Today we release our monthly side by side look at the major live TV streaming services. In this list we look at Fubo TV, Sling TV, Hulu’s live TV beta, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, and DIRECTV NOW with the hopes that we will make picking the right one easier.
*Note this list is uptodate (as best as we can make it) as of October 11th 2017.
First you should look at which of these services works on the devices you own?
*Note Chromecast will work on any Chromecast supported device like Android TV. We did not include YouTube TV on Android TV as there is no Android TV app for YouTube TV.
All of the services offer local channels in different markets. You can find out what locals are available in your area by visiting their sites.
Next, you should check to see which service has the channels you want?
*YouTube TV also includes access to YouTube Red.
*Hulu also includes access to Hulu’s on demand service.
*CSN is now NBC Sportsnet.
*Found a error? Please email us and we will fix it.
DIRECTV NOW offers two streams.
PlayStation Vue will work on five devices at once but some channels will not work outside of your home network. You can use your PlayStation Vue login on different apps such as WatchESPN.
Fubo TV allows 2 streams at the same time.
Hulu live TV beta starts with 2 streams but you can add more for $14.99 a month.
DIRECTV NOW has a DVR in closed beta testing. AT&T has announced plans to launch a DVR in the fall of 2017.
Fubo TV offers 10 days of cloud DVR and you can record 10 shows at once.
Hulu live TV beta starts with 50 hours of storage. If you want more storage or the ability to fast forward you can pay $14.99 a month to get that ability.
PlayStation Vue added CBS Sports recently and your list doesn’t reflect that.
NBC Sportsnet Philadelphia NOT available on Sling or DTVNow.
For me the key is local channels. I have DirecTV Now and currently get zero local channels. I’m looking at Hulu to solve this. I tried Sling when it first came out, but didn’t like it.
What didn’t you like about Sling? I have had it since its release and while the first couple of months were a bit difficult to deal with, it is perfect now. I have tried DTVN and Fubo since and didn’t like either as much especially when you compare the price of Sling to the others.
And you should also note that while Vue’s DVR storage is for 28 days, every time the program in question is repeated, the clock starts ticking all over again. In that so many shows now offer marathons to get viewers caught up, many popular shows stick around for weeks following the initial 28-day period.
Regarding DirecTV, there’s an interesting article in today’s Hollywood Reporter with the headline, “Cord Cutting Rears Its Ugly Head”, which discloses while AT&T gained 300,000 digital customers in the last quarter, it lost 390,000 traditional video subscribers for a net loss of 90,000 in the most recent quarter.
They aren’t making any money on their now service either so numbers wise it’s not one for one.
I think they vary to much with the different tiers and add on packages.
I’m with PS Vue because it has my ABC, CBS, FOX locals. I am just missing NBC, CW, Univision, Azteca, and Bein Sports. If I had those it would be perfect. Sling has those for me so for about $10. I use the antenna for those put wish I had everything in one place. Having dvr for locals is a huge plus. At this point no streaming services have everything that I want but Vue is the closet.
Playstation Vue does include Comedy Central. Additionally, and most importantly, I can take Playstation on my mobile devices outside of my home network, with only a handful of stations that don’t work, but 98% of my channels work on my iPad while out and about.
Can you pause, RR and FF live TV on Vue?
Im pretty sure Fubo blocked me from watching NFL on CBS outside the house, but will let you watch anything not sports?
DTVN has Showtime. It’s not “X” above.
Need to know when it will be available on the Nvidia platform.
DTVN has Showtime and your list doesn’t reflect it.
This is great for summary comparisons. You can also check out http://www.suppose.tv for another interesting way to compare the various services.
That is a great site. Thank you.
But what about the picture quality on Sling for sports, which I found to be poor? Was that your experience as well?
Yes. my speed is at the top level too.
Is there a reason Centurylink Streams nationwide service is not included? I believe the Hulu Live Beta is also available on the Xbox 360.
Yeah I guess they should be included. Missing to many channels for me, but a similar service.
You have to be a customer and they don’t compete in every market so they are a regional competitor. The list is for national competitors only.
They are national, just checked I m not in their market and I could sign up with one local.
“They are national. I’m not in their market.”? Therefore they are not by definition national.
Yes they are national. You don’t need to be in their Internet area.
Is that the streaming service with only MSNBC for news?
Oh ok, I signed up for there service last week and I live in Indiana. Never was a customer before. So maybe they changed it. I do appreciate what you guys do, thank you.
I have Sling, but the only downside is that the picture quality is not that great for watching sports. Vue has a better picture quality, but their UI was very disappointing so that’s why I’m with Sling.
Are you using a Roku? That’s the platform I hear that Vue isn’t great on. I used it on a Fire TV and it was pretty good there.
Yes, I was using roku. Didn’t have a fire stick at the time. I may try it on the fire stick. Thanks. The ironic thing is that the sling platform isn’t great on fire stick, much better on roku.
I definitely haven’t found a perfect one yet. YouTube TV has all my locals, but lacks some things like Turner stations which would be nice for the baseball playoffs, I ended up signing up for a DirecTV Now trial to watch those. I’ve used Playstation Vue before, but it doesn’t quite have all my locals (missing NBC currently despite being a Scripps owned station which they have deals with for other networks) and I have to get the local Fox Sports through Fox Sports Go as they don’t have the actual station on there. Hulu doesn’t have all my locals and it’s missing AMC which is a dealbreaker for me. Sling doesn’t have my locals and they have probably the lowest picture quality. DirecTV doesn’t have all my locals either and the fact that they don’t have their DVR fully rolled out is probably costing them a lot of potential business as they’re the last to the game on that. If Vue ever gets my local NBC, I may switch over to that again and I could probably even get my parents to switch off their overpriced Spectrum TV too it if that were to happen.
I love DTVN but I haven’t decided on my preferred device yet. Apple TV seems to be a horrible experience.
I was initially DirecTV Now, but dropped them due to the lack of DVR and their on demand and 72 hour rewind thing did not work at all during my membership. They did have a great package price though. I will go back to them once they have DVR, but I wish they’d offer me the price they had on launch. I dropped them because they were not delivering what they promised and they never offered any make good.
So Nvidia Shield would be considered Android TV? They have no DTVN app? I hate Apple’s app and want to use a gamepad. Amazon Fire TV 4K’s cable is too short for my liking.
Please add NFL RedZone to your listing of channels.
You didn’t include the only decent news show on tv…OANN….in your chart…..weird…..
I noticed that too. When I dropped PS Vue and subscribed to DirecTV Now, I was pleasantly surprised to find they had OANN in their lineup. Otherwise, I’d have considered a standalone subscription.
Playstation vue is accessable on Kodi with a add on in the official Kodi store, (yes it’s legal) you still have to log into psvue with your account credentials.
Why no direct tv now on android tv? I don’t understand why. May have to dump direct tv now and go with vue. I love my android shield.
I did not see any comparison on video quality. I’ve tried both DirecTV Now and YouTube TV. When looking at the same channel on both systems, YouTube loads much faster and has a higher picture quality than DirectTV now on 3 different devices (a computer, a phone, and tablet). YouTube also has a slicker user interface. I also have 5 local channels from YouTube vs 1 from DirecTV Now. Because of this, I am dropping DirecTV. I’ll be missing some channels but I believe at some point YouTube will add another tier of service with additional channels.
Don’t see number of streams offered. If Hulu live went to three streams instead of two to start with I would give them a try, but until then I’ll stick with the five Vue gives by default.
The channel comparison is not apples to apples. Some channels are on different price tiers.
For example, Turner Classic Movies is on Direct TV Now’s basic tier, whereas on PS Vue, it’s only available on upper tiers.
Would you please add a picture quality comparison, especially for sports? That would be very helpful!
Having to pay extra to fast forward is just the dumbest, greediest thing I’ve seen. And it’s not a little amount of money either. Screw Hulu.
fubo offers 30 hours of DVR space included which can be stored indefinitely. For $10/month more, you can get 500 hours.
My must haves: CNN, ESPN/2/3/U, and Pac-12 Networks. Only Sling TV has all three. Everything else I want I can get over the air or on my Roku (Netflix, Amazon Video, et al).
Needs updated. YouTube TV now works on XBox and Android TV.
BEIN sports is not included. Please add as I’m interested in availability. Playstation Vue dropped the channel earlier this year and I subsribed to the SlingTV International sports service to get BEIN. BEIN has Spanish, Italian, French, etc. soccer and Cricket, so it’s a good addon deal for ex-pats. I’m a MotoGP fanatic so I need BEIN.