Cutting the Cord

DURING A RECENT VISIT to retired friends in Florida, I learned about YouTube TV, a streaming service from Google with more than 85 channels. I decided to try it when my wife and I returned home. I initially kept my TV trial private. I wasn’t ready to introduce the idea to my wife, who doesn’t like change and would rather just stick with cable TV.

I thought YouTube TV worked well. I still had to sort a few things out, though, before adopting it wholesale. With seven TV sets in our home, we had different remotes, sound systems and varying levels of television smartness, from totally dumb to too clever for us. Some rooms had four remotes—yes, four—to control the cable box, TV, DVD and sound system.

Could we cut the cord and have only one remote control per TV? Even better, could we have an identical model remote in every room? I challenged myself to make the operation of every TV seem identical, regardless of its make, model or age.

With time, I succeeded. You’ll note, though, that I didn’t say my wife likes the new setup. Did I mention she hates change?

On the positive side, we’re saving money every month. YouTube TV isn’t free, but it’s a lot cheaper than our old Verizon cable service. I’ll get to our total savings—after accounting for the new streaming subscriptions and the equipment we purchased. But before I get to the bottom line, let me walk you through our transition, which was a journey of its own.

First, I placed an order with Verizon to remove all its cable boxes from our home. I got a response I wasn’t expecting. Yes, the company was losing me as a cable customer, but it was determined to hang on as my internet provider. The company offered me much faster service at a lower cost.

This gets a bit technical, but Verizon offered to upgrade my internet speed from 100 megabits per second to one gigabit, plus install three network extenders for whole house wi-fi. All this would cost me $5 less per month than my current rate. The company offered to fix this price for four years and top it off with a $200 Visa gift card.

I accepted this generous offer and set up an appointment for Verizon to install the new wi-fi equipment and remove its seven set-top boxes. I was joining the roughly six million Americans who cut the cable cord each year.

Canceling cable was just the start, of course. The key to making our visual entertainment uniform throughout the house was getting a Chromecast streaming device from Google. The device comes in two versions: standard HD and 4K, which are $30 and $50, respectively. I ordered seven, enough of each model to match the resolution of each television. 

I ordered the Chromecast units directly from Google. The instructions were clear, and each room was set up in less than 15 minutes. You plug the device into a port on the back of your television and it allows you to wirelessly stream multiple services, like Netflix and YouTube TV.

Now came the hard part: learning new TV watching habits. There were new remotes and new channels. It took time, but we’re figuring it out. It’s not hard, just different. Fortunately, our friends with more experience in cord-cutting gave us a few practical suggestions.

They, like us, record different shows. They suggested setting up two users on the recorder so that our shows are sorted as either his or hers. They also suggested that my wife and I organize our TV guide displays differently because we have different favorite network lineups.

So far, the pluses far outweigh the minuses of having to learn a new entertainment system. And the savings are significant. To start, our Verizon savings were $180 per month, even with the added cost of the high-end streaming services.

In addition to cutting cable, I was able to cancel my costly SiriusXM subscription for my car because I now get YouTube TV on every tablet, cell phone and computer. I often use earbuds to listen to my shows while working and driving. Back in the day, it was called radio.

Now, I have to add back the costs. YouTube TV isn’t free, nor were the new Chromecast units and remotes I needed to purchase. When I net it all out, I estimate our savings to be $100 a month.

Our TV transition isn’t over, however. We expect to move to a continuing care retirement community, where the TV service is from someone other than Verizon. This will be one more change to cope with. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out.

Richard Hayman is a second-generation family business owner and inventor with three patents. He studied engineering at Cornell University and received a master's degree from George Washington University. After his family's business was purchased by a public company in 1999, Richard went on to enjoy several additional careers. He’s also been a STEM instructor for middle and high school students in after-school technology programs. Check out Richard's previous articles.

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