I cut the cable TV cord in 2009 and haven't looked back since.
At the time I also cut the cable internet cord, switching to lower cost DSL. Eventually I went back to cable for internet and house phone, because DSL was just too dang slow. Over the last six years, I've saved something like $4000, even factoring in expenses (a home theater PC, Netflix subscription, etc.) along the way.
My current setup is as follows. And, for the record, my household isn't interested in sports, so access to live sports isn't a requirement.
We've got two TVs. Both are smart TVs that can access Netflix etc. The TV the kids use has an Xbox 360 that lets them play their library of DVDs. They can also access the kids account on Netflix.
The main TV currently gets Neflix streaming ($8/month grandfathered in I believe), Amazon Prime (the cost of prime is driven by our use of Amazon for shopping, and we see the streaming as thrown in for free), and we are now trying out Hulu's commercial free stuff ($12/month). We also get all the main OTA network programming for free. So, content cost so far = $20.
Now, Netflix's streaming library is very very small, maybe 15% of their overall library as relates to content I like. So we also subscribe to their DVD+bluray service for several discs. This runs I think $20/month, wrapped up with the streaming for around ~$30 total). On a big screen, the difference between DVD and BluRay is very apparent, so I hate watching DVDs on the big TV. So content wise we're in for about $40/month, or more like $30 / month if we give up Hulu after trying it for a while.
To get the most out of my disc subscription with NF, I buffer them onto my home theater PC. I have software (with a lifetime license) that lets me rip the movie content off the DVD/BluRay discs and store it on my HTPC or server until I watch it. Before anyone starts thinking I'm a pirate, note for the record that I just buffer it temporarily until I watch it, then I delete it. This is just like DVRing content from the cable company, legally. I'm not sharing the content with anyone out of my household, and I don't keep stuff long-term. But I buffer a bunch of movies so I've always got about 10-15 movies and a couple TV series ready to watch. So if there's an internet glitch or whatever, I've still got plenty to watch, not even counting the stuff I record off the air from local stations on the HTPC.
The HTPC (home theater PC) is a 2009 era machine I built myself and have upgraded lightly (video card and SSD for the operating system), and it runs Windows 7 like a champ. The interface is Emby (used to be called Media Browser). From the HTPC I can play back my OTA recorded network shows or any of the content I've ripped from discs, all with full metadata support. Though it's a computer, it's essentially an appliance.
My only angst is that over the last few years the cost of cable internet here has gone from ~50/month to about $90/month. I have no practical alternative that gives reproducible speeds sufficient for streaming content in HD.
All in all I'm quite pleased. I get any content I want (NF disc library is huge!), and much of it is available instantly via streaming, and whatever cool movies I want in full HD without streaming compression I get on bluray. Life is good with an HTPC.
That's how I roll. I'm happy to answer any questions.
Marc