Roku setup

[okrautang]

I received a Roku Premiere for my birthday after mentioning that I wanted to ditch my cable tv package. After checking the Roku website, I'm not sure if it's worth it to make the jump. Hopefully I'm just missing something simple.

It looks like I connect the Roku to my wi-fi and stream specific shows, but I need to purchase subscriptions to each channel/app I want to access? Are those fees on a monthly or yearly basis? Does the subscription give me 24/7 access to all shows on that particular network?

Right now, I have a Netflix subscription and DVR through my cable tv package, and I'm paying about $80 per month. Since I can't see prices for the different Roku channel subscriptions, I'm concerned it's going to be about the same cost to watch the same programs in a more cumbersome way. What am I missing?

[AvsGunnar]

@okrautang 

There are different options depending on the type of content you wish to stream.  Generally, if you want to access everything you did while you had cable or satellite, then you are either going to have purchase individual channel subscriptions or subscribe to a "cable-alternative" service like Hulu, Youtube TV, Sling, etc. (https://channelstore.roku.com/browse/cable-alternative).

Generally, the subscriptions are monthly so you can subscribe and drop whenever you want. (generally, no pro-rating, so just about everything is billed 30 days and automatically renews unless cancelled).

There are also free ad-supported channels you can install (Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto, Filmrise, Fawesome, Sling (free version), etc) that are ad-supported.

I think most people who switch to streaming initially spend too much time and money trying to copy their cable experience rather than figuring out what they really need to have and what they watch regularly.  Because the majority of channels are monthly, you can subscribe to paid services on an as-needed basis and adjust accordingly.  Some streamers spend more than they did with cable because they subscribe to every channel available. - How many hours are there in a day for TV watching?

For other streamers, you can have a completely free streaming experience.  I found alternate/similar content and even new content/shows that I didn't know about when I had satellite.  I generally only have free channels installed on my Roku device and an antenna connected to my TV.   Occasionally I will subscribe to a paid channel if interested in something, but not often.

It takes a little experimenting and adjusting when switching to streaming.  Not everything is just a remote click away because not everything you may want may exist in a single package.  For me it was the opposite.  I realized the content I watched was not available in my satellite package since i was actually streaming a lot of my content from a computer to my TV before I decided to drop my $200/mo satellite package and switch to a Roku streaming device.  Quickly realized that the 3 or 4 channels I watched on satellite not only weren't worth $200/mo, but really wasn't even interested in subscribing to them as standalone channels on the Roku device after I discovered the other free content available on the platform.