We’ve been posting about cord-cutting, or ditching pay cable TV in favor of paid and free streaming video sites, for years now. However, products announced in the last year can better simulate the content available through cable. Sports, premium cable channels, and other things that were once cable-only are now available to cord-cutters. Yet making the switch doesn’t always make financial sense.

This calculator from Slate will help you to figure that out. After all, ditching cable isn’t as simple as calling up your cable company and canceling. (Your cable company also might make that part difficult.) If you want to keep watching similar video content, you need a way to beam streaming content into your TV. If you already have a newer game console, you can use that; otherwise, you’ll have to add in the cost of buying a device like a Fire TV, Roku, or Chromecast. Make sure that the services you’re interested in are compatible with the device you’ve purchased.

If part of what you enjoy about having cable is watching Law & Order reruns in real time or some sports, Sling TV from Dish Network was announced just a week ago, and can make that happen for you. You can subscribe to a variety of streaming services, from eclectic Netflix to your favorite sport’s own network to standalone HBO. However, these will each cost extra, and they will add up. Maybe you would subscribe to, say, MLB.tv to keep up with your favorite out-of-town team whether you had cable or not, so that doesn’t really count.

You might save money by cutting the cord…or you might discover a whole universe of streaming services that will keep you glued to the couch for longer.

Should You Cut the Cord? [Slate] (via Lifehacker)

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