- Every once in a while,
it's a good idea for us to step back,
and re-examine our priors when it comes to cord cutting.
And we assume that cord cutting is cheaper,
because, well frankly, the numbers are smaller.
But is it really?
I mean, Disney Plus just raised their cost.
Netflix seems to be doing that annually, at least.
Sling is getting higher these days.
So is cord cutting still worth it?
Well, as many of you are fond of pointing out,
there are two major aspects of cord cutting,
and the costs that come with it,
that people tend not to talk about as much,
at least not explicitly when they talk
about the wonders of cord cutting.
So first of all, yeah, a $14 Netflix bill every month
is lower than the hundreds you would pay for cable.
But it's not usually just Netflix.
What about when you add in Hulu and HBO and Disney Plus
and so on and so on.
And second is cord cutting really even cord cutting?
I mean, you still have to pay for internet.
And that's going to be a big chunk
of that bill anyway, right?
So are we really saving any money by cutting the cord?
It's a fair question,
and one that we should keep asking every so often.
So we're going to do that today.
Yes. We will be dealing with a lot of numbers in this video.
So hang in there.
These are the numbers that you've got to worry about
every single month.
So I say it's worth a look.
Let's dive in
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All right, everybody.
Thanks for joining me today.
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All right.
First of all, let's establish our cost baseline.
We want to know if cord cutting saves us money.
So first we have to ask, compared to what?
well DecisionData.org put out a report last year,
when the average cable bill nationwide
hit $217.42 cents a month.
Yikes.
But hey, at least we've got that now as the baseline.
Okay.
So that's what we're all paying on average.
But hang on a second.
A cable bill is usually both TV and internet combined.
Sometimes phone too, but that's, shall we say,
less of a factor these days.
I think that's fair.
Now, internet by itself,
according to the latest numbers,
comes in at an average cost of $47.15 a month
for the most popular plans,
which are around 50 megabits per second.
Now for the speedsters out there,
a higher speed plan runs, again, on average,
$68.96 cents a month for an average download speed
of 180 megabits per second.
So if cord cutting
is going to save the average family some money,
the total monthly bill needs to stay below
that 2.17 a month.
Then we're going to be starting at $47,
with one of those more popular internet plans.
If you need to adjust
because you like the higher speed plans
you can go ahead and do that.
All right.
Now we're going to leave those numbers
for just a moment.
We're going to come back to them.
First, let's talk about what streaming your entertainment
will cost you.
If you want to replace your cable or satellite experience,
and get all those same channels,
you'll want a live TV streaming service,
and probably one that replaces most
of those channels that you had with cable.
So with that in mind, here's our list.
Hulu with live TV, and YouTube TV,
are the most popular ones out there.
And they both come in at 65 bucks a month.
With Sling TV,
if you go with the combined orange plus blue package,
they are 50 bucks a month.
Now Philo is a popular service, especially,
because it's 20 bucks a month, but it's a smaller service.
And it doesn't really try to replace cable,
in the same comprehensive way.
But moving on, and rounding out this group,
we've got AT&T TV Now and FuboTV,
and they definitely do act as cable replacements.
AT&T TV Now's middle tier package is 85 bucks a month,
while Fubo's middle tier package comes in at $70 a month.
Okay.
That's a lot of numbers, but let's stick
with the numbers from Hulu live and YouTube TV.
Not only are they the most popular ones,
and for good reason,
but they also give us a good middle ground number
to work with.
So 65 bucks a month, plus the $47
that we put out there for internet service,
that puts us at $112 a month
versus our starting number of 217.
So far so good.
But there's more than just that, of course.
That's just the live TV streaming services.
What about the on-demand ones like Netflix?
Well, in similar fashion,
let's look at eight of the most popular, paid,
on-demand streaming services out there.
For this I'll look at either the lowest tier option
that they offer,
or the middle tier option,
if there are more than two to choose from.
So I already mentioned Netflix at 14 bucks a month.
And then there's Hulu for six bucks, Disney for,
or Disney Plus for $8, HBO max for $10,
Prime Video for nine, Paramount for $6,
Apple TV Plus for five, and Discovery Plus for $5 a month.
No Peacock on this list because, well,
because they have a free tier, pretty sweet.
Now it's unlikely that one household
is going to sign up for every paid app out there.
But if they did,
this list would come to a total of $63 a month.
Now, look, I know that this is all an oversimplification,
because I'm not taking into account
any of the free trials or discounts, or bundles or whatever.
So you could come into it,
and get some stuff a little bit cheaper.
But let's just take the sticker cost at face value.
63 bucks a month for all that, not bad.
Now you add that to the 112 a month
that we had for internet and live TV streaming,
and we're at $175 a month, still well under that 217 mark.
And the thing is here,
not everybody who's cutting the cord
is looking to retain their live TV channels.
In 2020 6.1 million people canceled their cable
or satellite plans,
while 2.1 million signed up for live TV streaming.
So that means that last year,
about 4 million people simply stopped paying for live TV.
If you did that,
and combine the internet with all those on-demand services,
you're back down to 110 bucks a month.
Now maybe that's too much for you,
or maybe that's small potatoes.
I don't know.
Everybody's situation is a little bit different.
Everybody's allowance of what they're going to pay
for this stuff,
is a little bit different.
But this at least gives us a starting point.
When we're talking about streaming in 2021.
Is it cheaper to cut the cord?
Almost certainly, yeah.
Maybe not tons cheaper,
if you sign up for the most expensive version
of every service out there,
but if you're thrifty, it's a lot cheaper.
And like I mention in my top 10 free apps videos,
which you should be checking out,
you could just be paying for internet
and a cheap streaming stick, and that's it,
I mean, if you want to go that route.
But what's your route?
Let me know in the comments
how much you pay as a cord cutter.
And if you've got any tips and tricks
to help the rest of us out, throw those in there as well.
So thanks for watching everybody.
Don't forget to like subscribe
and check out those Friday live streams.
They really are a lot of fun.
I'd love to see you come and hang out,
participate in the giveaways,
do some Q&As, all that sort of stuff.
It's a great time.
So I will see you there.
Thanks for watching.