The Best Live TV Streaming Services for Cord Cutters in 2020

Live TV Streaming Services Comparison

Millions of cable and satellite subscribers are replacing their subscriptions with an online live TV streaming service.

For 2020, we did the most comprehensive review of live streaming services to find the best Live TV Streaming Subscription. If you’ve decided to cut the cord and stream TV online, this review is for you. We will help you find the best Live TV Streaming Service and easily try them out so you can start saving on your cable bill.

While some people find that on-demand video services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, or Amazon Prime Video are good enough, sometimes you just can’t give up watching major networks, live locals, or live sports on ESPN and Fox Sports. The good news is that you can now watch streaming TV, so you won’t have to miss your favorite live shows or movies.

We compare live streaming services and pick the best service for you. Learn how to stream live TV including your favorite shows and sports online without a cable subscription.

We’ll give our top picks and show how to get up to a 7-day Free Trial on each service.

Streaming video services are a great cable alternative, but with the benefit that they’re month-to-month (with free cancellation), no cable box is required, and that you’ll save a lot of money.

Which is the Best Live TV Streaming Service?

After ongoing testing the six live TV streaming services for thousands of hours, we found that each service is great for different reasons.

Most of the interfaces are well designed, they nearly all offer a DVR and shows on demand, and have minimal buffering with a good internet connection.

Depending on if you want locals, sports, entertainment, or news — we think there is a great pick for you. If you want to find the best service based on the channels you watch, try out our Channel Finder.

Plans & Prices

You can try Hulu Live TV, Philo, fuboTV, Sling TV, AT&T TV NOW, and YouTube TV each with a 7-day free trial.

Sling TV is currently offering $10 OFF your first month, so you can get Sling Blue or Orange for just $20 (normally $30). Alternatively, you can choose to get a free Amazon Fire Stick ($40 value) if you prepay for 2 months of service.

While we previously recommended, the PlayStation Vue “Core” ($50) plan, since it was the best option for sports fans — they shut down the service in January 2020. We have put together a list of the best alternatives to PS Vue.

Channels

The Philo ($20) base plan is the cheapest option to get a wide variety of high quality entertainment content. While it doesn’t come with locals or sports, you will get channels like A&E, AMC, BET, Comedy Central, Discovery, Hallmark, HGTV, and MTV at a fraction of the cost.

Hulu Live TV ($54.99) is the cheapest bundle that includes locals, regional sports, national sports (ESPN, FS1, NBCSN) and top cable channels from A+E, Discovery (Discovery, Food Network, HGTV), Disney (Disney Channel, FX, & Freeform), NBC (Bravo, E!, MSNBC), Warner Media (TNT, TBS, CNN, Adult Swim), and Fox (Fox News).

fuboTV ($59.99) has 30 Top Cable Channels. They recently added ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, FX, Nat Geo in August, while dropping Turner-owned channels (TNT, TBS, CNN, etc.). They have some hard to get Regional Sports Networks like MSG in New York, NESN in Boston, and AT&T Sportsnet Southwest in Houston.

Sling TV’s is a great option for budget streamers, as it includes up to 25 top cable channels Top Cable Channels for just ($30+) a month. This is a great option for those that want some sports, some news, and some entertainment content for a low price.

YouTube TV ($64.99) recently added channels from Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, VH1), so they now offer 31 Top Cable Channels – more than any other service. However, they are now the most expensive option at $64.99. They are missing channels from A&E, History, Lifetime, and Hallmark.

Since AT&T TV NOW ($54.99+) launched their new MAX and PLUS plan, they now have the weakest overall channel lineup, with just 23 of the Top 35 Cable Channels. The service is missing channels from AMC, A+E, and Discovery, but they have many hard to get Regional Sports Networks (AT&T Sportsnet, Altitude, MASN, ROOT Sports) that aren’t available on other services.

Compare Channels Across Live TV Streaming Services

Streaming Experience

All of the services have relatively similar video quality. Hulu Live TV, fuboTV, and YouTube TV have the most reliable connections.

Features

Every service offers a cloud DVR, which lets you record streaming content to watch at a later time. Sling TV is the most limited which includes 10 hours of recording capacity, or 50 hours with a $5/month upgrade.

Almost every service lets you stream content to at least 2 devices at the same time. “Sling Orange” is the one exception; it only lets you stream on 1 device.

Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, and AT&T TV NOW are the only services that have parental controls.

Cloud DVR

While most services offer a DVR, each one has slightly different restrictions on what can be recorded, when the recording will start, and whether commercials can be skipped.

For instance, some will let you record from the beginning of the episode even when you tune in after it starts. Others will let you watch while the episode is still recording.

Recording Capacity • AT&T NOW 500 hours • fuboTV 30 hours • Hulu 50 hours • Philo Unlimited • Sling 10 hours • YouTube Unlimited

fuboTV includes 30 hours of recording space, but offers a $10/month upgrade for 500 hours of storage. Sling TV now includes 10 hours of recording space, but offers a $5/month upgrade to 50 hours of storage.

Oddly enough, fuboTV and Sling TV are the only services that offer a way to record a single episode. Every other service makes you create a “series” recording, in which every episode of a show will be recorded.

You can generally fast-forward through shows that you recorded to the DVR (unlike most on demand content) with some exceptions.

Hulu Live TV requires you to upgrade to the $10/month “Enhanced Cloud DVR” if you want to skip commercials and to upgrade to 200 hours of recording space.

Recently, Sling TV and YouTube TV removed DVR restrictions, which prevented users from skipping ads on recorded shows from certain networks.

Some services like Philo and YouTube TV offer unlimited DVR storage, but the content will be removed from your DVR after 28 days and 9 months respectively.

Simultaneous Viewing

All of the services allow you to have at least 2 simultaneous viewers, with the exception of the Sling TV’s “Orange” $30+ plan (it only allows a single stream). AT&T TV NOW and YouTube TV allows 3 simultaneous viewers, with YouTube TV offering “Family Profiles” so up to six users can have a personal account. Some offer the ability to add an additional viewer to your plan. Hulu Live TV includes 2 viewers, but offers a $10/month “Unlimited Screens” upgrade, which allows unlimited devices to stream on your home network or 3 devices outside your home. fuboTV includes 2 viewers, but will allow you to add a third simultaneous viewer for $6/month — or as part of the $59.99 Family Plan (which also includes a 500 Hour DVR). While new subscribers to AT&T TV NOW includes 3 viewers, those on legacy DIRECTV NOW plans can add a third simultaneous for $5/month. Concurrent Devices More is better. AT&T NOW 3 streams Philo 3 streams Sling “Blue” 3 streams YouTube 3 streams fuboTV 2 streams Hulu 2 streams Sling “Orange” 1 stream

On Demand

All of the services offer video on demand (VOD), but require you to watch commercials (usually 5 minutes per half hour) during playback.

Hulu Live TV, fuboTV, and YouTube TV make it the easiest to search for and watch on demand content. They have great show detail pages, which bundle the live, upcoming, and on demand episodes in one place.

Sling TV has improved their on demand experience, but sometimes their guide data will be inaccurate for on demand content. We have lots of issues playing on demand content from AT&T TV NOW. Videos will often fail to start or spontaneously freeze during playback.

AT&T TV NOW and fuboTV also offer a “catch-up” feature, giving access to show episodes that aired within the last 3 days—that may not normally be available on-demand.

TV Everywhere

Similar to traditional cable and satellite subscriptions, these cord cutting services provide “TV Everywhere” logins to certain channels’ apps (e.g.: AMC, CNBC, Fox Sports Go, FX, WatchESPN, etc.). PlayStation Vue and AT&T TV NOW connect to the most channel apps, with access for up to 56 and 37 channel apps, respectively. The other services offer access to about 30 channels. View All TV Everywhere Apps TV Everywhere App Access More is better. App count may vary by plan tier. fuboTV 51 apps AT&T NOW 37 apps YouTube 35 apps Hulu 33 apps Philo 33 apps Sling 19 apps

Media Streaming Devices

The services are available on most smartphones, tablets, TV streaming devices, computers, and video game consoles.

Other Streaming Services

Video Review of Live TV Streaming Services