Save & Still Enjoy TV, Movies, Sports & More

Save & Still Enjoy TV, Movies, Sports & More

There are many ways to enjoy television these days and the choices continue to grow.  As prices raise year after year with cable and satellite TV providers, people are looking for new ways to save.  The influx of streaming devices, smart TV's, game consoles, and the variety of electronic components such as tablets and smart phones, television is accessible almost anywhere.

There are many new options and ways of watching television but nothing beats a good outdoor TV antenna.  Today’s outdoor TV antennas are a lot smaller and provide a true digital HD picture with all the major and local network TV stations.  The best thing about an HDTV antenna is that it's free once installed with no monthly bill like you get with cable, satellite or streaming services.  Get CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, PBS, CW, Ion, ME TV, and more with no monthly subscription fees.  For more TV and movies supplement antenna TV with a streaming device, like an Amazon Fire, which gives you access to a variety of streaming services, TV shows, movies, music, games and more.

Some of the most popular streaming devices today are the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Google Chromecast.  They range from $20 to $100 or more in price.  The streaming services on all these devices vary, but most of them provide the popular services such as Netflix, Hulu and Sling TV, along with a variety of different apps.  For a monthly fee around $10 to $20 these streaming services provide television in a couple of different ways, from live TV, to prerecorded season series, some with and some without commercials.  TV Network apps on smart phones and other electronic devices also provide prerecorded shows and live sports.  Plus don’t forget about your local Redbox for the best deals on movies and games, usually around $1.63 a day.

For those sports fans it’s hard to give up that Direct TV, I know.  You can’t live without your ESPN or the NFL package.  Well now there are some options, ESPN and ESPN2 are available through Sling TV's 20 channels for $20.  TBS and TNT are also on Sling TV, which show the NBA and March Madness.  A supplemental sport package on Sling  gives you 9 more sports channels for another $5 a month, including ESPN News, ESPN U the SEC Channel and International soccer.  

All local NFL games like the Cardinals in Arizona are on local network TV.  Stream NFL Sunday Ticket games live online with NFL Sunday Ticket.tv.  That means football fans can watch every out-of-market NFL game, every Sunday afternoon, without a DIRECTV satellite TV account.  

The MLB.TV Premium yearly subscription for all Major League baseball games is $109 a year, that’s $9.09 amortized over a year.  A single MLB team yearly subscription is only $84.99 (amortized $7.09/mo.).  So besides DirecTV or cable and the bar, there are a lot of different ways these days for sports fans to get their fix.

No matter what you’re looking to watch these days, there are usually cheaper ways of getting it other than cable or satellite TV.  A $100 monthly bill can easy be cut down to $30 or less a month.  Put together a list of the shows, events, and movies you enjoy watching and I’m sure you can find them cheaper.  For advice, ideas and installation services please contact me at info@freehdtvaz.com.  

By TJ McGlynn, Digital Media Consultant