[racer_ash]

Flipping through the endless channels on my Tata Sky subscription is therapeutic for me. I watch a lot of NGC, Discovery and stuff. Also VH1 for my dose of music.

Somehow, the concept of no control on what you want to watch is something that I always miss on Netflix, Prime, Curiosity stream and all the streaming services I subscribe to.

In DTH OTOH, I have no control of what gets shown and this is what I enjoy about TV. Also as I said earlier, just flipping through the endless channel list is in fact more fulfilling sometimes.

I also think its a matter of time before these streaming services too introduce Ads in their platforms. YouTube already annoys us with ad after ad especially when I am watching Autocar and other car shows. So these guys aren't saints either.

[atnyia]

I am living hybrid with Airtel Internet TV since April 2017. It has everything - TV, Hotstar, Netflix, Prime Video, Alexa integration, Google voice assistance. Since TRAI ruling, I have cut my yearly platinum package to a monthly 270 one. I used to watch TV a little bit until this January but since then, my TV has only kids + news channels.

Now, the time has come to cut the cord! For the below reasons:
1) I am upgrading to fully smart TV during the upcoming sales.
2) For the existing TV, I am going to buy Fire Stick.
3) TRAI made it extraordinarily confusing as well as doubled the cost for the channels. A classic top-down intervention resulting in exactly the opposite effect compared to the intended one.
4) In my area, Airtel's last-mile team is hopelessly corrupt. I have been overcharged, charged for common area equipments. It's hard to believe that during the last four months, I have paid more for breakdowns than actual subscriptions. Airtel customer care did refund partially. Irrespective of that, this has been a pain.

So, while it has been written on the wall all over, it's my service provider which is giving the ultimate push to cut the cord.

[AJITHAAA]

Ditched the cable about 6 months ago. Was a Tata Sky user long time ago, had to ditch them due to their arrogance. Got Videocon D2H but ditched that too when Videocon and TRAI conspired to make TV watching life miserable and expensive. Fire TV stick is the prime streaming device, had bought it long time ago on a sale on Amazon. Prime subscription is offered free for a year by Airtel, Netflix is a shared account and for TV channels, a bunch of APPS have been side loaded on fire TV stick that any TV channel is available and from all over the world. F1 and MotoGP on Hotstar & a hundred different channels. Use VPN and stream even new movies.
Earlier was paying for both the cable and Internet and internet was under utilized. Now with only internet saving is about Rs.500 per month.

[rulerofsun]

The Cord has been cut for over two years now. My family and I are enjoying ourselves immensely.

[fine69]

Did so 5 years back in 2014. In fact I didn't have a TV from 2014 to early 2019.

Bought a Sony 55 incher around 6 months back with home theater to watch movies in 4k. For online content I have Netflix & Prime subscription but both mostly offer mediocre content in my opinion. This reminds me that I need to cancel my Netflix subscription.

Still, I can never imagine myself going back to cable TV because it is just too annoying. It was always annoying but we never had a choice, now the only part annoying is deciding what to watch when scrolling through endless content.

[shubhox]

I voted Yes. I cut the cord 2 months back.

Its a no-brainer for me in terms of cost. My Tata Sky package started costing me Rs. 765 per month, with my family watching less than 10% of the channels. And unfortunately, with the mix of channels I wanted, this was the lowest cost at Tata Sky.

Amazon Prime and Hotstar just cost Rs. 999 per year. So now, it just costs me less than 2k a year than compared to Rs. 9180 (765 x 12).

In terms of quality, I have seen than the premieres on cable coincide with the premieres on streaming services - in fact, some premieres on Hotstar happen before cable. And once you get into the habit of watching TV without ads, there is no going back (at least for me).

In the near future, with the advent of Apple TV, Disney+, HBO, and Comcast (provided they come to India), I believe people will rationalize which service to subscribe to which month - to avoid increasing the cost by subscribing to all at once. It will be a bit complex (specially with different people in the family needing to watch different things), but I would prefer it any time over ads and spending 9k.

[NiInJa]

The only reason Satellite TV is ON in my house is because my parents are not tech-savvy, they find the task of logging in to various apps to see their shows a little tedious. I for one have connected a CPU to the TV so don't remember the last time I switched on the Set top box myself.

[vigneshnr]

Voted : Yes. However my case would differ from many - as my mom is staying with me.

My subscription was ending in May sometime. And I casually checked with her whether I need to renew. I was seeing less value in continuing as barring my mom none of us watch TV regularly. To my surprise, she agreed immediately. Her decision was easy because she gets to watch most of the episodes during the day - much before they are telecasted.

TV being a major source of engagement / entertainment for her (like most elders) I promised to renew if she misses anything anytime.

Now more than 3 months have gone.. I don't think any of us miss TV.

[Mortis]

Voted no. I have Tata Sky as well as Prime and Netflix. DTH is good for browsing and watching some shows just to pass the time. The problem with streaming I find is that nowadays everyone wants to have their own streaming service with exclusive shows so then you have to subscribe to each one if you watch a variety of shows. Also there is the problem of plenty. I sometimes end up wasting a lot of time browsing to find something to watch.

[DaptChatterjee]

At almost 39, I think I am becoming old-fashioned. I have decided that I will continue to enjoy DTH (Tata Sky) for the foreseeable future. A few reasons-
1. TRAI has made DTH a lot cheaper. No HD fee. I am not forced to pay for channels I never watch. I used to pay ₹700+ per month, that too for a yearly subscription. Now I pay ₹390 per month on a monthly basis. I still get to see all the channels I want and can remove a few rarely watched channels to further cut costs.
2. Don't have broadband connection at present home. Airtel made my life miserable when I tried to transfer my connection couple of years ago while shifting. Since then, Jio is the only source of internet for me!
3. Don't have a smart TV! My 5 years old Samsung HD TV is going strong and I have neither the want nor the money to upgrade. All the extra money goes to my car, newly acquired photography hobby and above all, my daughter (5 days old!).
4. Not a big fan of web series. I mostly watch sports (a wide variety of them not limited to cricket) and infotainment channels. Don't want to switch apps to change channels.
5. Through Tata sky app, I can watch live TV on phone at no extra cost. That's why (and number 4 above) I have not subscribed to any streaming service. Saving tons of money!
6. Still sceptical about resolution of IP based services. In my limited opportunities, I have found them inferior to satellite TV (HD).

[SoumenD]

Voted yes.

Although I didn't ditch the set-top box, I have stopped recharging. Reason being TV is watched only by parents when they spend around 3-4 months with me in Bangalore. Rest of the time we don't watch TV content much except the cricket matches. Prime and hotstar are good enough for our needs now.

My 5 year old Sony HD LED TV, with a Chromecast works almost like a smart TV. Airtel extreme streams almost everything anyways & it's easy to cast the phone to TV. Have been so for past two months since parents left & I never felt the need of set-top box recharge. Once they are back next year around summers(April/May), will recharge again (usually needs 20Rs extra to restart suspended connection)

[Biraj]

I had cut the cord earlier this year as we were barely watching the 'cable' TV. I haven't recharged my Tata Sky subscription after the cricket world cup. The DishTV connection at my Ghaziabad home is still active as parents find it easier to use and have memorised the channels.

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to juggle between F1 and Ashes and that's when I felt that the experience of swapping between channels was so much better with the conventional source/channels. Last Sunday, I kept browsing Netflix, Prime, Hotstar and Zee for content but couldn't decide on what to watch and then another realisation dawned upon me. Tata Sky was better than this. I used to browse multiple channels and then settle for some content that I liked and here the plethora of options made the decision making so difficult.

I saw an ad of this blended option by Airtel and will explore it further to check whether it addresses my needs and quirks. Never been a fan of Jio so haven't subscribed to any of its services, yet.

[Nazaar25]

My family got rid of the satellite TV a few months ago mainly due to these reasons- a ton of ads, same old movies (some channels don't even bother to change the set of movies they show!) and cringe worthy shows.
The only good thing on TV is sports but now even that is available on web platforms.
Our plan is to buy a smart TV, subscribe to YouTube premium (no ad version) and subscribe to some other web platforms for e.g Netflix, Amazon prime,etc.

[The Observer]

Got myself a Fire stick, Prime and Netflix free subscription somehere in mid 2018. Did not renew my DTH connection thereafter.

Prime, Hotstar more than suffice for my TV viewing needs and the occasional viewing of sports events live.

Love the freedom to not be disturbed when watching a movie or series, choices available and ability to pause as and when I like.

YouTube and a few essential apps being available also ups the choice levels.

Won't ever be going DTH way. Next buy would be a smart TV.

[carfreak]

It has been more than 4 years now since I cut the cord.

Although the reason at that time was the nature of my job due to which there was a lot of travel, and hence, lesser time to watch TV, I never felt the need to get the connection restored.

I used to watch news and movies on TV mainly and now there are far better options for it (That most news channels are filled with rubbish debates helped my cause too). The only thing I missed out were live telecast of sports, which I do not miss any longer thanks to many sites offering live streaming