After years of reading, research, and really close calls, I finally made the plunge. I canceled my Comcast Triple Play bundle, disconnected the coaxial cables running all over my house, and returned the boxes I've been renting for the last two years. I'm only in the first few days of my new cord-free world, but I can already tell the road ahead will be equal parts bright and bumpy. While I expected some separation anxiety after years of cable TV bills, I naively didn't realize just how different it would be without Comcast or Cox or FiOS supplying the channels. I ended up choosing DirecTV Now for my streaming needs, but I researched and tested a couple of them before settling on it.

Christmas Eve is a busy time for some, but for others, it's a day to relax and watch TV. Luckily, there are plenty of Christmas movies and TV specials to watch on Dec. 24. Marathons are always big on the holidays. The first three "Home Alone" movies will air back-to-back on Encore all day long on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, CMT will kick off their "Love Actually" movie loop at noon.

Today in Entertainment: '1984' screens today nationwide; 'Scarlett & Emma & Tilda & Matt' whitewashing T-shirt goes viral' Comedy Central announces new late-night series starring Jordan Klepper '1984' in 2017: Movie based on George Orwell's classic screens today '13 Reasons Why' star and Asian American comics take on Hollywood whitewashing with viral T-shirt Everybody loves'The Walking Dead's' Sonequa Martin-Green '1984' in 2017: Movie based on George Orwell's classic screens today '13 Reasons Why' star and Asian American comics take on Hollywood whitewashing with viral T-shirt Everybody loves'The Walking Dead's' Sonequa Martin-Green'Invader Zim' is returning to Nickelodeon as a TV movie Get ready for new "Invader Zim." After more than 10 years off the air, Nickelodeon's animated alien bent on conquering Earth is set for a comeback. The network has given the green light to a brand new "Invader Zim" TV movie from series creator Jhonen Vasquez that will include original cast members Richard Horvitz, Rikke Simons, Andy Berman and Melissa Fahn reprising their roles. "What makes this announcement extra thrilling is the adventure that Jhonen has created for Zim," said Chris Viscardi -- Nickelodeon's senior vice president of content development and production, animation -- in a press release. "I can promise you that it is as wonderfully absurd and strangely heartfelt as any fan of the original series could hope for, and kids seeing it for the first time will love it too."

Microsoft has quietly announced a few early partners that plan to bring their Windows 10 apps to the Xbox One. In a press release from its 2016 Build developers conference, Microsoft mentioned that Nickelodeon, Dailymotion, NASCAR, and Hulu will launch Xbox versions of their Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps later this year. All four partners already offer apps in the Windows Store, and all but Nickelodeon have upgraded to universal Windows 10 apps, which is supposed to make for an easy transition to Xbox. While Hulu already offers a native app for the Xbox One, the Windows 10 version is more powerful, with support for playing videos through "Hey Cortana" voice commands. A similar feature seems likely for the Xbox One when Cortana heads to the console as part of this summer's "Anniversary Update."

When MGA Entertainment, the world's largest private toy company, premiered its newest kids' show about a teen-girl team of super spies, it skipped Saturday morning TV and staged a splashy premiere on Netflix -- replete with a matching toy line, a few dozen dolls and play sets like the "lip balm lab activity kit." And Netflix, the world's largest streaming service, was more than happy to fold the show, "Project Mc2," into its exploding empire of kids' entertainment. Much of the 5 billion Netflix is spending this year on movies and TV shows will be spent on fare for the playground set. The big-business battle for kids' distracted attention spans has never been more competitive -- or eye-poppingly lucrative -- and Netflix has aggressively angled to use its data-driven insights to make programs kids don't want to turn off. About half of Netflix's 75 million members regularly watch kids' movies or TV shows, executives say, but the potential for long-term profits runs much deeper. If the site is able to win over viewers when they're young, executives said, they may be able to secure their loyalty for life.