Do I need a cable connection with a Smart TV?

The answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

Arya Babu

Smart TVs are new to the Indian market and many of us will be using them for the first time or planning to buy them for the first time. Apart from the obvious feature list and display technology, there are plenty of other questions that need to be answered, given it is not something which many have used before. We all know that a Smart TV connects to the internet and lets users stream videos and install apps among plenty of other things. But one question that we often get asked is whether one still needs a cable connection with a Smart TV. Read on as we clear this confusion.

Do you need a cable with a Smart TV?

The answer to the question is both a yes and a no. It depends on how much cable TV you watch and what sort of channels you watch regularly. As all sorts of content move online, nowadays, you can buy a subscription to most of the channels to watch live TV. There are multiple apps available that you can download on your smart TV or simply browse their sites. Jio TV and Airtel Xstream are two of the most popular options available which provide a bundle of channels.

That said, the problem with buying a subscription is that you won’t find all the channels you used to watch in a single service. At the time of filing this story, there is no single alternative app to the cable that has all the channels you desire to watch.

If you are someone who doesn't watch a lot of regular TV channels and are happy with the few available on the OTT apps, then you can do away with the cable connection. There are multiple apps like Zee5, SonyLiv, Hotstar and Voot that have channel access in addition to OTT content. You will however have to subscribe to all of them individually.

Conclusion

As far as using a Smart TV without cable or a set-top box goes, you can do it. There are plenty of apps that offer live TV channels for a subscription. But these need to be individually subscribed to, making a cable connection a more economical option in the long run. Completely getting rid of cable is only advisable for those who don't watch a lot of regular TV channels.

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