Looking back on cord cutting

It was about this time in 2009 that I began to seriously consider cutting the cord. I didn't, not until a little over a year later, in January 2011 that I actually cut cable, but around this time in 2009, I was seriously looking into it.

I had visited my son and he was watching ESPN SportsCenter on his Xbox. I was intrigued. I had heard about streaming TV, but I didn't know anyone who did it -- at least, I didn't think I knew anyone that did it -- until I found out my son was doing it.

Seeing it in operation made it less of an unknown for me. I dove in and tried to find out everything I could about it.

Keep in mind that there was no live streaming service such as Sling TV, YouTube TV, or the like. TV entertainment was on-demand. Live sports, if it wasn't on ESPN, was non-existent.

Forgetting about live sports for a minute, I was fine with on-demand TV. I had used a TiVo since early 2006, and recorded everything anyway. I was watching stuff hours after it aired on cable. Sounds like Hulu, right? Yeah, it was really no change for me. Except for sports, which we're not talking about at the moment.

Once I understood what the experience would be like, I was ready to see if it was what I wanted to do. Hulu would be the same as a DVR, as far as I was concerned. And stuff that wasn't on Hulu, I could afford to purchase. Maybe.

I went into my TiVo recording schedule and looked at everything I has set to record. I put all that in a spreadsheet, and then looked at the different ways of watching it. Essentially, my options were Hulu streaming, iTunes purchase or Amazon purchase.

After adding up the cost of the shows from the available services, I determined that it would not save me money to streaming. A year later, I ran the numbers again, and I would have saved money. So, I cut the cord.

My Streaming Life began on January 11, 2011, and I've enjoyed it every day since.