Money Monday: Unplugged

WSVN -- Christopher Robinson enjoys his television time.

Christopher Robinson: "I'm a news buff. I like watching the news."

But he wanted to save more money so two years ago he ditched his cable service.

Christopher Robinson: "I did the math. First of all, living alone, paying almost $150 a month, my annual cable bill was close to $2,000.

Christopher bought a Google tv box and a keypad for about $100, then he unplugged.

Christopher Robinson: "I dropped my cable subscription and I retained my broadband internet. I learned little by little, how to stream content."

Tech specialists say more people are saying, 'no thanks' to cable and 'yes' to the internet. Streaming high-definition news, sports and entertainment with players like Apple TV or Roku.

Ivan Mladenovic: "The highest end Roku will cost you $99. With that you get 250 free public channels, free access to Voodoo, Vimeo."

And you can upgrade.

Ivan Mladenovic: "Services like Netflix Streaming or Hulu Streaming which will maybe be $30, $40, $50 a month. A lot less than paying for your actual cable bill."

Now, Christopher pays $50 a month for his broadband internet service and $10 month for Netflix.

He watches all of his favorite news channels, plus television shows and movies through the internet and saves about $1000 a year.

Christopher Robinson: "Ultimately, it enables me to do things that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. So it's a question of priorities and I've found that cable television is not my priority."

Streaming, giving television watchers more choices for content and for their budgets.

If you're a real television fan, some people keep cable and add a streaming player to use them both in tandem.

If you have story ideas for Money Monday, email us at moneymonday@wsvn.Com--

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Budget Friendly Alternatives to Cable TV
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T057-C000-S002-budget-friendly-alternatives-to-cable-tv.html