Sooooooooo… We watch a lot of TV and are currently spending ~$170/month on phone/internet/Directv.
DANG!
We’re still trying to figure out how that happened that it ended up so expensive. We’d done our research and had concluded that Quest (now Century Link) and Directv were going to be vastly cheaper than Comcast Xfinity before calling and having everything installed. Fast forward 6 months and we’ve finally had 2 bills in a row that are even close to being the same amount and it’s ridiculous. We can definitely get Xfinity cheaper.
We’re going to call Century Link and see if we can work something out but I had to make sure that we could get all our shows before threatening to cancel our TV service. Below you will find exactly what we in this house watch on a regular basis and my findings as to how you can watch those shows without cable or satellite.
I’m only looking at the various networks websites, Hulu (and Hulu+ which often only has the benefit of added devices), and Amazon Instant. I focused on the network sites and basic Hulu because those are free. The deal with Amazon Instant is that the shows are $1.99 per episode (or $2.99 per for HD) which I’m sure is very similar to buying the episodes on iTunes but if you have an Amazon Prime account, Amazon Instant is free. Amazon Prime is $79.99/year which is about $6.67/month which is cheaper than Hulu Plus’ $7.99/month and there are added benefits like free Kindle books and free 2-day shipping on all Amazon orders.
Oh and we’re smart enough and have the equipment to be able to stream stuff on our laptops and still watch it on the TV so really the only downside is that one of us has to sacrifice a laptop while we watch TV. Big deal.
Fox
| Fox.com | Hulu | Amazon Instant | |
| Bones | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | all eps avail. |
| The Finder | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | Hulu + only | all eps avail. |
| New Girl | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | all eps avail. |
| Glee | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | 8d post airdate, 5 eps | all eps avail. |
Current season only for fox.com and Hulu.
ABC
| abc.com | Hulu | Amazon Instant | |
| Castle | current season | last 5 eps, current season Hulu + | all eps avail. |
| Grey’s Anatomy | current season | last 5 eps, current season Hulu + | all eps avail. |
| Modern Family | current season | last 5 eps, current season Hulu + | all eps avail. |
| Happy Endings | current season | last 5 eps | all eps avail. |
Bonus – there is an iPad app for the ABC player.
NBC
| nbc.com | Hulu | Amazon Instant | |
| Up All Night | current season | only Hulu + | all eps avail. |
| 30 Rock | current season | rotating set of 5 eps from current season | all eps avail. |
| Parenthood | current season | only Hulu + | all eps avail. |
30 Rock is apparently in a legal battle with Hulu and that is why it will only be showing a rotating set of 5 episodes from the current season on Hulu.
CBS
| cbs.com | Hulu | Amazon Instant | |
| How I Met Your Mother | current season | not available | all eps avail. |
| Mike & Molly | clips only :( | not available | only 1st season |
| The Big Bang Theory | current season | not available | all eps avail. |
| The Amazing Race | current season | not available | all eps avail. |
Basically, CBS doesn’t play nice with Hulu and hates Mike & Molly. Unfortunately, we’ve also not had a ton of success with their video player and have heard that complaint from others. The Amazing Race isn’t currently running so I can only assume that Amazon Instant will have the current season when it’s playing.
CW
Full episodes of the current season are available on cwtv.com on an 8 day delay. It’s the same deal on Hulu and Hulu +. All episodes are available with no delay on Amazon Instant.
Bravo
Well, um, I have no idea. Full episodes are supposed to be available on bravotv.com but whenever I go to the page, it’s black. Only clips are available on Hulu. All the episodes are available on Amazon Instant with no delay.
USA
On usanetwork.com the last 5 current season episodes are available on an 8 day delay. They are 30 days delayed on Hulu. But all episodes are available on Amazon Instant.
I know that there are other sites where you can find TV but not all of them are legit and I just wanted to focus on the “main” sources. I could have included links for all of this stuff but I’ve already spent too much time working on this to go that far – sorry!
And, really, if you want ease, there’s nothing that beats a well working DVR and a remote. So I’m hoping we can work something out with Century Link.
All “photos” are from Hulu via Google Image search with the exception of Mike & Molly and The Amazing Race which were just a Google Image search. All “photos” link back to their sources
Good research! One thing to note is not all Amazon instant videos are free on Amazon prime. And for whatever reason, some shows are not available on Hulu+ (30 Rock, from your list) and CW programs are now available next day on Hulu+ (pretty recent discovery).
ReplyDeleteOverall, I have been cable free for about 2 years now and while I still do watch a lot of TV, having Amazon Prime and Hulu+ (had Netflix up until last month) is infinitely cheaper than paying for cable. I was also watching everything on my laptop (and hook it to my TV like you did, but same issue: had to give up my laptop) until I decided I wanted the convenience of viewing from a Roku. As long as you don't care that you can't see a show until the next day or there are tons of ways to go save on your cable bill.