For most of us, television is an important part of our lives. We watch sports, the local news and weather, entertaining (or maybe not so entertaining) shows and much more. According to some sources, we pay between $90 up to over $200 for this content. For many of us, we have a real overload in terms of channels available vs what we actually watch. I am seeing bundle prices here in LA that START at $180 per month for internet and cable (this is the LOWEST package of both services).
One thing that the advent of smart televisions and high speed internet access has enabled is streaming television. We have choices like NetFlix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and MANY others for movies and shows that WE want to watch and WHEN we want to watch them. What you may NOT know is that there are MANY options available for live television as well, and it is (usually) MUCH cheaper than standard cable or satellite internet. Youtube TV and Hulu are just a couple of the options out there and they both include local channel choices.
So, what sort of pricing SHOULD you expect? Let’s take a quick tour of the possibilities. Inet South LLC has packages that will start at around $65/month. Unlike many other providers, this pricing is not a “bait and switch” price. It will not go up after you have been a customer for 3 months. Let’s say that you love to watch sports, particularly the NFL (for example). NFL+Premium is the name of their streaming service. That starts at about $10/month. You can find similar deals for MLB, NBA and even SEC (or other college sports channels). Additionally, you can get the ESPN network of channels for about the same price. Add Disney Plus and Hulu for about $4 more per month. So, let’s add this up (so far) for a sports fan: Internet is $65 plus ESPN (with Disney and Hulu for the family) for $14 plus NFL for $10 and MLB for another $10. You STILL haven’t spent $100/month and you have SO MUCH of what you really wanted in the first place. AND you can watch the game whenever you want to! Many times, these services allow you to watch without commercials as well. Isn’t THAT a great feature!
Suppose you are not a sports fan and you’d rather watch your favorite cowboy shows. One of the best sources of older westerns is Amazon Prime. There are a TON of these available there and the cost? About $15/month. The list of available movies and television shows on Prime is HUGE, so I can’t possible list those here, but the entertainment options are VAST.
There are MANY MANY sources of television entertainment that are absolutely free as well. Pluto.tv is one of these and there are NUMEROUS channels available on that one service alone, which includes television shows, older westerns, sports and MUCH MUCH more.
Here, I suppose, is the main point I want to make with this article. Internet access provides us with SO MANY options for entertainment and in our modern world, this includes television. Our TVs are getting more capable of bringing in the entertainment options over these streaming services. It is much cheaper than we are used to paying. There is so much more out there than I have listed here. If you know of a service that you think may help someone, feel free to leave a comment below with those details.