How I cut the cable (DISH) and learned to love ROKU. And YOUTUBE TV.
Disclaimer: I am neither employed by nor compensated, in any way, by ROKU or YOUTUBE TV.
I am 77 years old and retired (commercial pilot).
We bought a 'smart' TV.
We bought a ROKU stick for $30.
It was on sale, down from $40.
It took about 15 minutes to set it up.
I am NOT an electronics/computer geek.
I now have free access to hundreds of TV channels.
Many are not even broadcast channels.
They are only available on the internet.
Like tubi.
500,000 movies?
OK, you can go to the ROKU website and see what they have.
ROKU does not have local channels.
That's where YOUTUBE TV comes in.
(Not to be confused with YOUTUBE on ROKU. That is completely free and NO commercials. Thousands of movies, TV shows, cooking, documentaries, etc.)
YOUTUBE TV IS $40/MO.
I was paying $100/mo. for DISH and a hundred (thousand) channels I never watched.
You get all your local channels and their national feeds, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, etc., plus every sports channel known to man. Channels I didn't even know existed.
This is my present to DU.
I quit watching DISH in September.
I cancelled their service three weeks ago.
(Just want to make sure I could watch everything I wanted before I cut the cord. Alabama football, Super Bowl.)
It's not nearly as scary as you think.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have just signed up for two more years and if I try to leave my cable company they are gonna get me. I told them I was on a fixed income and I wanted to opt out, they told me I could cut things down like have less channels, lose voicemail on my phone, have less bandwidth with a much slower computer - but I would be paying almost the same for much less. Then I realized I hadn't put anything else in place ( I have bundled Wifi/landline /cable) so I couldn't just stop everything. So I signed. 
Any advice?
I'll see what I can do 
Easiest way to link computer to tv is with an HDMI cable if your tv has that input. Look on the back.
You can also do it wirelessly if you have wifi, but that's a bit more complicated.
that in addition, you still have to pay for your basic data pipeline....that is, your high-speed internet via cable, DSL or fiber from your local internet provider. So, for many people, they're not really cutting the cable - they're changing what's done with that cable entering their home.
In addition, one has to have enough bandwidth (data rate) to provide data streams to all devices that will be receiving separate programming (multiple TVs, smartphones, computer, etc.) via streaming WIFI. Many folks may also need to upgrade their WIFI modem or router since their WIFI will likely be handling much more data. Your internet provider can help with those calculations.
For an example of internet access cost, when we get it done ours will be between $40 and $50/mo. through AT&T Internet plus a little monthly for the WIFI modem. The $50 rate pays for 50mb/s data speed, which is far more than my family will need.
It's also worthy to mention that most everyone can get the major networks plus their many sub-channels for free over the air with just a set of rabbit ears in urban areas. I've talked to people that were completely unaware that antenna-access broadcast TV is still available (in digital format).
...........
without our cable?? our computer/wifi are through our cable.......how do we get our computer connection??? Thanks.
for our computer, that makes sense. Thanks again.
Internet connection, Amazon fire stick and subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu. I really love it and don't have to be pissed off every time I pay a Comcast bill because I dumped them! 
