The great experiment follow-up

Success!  We made it 5 days with Playstation Vue and this morning I called Uverse and shut off my TV services.

Feels good.

The great experiment begins (again)

Cutting the cord.

This will be my second attempt to free myself from overpriced cable providers.  I tried it once before a year ago during college football playoff season.  Why then?  Because live TV, especially sports events, are the final wall of the incumbent television provider’s fortress.  You can get just about anything on demand these days, but providers know live sports is the last thing they have, and they’re clinging to it with a white-knuckled death grip.  So that was my litmus test: make it through college bowl season and the NFL playoffs without my Uverse box.  And it failed.

Why? Because Sling doesn’t do live sports and the Apple TV apps the major networks provide don’t do live TV.

But that was a year ago.

This time I’m hitching myself to Playstation Vue.  Based on my analysis, its the only provider out there that gives you live local stations (I’m in Atlanta), the major sports networks (ESPN, SEC Network, Golf Channel), and the miscellaneous channels my wife needs (HGTV, TLC) without having to layer on multiple add-on plans.

The others, YouTube TV, DirectTV Now, and Sling are all missing something, primarily HGTV and TLC.  Its like they haven’t gotten the deals in place yet (I think YouTube TV will probably get there), they haven’t figured out how to effectively kit channels for a family household, or they’re still trying to play a version of the “nickel and dime” game the traditional providers have been at for years.

Truth be told, my wife is the real litmus test.  While I’m at work most of the day, she’s the one that has to deal with the kids, plus she likes her shows, especially ones about 600lb polygamous people, and Georgia football and basketball.  If I can deliver on those, then the cord is as a good as snipped.

Day one – go!

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