DALLAS -- More of us are cutting ties with cable, opting to binge watch via one of the many streaming services.
But the question we wanted to answer -- does cutting the cable cord save you money?
For the answer, we went to the experts.
Paul Verna is the Principal Analyst for eMarketer, a national market research company based in New York. According to his numbers, this year 63 million people in the United States don't have cable TV. A number that's expected to jump to 81 million in three years, rising faster than experts predicted.
"There are many reasons. One is cost -- the cost of a lot of these bundles is less, the starting cost is less," Verna said.
How much money are we talking about?
We went to our "in house" cord cutter, Crysta Lee, who's a director at WFAA. She's lived cable free for years.
Here's what she's paying now:
$20 Internet
$12.95 Hulu (Commercial Free)
$10.99 Netflix
$37.89 Direct TV Now
TOTAL: $81.83
Compare that to her old AT&T cable bill and she's saving $28.17 a month.
"Take the savings where you can get it -- you know -- you add that up and every penny counts," Lee said.
The savings are there for most people, but don't expect an apples-to-apples replacement of your cable box. Cut the cord, and you may be cutting at least a few channels you can't replace online.
"People say 'do you save money, you probably do save money -- but what are you getting and I think frankly a lot of people make this decision not so much on the dollars, but based on what they want to watch," Verna said.
At least for Lee, the $20 savings was worth the time it took to aggregate a list of channels herself.
So back to the question, does cutting the cable cord save you money?
We verified yes, it does. Just don't expect to get all your content in one place.