Cutting the Cord in Canada: A Household Decision Worksheet

A television package is one of those bills that renews quietly. It arrives every month, it rises a little every year or two, and few households sit down to ask whether the channels on the list still match what gets watched in the living room. Cancelling can save money, but done in a hurry it can also leave someone without the one thing they cared about, or trigger a fee that eats the first few months of savings. The worksheet below turns the decision into a series of small, honest questions, the same way you might review any other recurring cost.

Step one: write down what the household actually watches

Start with a week of plain notes rather than memory. Put a sheet of paper next to the remote, or a shared note on a phone, and have everyone jot down what they watched and on which channel. Memory tends to favour the shows people like to talk about, while a list captures the morning news, the cooking channel left on in the background and the kids' cartoons.

At the end of the week, group the entries into three piles:

• Must keep: programmes someone would genuinely miss, such as a weekly series, a local newscast or a particular sport.
• Nice to have: things watched because they were there, not because anyone sought them out.
• Never touched: channels in the package that nobody opened all week.

The size of the last pile is often the most useful number on the sheet. It shows how much of the package is being paid for without being used.

Step two: give sport its own line

Sport is usually the hardest part of the decision, because games are live, rights are split between broadcasters and the schedule changes through the year. In Canada, national NHL games sit mainly with Sportsnet, including Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays, while TSN, RDS and TVA Sports carry other leagues, regional games and French-language coverage. A household that follows one team closely may need a different setup from one that just catches the playoffs.

List each sport and team someone follows, the months it matters and roughly how many games a week they watch. A fan who watches every regular-season game has a very different need from someone who tunes in for the Grey Cup in November and the Stanley Cup final in June.

Step three: check the connection you would be relying on

Without a cable box or a dish, everything arrives over the internet, so the home connection becomes the foundation. Before deciding anything, look at the plan you already pay for: its speed, whether it has a monthly data cap and how many people stream, game or work from home at the same time. Run a few speed tests at the busy evening hour, not just in the middle of the afternoon.

If the connection struggles when two people stream at once, an upgrade might be needed, and that cost belongs on the worksheet too. Sometimes the saving from dropping TV is partly spent on a faster internet plan, which can still be worth it, but only if you know the real figure.

Step four: read the contract and the bundle

Many households take TV, internet and sometimes a phone line from the same provider, with a discount for keeping them together. Removing the TV portion can change the price of what remains. Find the most recent bill and the agreement, and answer these questions before calling anyone:

1. Is there a fixed term, and when does it end?
2. Is there a fee for cancelling early, and how is it calculated?
3. Does the internet price go up if TV is removed from the bundle?
4. Is any equipment rented, and does it need to be returned by a certain date?
5. When does the billing cycle close, so you do not pay for a month you will not use?

Writing the answers down keeps the phone call short and stops a retention offer from steering the conversation before you know your own numbers.

Step five: map out how the channels would reach the screen

With the must-keep list and the sports line in front of you, look at the ways those programmes could reach the television instead. For many households that means a mix: a broadcaster's own app for one league, an on-demand service for series, and perhaps an internet-delivered channel package that bundles live news and sport into a guide that feels close to the old setup. Some Canadian families who want that familiar channel-guide feel compare services such as topshelfiptv.ca, alongside the other options on their list, before they settle on a combination.

Whatever you consider, check what a service actually carries and read its terms before you subscribe. Confirm that it works on the devices you already own, how many screens can be used at once and how easy it is to stop if it does not suit you. A short trial month, if available, is a cheap way to test a plan against a real week of viewing.

Step six: put the numbers side by side

Now fill in a simple comparison. Keep it to monthly figures so every line is easy to read.

The aim is not to find the cheapest column but the one that covers the must-keep list at a price the household is happy with. If the switch column only wins by a small amount and loses a favourite programme, staying put for another year is a perfectly sensible answer.

Step seven: pick a date and review after three months

If the numbers favour switching, choose a cancellation date that lines up with the end of the billing cycle or the contract term, and set the new services up a few days before so there is no gap on a big game night. Put a reminder in the calendar for three months later. At that point, look again at what is being watched, cancel anything that went unused and keep the habit of reviewing the bill once a year. Treated that way, the TV budget becomes like any other planned expense: chosen on purpose, checked now and then and easy to adjust.