As you might recall, I'm helping three people cut the cord, sharing their triumphs and tribulations with readers along the way.
My first subject is Carol Manifold, 62. She already subscribes to Netflix and Amazon Prime (which gets her Amazon Video, a favorite of mine), and her TV demands _ "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," PBS and movies on Turner Classic Movies _ seemed really straightforward. Because of that, I believe she can cancel her cable subscription and possibly even go without a cable TV alternative.
To start, I gave Carol some homework. I told her to try CBS All Access and Warner Archive in the hopes that these two services might fulfill a bulk of her viewing needs. She looked at both and reported back.
But first, a little primer. CBS All Access is a subscription streaming service that offers literally everything CBS currently broadcasts, or has aired in the past, for $6 a month ($10 a month if you don't want ads). Plus, subscribers can stream their live local station, which even includes NFL games (just not on mobile devices). It's a great deal if you love CBS shows old and new. And it's the only way to get the new series, "The Good Fight," the digital-only spinoff of "The Good Wife."
Meanwhile, I thought Warner Archive, which costs $10 a month or $95 a year, could be Carol's go-to substitute for classic movies and TV shows. The streaming app includes plenty of on-demand material for the nostalgic film buff _ or so I thought. Carol wasn't overly impressed.
"The program choices there appear to be very limited," she told me in an email. "I don't think I'll find enough to make it worth subscribing. Since I have a Netflix subscription already, I can use that if I want to watch movies."
Fair enough.
On the other hand, Carol did get the commercial-free version of CBS All Access, which she accesses through her Apple TV. She initially had some trouble getting it up and running, but was able to sort out the hiccups with CBS customer service over the phone. Unfortunately, since then, she's found that the picture quality isn't quite as good as what's she's used to. What's worse, the app takes an excessive amount of time to load, she said. Carol did, however, report at least one redeeming feature.
"I watched one episode of 'The Good Fight' without commercials and can already see how nice it will be to not have commercials at all, compared to fast forwarding through them on the DVR."
I'll be visiting with Carol in the coming week, so hopefully I can troubleshoot her picture quality and loading time issues. Because content-wise and price-wise, CBS All Access seems like a really good fit.
Finally, Carol started using the free app for her local PBS station on her Apple TV, and opted to pay for the members-only "KPBS Passport" service to get additional programming.
"It requires a (minimum) $5 per month donation, but that's about what I was donating to KPBS anyway," she said. "I had to jump through a few hoops to revise my KPBS membership to include Passport, but the instructions were clear and it worked on the first try."
There was one additional curve ball.
Carol told me she loves the FX show "Feud," and she's currently in the middle of watching a season.
FX is available through streaming cable alternatives, but I really want to see if Carol can get by without one of those. She doesn't need the excess channels. So for this, I told her to consider what's called a season pass, or a show-specific subscription, through Alphabet's YouTube or Apple's iTunes. A single season pass costs around $20, and gets her streaming access to episodes as they're released throughout the season. No pay TV bundle required. I'll show her how to do this in person and we'll both report back.
Going forward, Carol's cord-cutting journey will take place over the next few weeks. Next week, however, I'll provide some high-level guidance for another one of our guinea pigs who has very different demands.
And if you'd like to follow along on Facebook, we've set up a group called "SDUT cord-cutters." It's a closed group where members can share their cord-cutting questions and experiences. If you want to participate, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/257856181342552/ and request access. I'll make sure you get approved.
