The Best Live TV Streaming Services: What You Get, What They Cost, and Are They Worth It?

[MULTIZ321]

The Best Live Streaming Services: What You Get, What They Cost, and Are They Worth It?
By Dan Seitz/ TV/ UPROXX/ uproxx.com

"Americans are dumping cable in record numbers. More of us have Netflix than we do cable subscriptions, cord-cutting is picking up speed as cable bills rise, and generally, live TV is struggling to stay relevant. The most recent attempt to get you to watch live TV is AT&T’s new service, which gives their unlimited data subscribers what amounts to cable TV without the sports. The plan joins a crowded field, and if you’re sick of your cable plan, but don’t want to forgo some networks, a live TV streaming plan might be a good option. But what’s out there, what do you get, and is it worth it? Here are all the options currently running, from most expensive to least.

Before we begin, there are a few things worth noting that apply to all these services. Despite what you’d think, local affiliates are not guaranteed to be on the dial; rights to stream networks vary from affiliate to affiliate, so check the site of any service you’re considering. Local news junkies especially should keep this in mind. Also, sports tend to be the most isolated and locked off on these services; for example, if you can’t stream your local affiliate for a broadcast network, instead you’ll get an “on demand” version that blacks out sports games. Sports fans may be better off looking into the streaming service run by the league of their choice, or for broadcast games, just buying an antenna. And finally: Sorry, ads are included and you can’t opt-out. With that in mind, onward!...."

UPROXX/Unsplash


Richard

 

[buzglyd]

It’s important to research which services can travel with you. Not all of them do. Also some have Cloud DVR now and some don’t. This article was pretty thin on information. It’s like he just wrote it from reading ad copy.

 

[pittle]

We have had Sling since it started and it works well. We dropped Netflix this year and added the $5 Lifestyle package to Sling. Hubs chose another option called AirNetTV. It cost about $150 for the box , 2 remotes and no monthly fees - they upgrade regularly, but has pretty much every TV show and movie you would want to watch - we are learning how to use it. It is not live - which we were led to believe, but last week we did watch the Greatest Showman & Wonder one afternoon. I binge watched NCIS Season 15 when hubs was gone a few days. It is a good option for something else to watch and movies seem to appear sooner. We figure that as a replacement for Netflix, it will be paid for in 12 months of future Netflix fees and then we do not have to pay again as there is more to watch than we can in a lifetime.

 

[Bucky]

We have Sling Blue with two add on packages and the cloud DVR. $40 monthly. Bought 3 Roku Streaming Sticks ($35 ea refurbished) which can be taken anywhere, easily. Bought a Tablo DVR to record our major networks such as ABC, NBC, etc. guide service cost $5 a month or $150 lifetime. Can be accessed from anywhere we have our Roku’s. Have had Amazon Prime for years that we share with our daughter and her family. Have Netflix which our daughter shares with us.

So we have minimal cost for everything we were paying $130+ mo before. When college football season starts up I will add Sling Orange back in for ESPN. Will raise mo by $15. Sure, there are some initial startup cost but to us it was well worth it.