally ambiguous cable technicians were offering people additional channels and access to pay per view events outside of the knowledge of the cable provider itself. Although these sorts of arrangements were not technically considered cord-cutting (mainly because the term hadn't been invented yet), they were still a means of subverting the traditional model of cable TV providers.
There are many legal ways to cut the cord and many of them are more affordable now than they were in the past. In fact, subscribing to Hulu TV would be considered, in a way, cutting the cord. However, if you're strapped for cash, r/CordCutters has been a very active community of Redditors that have consistently provided solutions for alternative ways to watch TV since 2011.
Content
I always turn to r/CordCutters when I'm struggling to find a way to watch cable television. Once I became a member of r/CordCutters, I found it delightfully easy to post ahead of, say, a live airing of something asking what the best way to view it might be; within minutes, I found that most posts became inundated with comments offering solutions or solidarity. Since subscribing to r/CordCutters, I haven't missed a single TV broadcast.
Some people have been harder to pin down than others. That's unfortunately true of networks, which are starting to know more about us and our cord-cutting ways. But I've always been able to find a resource on Reddit's r/CordCutters forum. Along with posts that offer resources for specific TV broadcasts and great services to help us cut the cord once and for all, it's a hotbed of discussion, news, and discussion surrounding the switch to digital media.
There is no one better equipped to help you troubleshoot your streaming issues or figure out the best way to set up your antenna than the r/CordCutters community. They are experts on all forms of streaming and have advice for everything from live streaming to OTA DVRs. If you ever run into trouble, be sure to reach out to these helpful individuals for help.
Pricing and Plans
Cord cutting is not always free. Many services require a payment, often less than the amount that you would pay for cable. However, this does not mean that cord cutting is expensive. In many cases, the amount you spend will be just under or equal to the amount you would spend for basic cable. The purpose of cord cutting is not solely to save money--although this is an important factor--but also to redistribute wealth so that more people can have access to quality content without having to pay through the nose.
Suggestions that I have for r/CordCutters
I would like to see more pinned posts on r/CordCutters that focus on helping newcomers to the community learn about and cut their cable TV bills. I think that some subreddits do a better job of laying out a comprehensive beginners? guide to cord-cutting, as is done by linking to resources on the front page of r/CordCutters. An r/CordCutters Wiki, for instance, could be endlessly helpful. Other than that, I think r/CordCutters is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning more about cord-cutting in general.
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