Many
Americans have decided to cut their landlines and instead use mobile devices at
home. In addition to cutting phone landlines, many Americans have also decided
to cut their subscriptions to cable or satellite TV, as they have found
alternate ways to stream movies and TV at home via smartphones and tablets.
Americans
who no longer subscribe to cable or satellite TV have increased 44 percent in
the past four years to 7.6 million households, according to an Experian
Marketing Services report.
A
recent U.S. Cellular survey revealed that 79 percent of respondents use a
smartphone daily. Of those, 84 percent have cable or satellite TV, but 34
percent have considered dropping it for alternate services. Furthermore, 15
percent are likely to discontinue cable or satellite TV in the next year. Smartphones and tablets,
such as the 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy S 5 and Apple iPad Air, are popular devices
to watch downloaded or streaming video.
Waiting in the parking lot to pick up your child after practice or outside enjoying the cooler fall weather by using
a mobile device with 4G LTE speeds is a great way to help keep up with your
favorite shows.
Smartphones
and tablets have reduced the need to fully depend on a remote control to find
your favorite TV show, sporting event or a movie. I love the ability to be able to use my smartphone or Samsung tablet for mobile entertainment.
With
the fall TV season set to debut soon, here are tips and questions to help
viewers decide if it’s time to tune out cable or satellite TV:
Determine
what TV shows you watch. If your list is small, Google Play and iTunes sell individual TV episodes for
$1.99 to $2.99. Season passes are available at a discount
rate.
Hulu Plus and Netflix offer monthly subscriptions that
begin at $7.99, and you can watch HD shows on all of your devices including
your computer, tablet or smartphone.
Are you already a
subscriber to at least one of the above mentioned monthly subscription sites?
Then you may be interested in purchasing a streaming media player such as a Roku, Apple TV, or Amazon Fire, which allows you access to
thousands of channels, subscriptions services, convenient ways to rent or buy
movies, watch on demand shows and play games.
Are
you always on-the-go and can’t watch your shows when they initially air? Being
able to stream them wherever you are from a tablet or smartphone with an
inexpensive subscription may be a more efficient way to see your favorite
storylines.
Do
you watch a variety of comedies, dramas and sporting events on a wide range of
channels? While alternatives are available, it may be better to keep your cable
or satellite service to ensure you can continue to watch everything you want. That's what we do. We use cable for wireless internet access in
the home and our cable system has an app we can use on our iPhone 5s to stream
entertainment on-the-go or at home in a room without cable tv. This allows us
with U.S. Cellular's 4G LTE network to enable better moments through
simplifying and enhancing our lives and watch shows on our time table. Between work, school, practices and family events, we can't always watch our favorites when they premiere. And like every fall, there are some great new shows to check out.
And
with the options available on smartphones, it might be a good idea to see if
your child is using their phones responsibly with a customizable Parent/Child agreement.
