$16/month sounds great, but the high speed internet needed to make Hulu or Netflix worthwhile costs $40+/month around here.
This is true.
In my case, however, I upgraded my internet (from $35/month AT&T DSL ad < 3Mbps to $50/month TWC at ~15 Mbps) BEFORE I cut my Dish Network service. We used netflix streaming so much, even then, that we wanted to upgrade our internet service anyway.
The point: I would have the higher internet service whether I had "cut the cable" or not. So I don't count that as an "extra" cost for cutting cable. I get that others would. But once you get higher-speed internet, it's really frustrating to downgrade it. We use our ipads/iphones/computer/appletv so much at home, a slower internet speed would no longer seem acceptable.
Also, keep in mind that I (and I'm sure many others here) consider our entertainment situation without cable to actually be BETTER than it was with cable.
Here's why:
-I rarely watch commercials any more, since everything I watch on Netflix/ Hulu has no commercials (the Hulu XBMC plugin on my jailbroken ATV2 allows you to remove the commercials).
-All of my OTA antenna recordings are made through EyeTV on my mac, and are automatically exported to iTunes, which means I can put those recorded shows on our iphones and iPads. Very handy to have a couple Sesame Street episodes on the ipad for long car trips with the kids.
-Since all our shows come through Apple TVs (either EyeTV recordings exported to iTunes, or streaming from Netflix, Hulu (free), or Free Cable plugin for XBMC (ie: any shows that are available for free streaming from the network's website)), that means that the system is scalable to as many TVs in your house as you want. All you need is another Apple TV. And ATVs are much less expensive than Tivos. Plus Tivos require at least $15/month service fees. My only recurring cost is the $20/year (that's right PER YEAR) TV Guide program list fee for the Eye TV software.
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We are very happy with this (dare I say) lifestyle change, despite the minor quirks when trying to load some Hulu or Netflix content (ATV3 is wired). Having an infant son keeping us so busy, so it is nice to turn on Pandora or iTunes streaming through our entertainment center while we tend to other tasks. The movie selection on Netflix is vast, but sometimes odd. Though, it does influence us to watch films that we wouldn't have watched otherwise. Hulu allows us to keep up with about 95% of our favorite shows.
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As a father of two young kids (2.5 year old boy and 10 month old girl), I can tell you that Netflix is ESSENTIAL once your kid gets to the age that you feel comfortable with them watching a TV show once in a while. That's because Netflix has just about every kids show you can think of, multiple seasons of it. And there are no ads try to sell you stuff through your kids. Sesame Street, Thomas the tank engine, wonder pets, yo gabba gabba (shudder) and everything else all have plenty of content. Being able to simply start playing whatever episode of whatever season you like without having to have the forethought to set a recording ahead of time is so valuable. Well worth the Netflix subscription cost.