OK, so here is what I did and am planning to do.
Our premium cable TV package bundled with high speed internet (necessary because 3 kids with devices and we do some work related file uploading/downloading from home) and a home phone (which I never charged or plugged in. who has home phones anymore?) was already hovering at $200 per month when I got a rate increase of $80 before tax which officially pushed my cable bill into car payment territory. That was ********.
So, after this thread, a similar facebook thread and some internet research, I am convinced that I want to do the whole internet based TV thing... eventually.
I am going with DirectTV which is $58 per month for the first year and then goes to $80ish for the second year for TV programming at home and keeping my Cox high speed internet which I got down to $73. That is a combo I can live with.
In the meantime, I am going the Roku direction at my studio to try out various combos and subscriptions to dial in the perfect internet TV plan. I'll update this thread with what I find out and how I set that up. Uverse internet at the studio and frankly it's slow and kinda sucky compared to home, but for one device at a time it's OK. I guess.
/nerd @Rulz, dealing with the right combo of internet and TV service feels like a character in Fallout 4 trying to mod up a shotgun or power armor.
/nerd