With more than 200 streaming services available, the options may seem endless and a little overwhelming. But narrowing down your choices to what suits you best is quick and painless.
To find the perfect streaming for you, start by asking yourself a few questions about your TV watching habits.
What are my must-watch TV shows and channels? We all have beloved shows or televised events we simply can’t live without! Rest assured there is a way to stream them. Make a list of the shows and channels you and your family watch regularly. Then, before signing up, browse each streaming service’s channel listing to see if they carry the channels you want.
In some cases you’ll be able to replace your favorite channel programming with a streaming service such as Netflix or Hulu, though many current-season episodes may not be available immediately.
The best substitute for your old cable box is a live TV streaming service. Each offers a package of live channels you can watch on a streaming app that works like cable but better! They include program guides, cloud DVRs, and extras your cable box can’t deliver, including user profiles and mobile streaming. Many of the cable replacement services also offer a free trial period.
Remember, for all of these services you can cancel and restart service anytime without contracts or penalties, unlike with cable. You can subscribe to follow a particular show, for example, and then cancel after a finale.
Are local news and sports important to me? If you like to watch sports, local news, and channels such as NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, or PBS, several services could be a good fit for you. Live streaming services like YouTube TV, HULU + Live TV, Sling TV, or DirectTV Stream let you watch many of the live channels available on your cable box with no contracts to sign, so you can cancel anytime.
Can’t get enough professional sports? You have several options that offer the full gameday experience. Prime Video has the exclusive rights to Thursday night football. Apple TV carries Friday Night Baseball. And services such as ESPN+, Sling TV, FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and DirectTV Stream all give you access to a variety of sports.
You can also search for a service or service bundle that includes more sports features. NFL Sunday Ticket is available exclusively on YouTube as a standalone channel or as an add-on to a YouTube TV base plan. You can watch all the out-of-market regular season NFL games with unlimited simultaneous streams at home, real time stats, your Fantasy Football metrics, and the ability to watch four games at once.
Keep in mind that if you like to chat with friends in real-time during the game, or follow live games on social media, be aware that streaming sports are often delayed compared to the “live” game on cable. The Super Bowl, for example, lags 30 seconds to a minute behind cable.
Do I use my DVR a lot? You might be familiar with recording shows using an in-home digital video recorder (DVR) from your pay TV provider. However, these might have limited storage or come with a monthly fee. Fortunately, a cloud-based DVR feature is built into many streaming services. Instead of storing your favorite video recordings on a hard-drive device in your living room, cloud DVRs don’t require hardware to worry about and let you watch your recordings on various mobile devices.
Several live streaming services include unlimited DVR. Also, live TV services such as YouTube TV offer both on-demand videos and a library feature where you can add your selected shows for recording and watching later. With on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu, or Prime Video, you don’t need to record shows in the traditional sense; the video library is already available to watch whenever you want.
Remember, to replace cable TV with streaming you just need a good internet connection to get started. From there, the apps built into your smart TV or running on an inexpensive streamer such as a Roku will give you access to some of the most popular streaming services. Then you can add or change anything you want.
SRT can make your selection even easier.
You don’t have to memorize which services carry which channels or constantly research to keep up with the latest streaming offers and bundles. SRT has a tool called MyBundle that will help you find everything you love to watch in minutes. Visit Find Your Streaming Service with SRT Communications and MyBundle show you the streaming services that have what you want – plus the best deals.
You can even search for a particular channel, show, or genre, and MyBundle will instantly tell you where it’s available. Try it! Just click https://mybundle.tv/srt/discover and type in the search bar. Do you like the Cowboy Channel? Looks like it’s available on Sling TV and RIDE TV.
Finally, SRT is here to help. We can walk you through and offer you a free in-home setup of the TV streaming service you’d like. We’d do all the work and all you have to do is enjoy watching your favorites.
To get started, click Find Your Streaming Service with SRT Communications or call us at 701-858-1200 for a free streaming checkup.
According to the FTC, people are losing big money to criminals running complicated scams. Here’s how it works: A scammer pretending to be from a company you know contacts you, saying they supposedly spotted fraud on one of your accounts and your money isn’t safe. They connect you with someone else to supposedly help you move your money to “protect” it. The “helper,” who often claims to work for the government, is really a scammer trying to steal your money.
Scammers create websites that look like popular online stores and may offer great deals on popular items in short supply. Once you pay, they’ll either never send you the item, or send you an inferior fake.
