There are a lot of people out there giving up cable TV to become cord cutters. While 82 percent of Americans still pay for TV, at least 6 percent say they may disconnect from a provider in the next six months; that number goes up to 25 percent for people who have moved homes. On top of that, 81 percent of households in the US report using Netflix or a DVR or a video on demand in addition to or insteadof traditional TV. A full 50 percent of households already have a TV that connects in some way to Internet services (like Netflix).
Certainly the march toward subscription TV isn’t speedy, but the networks and studios know better than to sit around and wait for Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now and Amazon Video to entirely crush them at their own game. (They’ll leave it to those services to crush them in quality programming, hey-ooo!)
Even if you’re not a cord cutter, you probably know one. Or perhaps you (or they) are a mixer: you’ve got cable or satellite, minimal extras and you’re paying for a streaming service. It all pays off in a much wider selection, especially of new content, which the above services offer in droves.
The holidays are upon us, so we’ve gathered up a few quick items for you to get your beloved cutter of cords, or yourself, many of them instantly orderable/redeemable. They’ll help anyone save some more money while getting all the entertaining programming they can.
Tablo 4-Tuner Digital Video Recorder
$249.99 at Amazon
Last year we recommended the two-tuner version, but it’s clear that Tablo’s 4-tuner DVR is the way to go—that’s two extra recordings simultaneously, all off an HD antenna. The Tablo will then allow playback on up to six devices at a time, keeping everyone in the family happily couch-potatoed. Tablo has apps for iOS, Android, Kindle, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and more so you can play video on just about any device, not just the HDTV and sans-wires—it uses Wi-Fi and doesn’t even have an HDMI port. An add-on subscription service lets you use it while traveling to (at least) watch local news and sports. You have to provide a USB hard drive for storing all the video, though.
