More and more users are “cutting the chord” in Australia, and ditching their expensive cable television contracts.
Cable television was once an entertainment necessity. Bundling hundreds of television channels, internet and phone services together ended up costing consumers hundreds of dollars a month. Consumers started looking for cheaper alternatives and many have abandoned cable service altogether.
The number of chord cutters combined with those who never had cable will finally outnumber those with paid television.
Television is here to stay, it’s only the source of the signal that’s changing. TV technology is only getting better. With new standards like OLED, televisions keep improving.
HD Antennas
Major networks and their affiliates in big cities still broadcast over the airwaves in HD. You need an HD antenna to capture the signal. Many are simple affairs you set up next to your television. There are also flat units you can hang in a window.
They aren’t a solution for everyone as your proximity to a broadcast tower can impact your ability to receive a signal.
If you want local news and sports this could be a good option for you. This is especially true if you live in an urban area.
Streaming Services
Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu and Amazon Prime are household names and provide access to movies and television shows.
To capitalize on the trend more streaming services have popped up over the last few years. There has been an increase in sports-related content. Every professional league has partnered with one streaming service or another to provide the content of their games.
Smart TVs
Over 80% of households have smart TVs. You can log directly into your favourite video platform like YouTube and get original content. Just about every subject under the sun has one or more YouTube channels dedicated to that subject. Politics, food, investing made for TV movies, classic movies, and sports highlights, the list is almost endless.
YouTube has become a go-to for learning just about anything. Do you need to change out a toilet, there’s a YouTube video. Want to bake a cake, there’s a YouTube video. Many people spend hours watching endless YouTube videos.
Android Boxes, Plex and Kodi
Plex is a service that allows you to build a media library on your computer and then stream it to your television, mobile phone or computer. Plex has become one of the most comprehensive media servers anywhere. It allows users to watch and record live television for later playback.
Kodi is an open-source media centre that lets you access a wide range of video content on almost any device. It began as the Xbox media centre and later was renamed Kodi.
Kodi provides access to streaming media content including videos and music. It is designed to run on Android, IOS, Linux macOS, Windows and Raspberry. This means it will run on all of your devices.
One downside to media hubs is their interface does require more knowledge and is not as straightforward as a streaming service, or traditional television.
