Cable TV vs Roku & Streaming Video Subscriptions

As with any subscription/membership may vary, and why there are so many to choose from.  There is never "THE ANSWER" we seek as to which is better and why.  Evaluate your needs, your budget, what you can live with or without. 

I dropped Comcast Cable = $822 annual TV, + Internet total $587 annually = $1409 a year, now I pay $39.99 + tax a month for Fast Internet Service and...

...I now have a Roku's at each TV a one time cost, with memberships to Netflix $8.54, Hulu Plus $7.99 and Crackle which is Free = about $17 a month.

Just recently I added the Amazon Prime channel via Roku and with the savings of $68+ from not having Cable TV, I now pay $23 for streaming video, a savings of $45 a month.  Which in 3-4 months pays for having the Roku 3 & 2 XD's that I purchased from Amazon, a one time cost.

I now pay $78.50 a month for Internet, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu Plus.  And Roku has many more Free Channels you can add.

Who can live without the Internet & for those who raised their hands to they could live without the Internet if you are reading this you have Internet access on someone's computer or device.

I shop at Amazon...so it is natural to have Amazon Prime, you get Free 2 Day Shipping on Millions of Items Unlimited Instant Streaming of 41,000+ Movies & TV Episodes for about $6.70 a month.

And over 350,000 Kindle titles to borrow for free...and if you do not own a Kindle, you can still get the books using the Android App.

So for what I paid for Cable TV, needing their box, which has so many Channels I would never watch or multiple channels of the same thing on at the same time and I do not care to watch sports, shopping networks, or Insane workout as I am disabled.  I can watch them on the Internet anyway.  Eventually I will upgrade my TV's for Smart TVs

Much of what is on TV is on the Internet.  I can watch from any TV or Computer, Movies, TV shows which some TV Shows can be viewed Web Only on your Laptop/Notebook, Tablet, SmartPhone, or Desktop PC.

With Amazon Instant - $1.99 Rentals - Own for $5.00 or Less and there are Free Videos

The Good: Amazon Instant Video has lower prices on some movies and a catalog that's mostly on par with iTunes.

The Bad: You can only watch movies instantly if you have Prime or if you have purchased or rented them on the Amazon Web site first. There's no in-app store.

The Bottom Line: Amazon Instant Video is only instant if you're a Prime subscriber or once you've already purchased content from Amazon's Web site, but the lower cost for some videos might make it worth your while.

If you have Amazon Prime, you get a Netflix streaming-like subscription that offers up a package of free streaming movie and TV content for customers of Amazon's $79-a-year Prime service (which also entitles you to two-day delivery of other Amazon goods with free shipping). The amount of "free" Prime content isn't as large as what you'll find on Netflix, for example, but there's more content than you might think. Currently, Prime content is, at best, a subset of Netflix's offering, even though Amazon has ramped up some exclusives at the time of launch. But there's no telling what the offerings will be like as time goes on.

To view C/Net's Review of Amazon Instant Video