The first question you need to ask yourself is what cable (or satellite; for simplicity, I refer to all such as "cable") channels do you watch on a regular basis? Some channels are very proprietary: for example Fox News has its own brand of programming and targets a certain audience. You can't get Fox News live without being subscribed to cable or knowing somebody who is so you can use the online stream through their cable ID (Edit: You can get Fox through Playstation Vue's service). Fox does offer clips of some of their shows for free online at various places, but a free live stream is cable only. CNN is another proprietary news network, but it can be streamed on Sling, which costs considerably less than cable. CBS News Live is a 24/7 news network that you can get for free on Roku.
Live sports are another stumbling block. While much of ESPN is now available through Sling (more on them later) without a cable subscription. many regional networks are only available on cable systems, and many cost extra. If you're a sports junkie who needs every sports option available, you're probably not going to be happy without cable TV.
Most cable networks offer TV programming that isn't proprietary to them. For example, Warner (WE) shows a lot of CSI and "Law and Order". In fact, that's about all they show besides infomercials. But CSI and Law and Order are not proprietary to WE: you can find both elsewhere, such as CSI on broadcast (free, OTA) TV and on streaming services; Law and Order can be seen on MyTV (broadcast network), TNT, and streaming services.
Once you know what proprietary networks you want and what shows you want to continue to watch, it's time to look for alternate sources. Understand that you may not be able to completely "cut the cord"; internet access is required for streaming services. Since most people who have cable also have internet access, this won't be a problem. While it's possible to stream on a 3 Mb/s connection, you're realistically going to want a 15 Mb/s connection, and if you stream extensively, you'll want an account with a high enough data allowance (the total amount of data you can consume in a month without paying extra).
The steps to take to determine whether you can replace cable with something else is covered in the next post.
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