I am but a simple man. This sounds way too complicated. So complicated that I'm willing to continue paying the outrageous fee to DirecTV just so I don't have to deal with all of that stuff.
I have 3 TV's in my house, 2 of them are considered "smart" TV's. What are the chances that there will be something (one unit) in the near future that will easily plug into the USB ports of those TV's and then access my home wireless network and then give me easy access to all the apps that are being mentioned in this thread once I pay for the subscriptions? Or does this type of thing already exist? Also, potential for using USB sticks in those USB ports to DVR programming from the aforementioned apps?
Yes and no. There a few products that do this, but a lot of them are still evolving (albeit, quickly).
What you'll want will largely depend on what content you are looking for, and how you want to access it. Currently, there is not one thing that can directly rival DirecTV in terms of the amount of content available and the ability to have it all aggregated in one place. As you stated, though, you pay a premium for that. The same things can ultimately be accomplished via other means. It takes a little creativity and possibly some sacrifice to do so, but it can save you a decent amount of money.
What I would do, and am actually in the process of doing myself, is list out all of the networks you watch, including sports networks. Then determine what you service you need to keep watching them. I'll use my situation as an example.
Most of the shows that I watch are on Netflix, Showtime and HBO. Then there are a few on each of ABC, FX, Fox, AMC, etc. Sports are the only thing I seem to ever watch live anymore. If I can't watch them live, I don't watch them at all. I pay just north of $100/month for DTV, on top of Netflix and Hulu (another $17).
If I cut DTV, in order to get what I want, I'd need:
Sling ($20, +$5 for the sports package) - ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNNews, AMC, TNT, TBS, HGTV
Netflix ($9)
HBO ($15)
Hulu ($8)
Total = $57/month
Allows me the ability to watch most of those things on-demand. The only thing I'm missing is Showtime, which hopefully will be available on it's own soon, similar to HBO.
A Roku or Amazon Stick, I believe, will accomplish all of those things. You buy them for around $40 each, plug them into an HDMI port, connect them to your wifi, and stream content from each of those services.
There are some minor caveats for me, which may not be a big deal for you:
1. If you want things on CBS, they have their own similar service for $5-6, or you can get an antennae and record things over the air.
2. Sling doesn't have any DVR capability. If you don't watch things live, you either have to hope it's on a network that's available on-demand over Sling or Hulu. AMC is one such example. For me, I'd really just be relying on Sling for the ESPN channels and whatever networks they have that aren't available on-demand (pretty much, AMC).
So all I'm looking for is something that allows me to stream TV shows on-demand (Hulu/Netflix/HBO mostly cover the vast majority of those, with some exceptions), while still being able to get live sports (Sling should cover that).
Like I mentioned though, this is all still evolving. We have 2 Chromecasts and use them frequently. Currently, Sling TV doesn't support Chromecast, but it's supposed to soon.
The one major issue with all of this is that we'll have no way of watching some of the ISU football games this year, assuming a lot of them will be on Fox Sports One. But, if I'm saving $85 a month, I can afford to go grab a beer or two and watch at a bar, or head over to a friend/family members place and watch.
Hope that is at least somewhat helpful.