My setup involves subscriptions to Hulu ($8/month), Netflix ($8/month), Amazon Prime ($100/year) and HBO Now ($15/month).  I cut the cord with DirecTV almost a year ago.  I of course had to keep my Comcast High Speed Internet at $65 per month.  I have a single antennae for local channels and I have it hooked up to a Tablo DVR system which is connected to my router.  I can pull up the Tablo from any TV with a Roku or Apple TV attached to it and watch live TV or recorded shows from the local stations.  The Tablo eliminates the need for an antennae being hooked up to each TV.  The Tablo isn't all that necessary if you have a Hulu subscription, however, I can record live sports like Jaguar games and we don't have to pay CBS for their streamable content which they don't like to share unless you buy a subscription to their app as well.  My wife uses the Tablo more than I do, I just personally use it for the live sports.

 

Shortly after I cut the cord with DirecTV, Comcast called me and offered me a basic cable channel package and free HBO for a year for an additional $5 per month which took my Comcast bill to $70 and with no contract.  I obviously took this deal and cancelled HBO Now in favor of HBO Go.  I do not have a cable box attached to any TV in my house.  I use the above mentioned apps or I log directly into apps like AMC, HGTV, ESPN, etc with my basic channel subscription through Comcast.  

 

I was paying over $200 per month for Comcast Internet and DirecTV.  I now pay approximately $94 per month and that may jump to $110 a month when my free HBO runs out and I need to re-subscribe to HBO Now, but I may wait until next season of Game of Thrones to worry about that.  It can require a little bit of money up front in equipment if you don't already have a Roku, Apple TV or equivalent already hooked up to each TV in your house and the Tablo unit and attached hard drive probably cost me $250 (There's also an option for a $5/month Tablo subscription to update it's channel guide regularly or $150 lifetime subscription, I opted for the lifetime which is essentially paying for 2 1/2 years up front, not a hard decision when you shave $100 or more off your monthly bill).  Native Tablo apps are being discussed for being pre-installed in newer smart TVs so I think they are on the verge of becoming more mainstream than they already are.  There isn't an AppleTV app for Tablo yet but there is for iOS devices and you can obviously Air Play something on your iOS device directly on your AppleTV and the native AppleTV Tablo app should be coming out any week now.  There is already a Tablo app for Roku.

 

Quite frankly I don't miss a thing about having DirecTV.  It took a little bit to get used to not having a Guide for your entire channel package, but I have access to everything I watched before except NFL Network and I now have access to the NFL Network App using someone else's log in info that let me borrow it.  If you're comfortable paying the up front cost of obtaining the necessary equipment or if you already have it, there's really no reason to keep a cable/satellite subscription.  Even if Comcast hadn't had called me with the offer they did, I'd be just fine with those App subscriptions I mentioned above.  

 

I did have SlingTV for a month or two to have access to ESPN and AMC before Comcast called with their offer.  I would resubscribe in the event the $5 upgrade to my package expired, but I will say the things that bothered me about SlingTV were that they didn't have a proper channel guide and some channels were broadcast at louder levels than others.  Hopefully they fixed those issues.

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