Made up of brands Wave, RCN, Grande, and enTouch, Astound offers internet-based entertainment that uses TiVo, Sling TV, and the Google Play store. Fabulous first-year pricing includes internet, but if you want premium perks or a provider you can grow old with, swipe left on this one.
Philo is a great value with 70+ live TV channels, the full AMC+ library, and channel add-ons available. You can watch TV live and watch over 75,000 on-demand titles from the streaming library. If you love feel-good movies, reality TV, and shows about home and family, you'll love Philo. We tested Philo across browsers, phones, and streaming sticks, and it performed really well. Get started for just $28 a month or try a 7-day free trial.
Xfinity TV offers a lot of features and strong channel prices, as well as powerful internet to bundle up with. High fees hamper the experience, but Xfinity remains one of the cheapest cable TV options on the market—and it’s also one of the most widely available.
Although Astound doesn’t have the massive channel counts that some providers have, the channels it does have will scratch just about any itch. However, if you want Spanish-language channels or comprehensive sports coverage, it might not be the provider for you.
Local: 3.5/5
Astound has most of the channels you need to stay up-to-date on local events, including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, Comet, and The CW. But you won’t find Cozi or any Spanish-language local channels.
Sports: 3/5
Unlike many competitors, Astound’s lowest-tier plan (Basic) includes Fox Sports. Its mid-level plan (Signature) is pretty standard and includes sports like ESPN 1 and 2, Fox Sports, TNT, TBS, and USA. You’ll also get NBA TV and Motor Trend, which are less common. But you’ll miss out on the Golf Channel, and because Astound doesn’t provide Spanish-language channels, its international soccer coverage isn’t ideal.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3.5/5
Astound has solid family-friendly channels, especially ones with educational content like Animal Planet, History Channel, Discovery, and National Geographic. But you won’t get Nat Geo Wild, the Science Channel, or the Smithsonian Channel. You’ll get some decent cartoons with Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, but your littlest ones will miss out on Nick Jr. and Disney Junior.
News and politics: 3/5
Astound provides plenty of coverage for most people. You’ll get lots of local news of course, along with national channels like CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, HLN, and C-SPAN. You’ll even get a bit of international perspective with BBC America. But you won’t get Newsmax, The Weather Channel, or any Spanish-language news.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 3.5/5
Astound has a wide variety of entertainment channels. Exercise your funny bone with both Comedy Central and Laff, or watch a serious cowboy movie on INSP. Learn some home improvement skills with HGTV and TLC, or leave home behind while watching the Travel Channel. Create culinary masterpieces with the Food Network and Cooking channels, or fill up on celebrity gossip with E!. You’ll also get all three Hallmark channels, Bravo, Paramount, and IFC.
If you love home renovation shows, feel-good movies, and reality TV, Philo has a channel lineup you’ll love. But you won’t find sports, local channels, or news.
Local: 0/5
Philo doesn’t offer any local channels, so that means no local news, no primetime favorites, no local sports, and no awards shows. If you want this programming, we recommend checking out live TV streaming options YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV or a traditional TV provider like your local cable company or satellite TV providers DISH or DIRECTV.
Sports: 0/5
Like with local channels, Philo doesn’t offer any sports coverage. You can catch some sports content on ESPN+ or get a decent variety on services like Fubo or Sling TV. If you want to catch every NFL game, you could even try the NFL Sunday Ticket premium channel from YouTube.
More Resources:
Family and education: 4/5
Philo is a great choice for families and kids. You get multiple channels from Discovery with the base package price, plus Animal Planet, Great American Family, Family Entertainment TV (FETV), three Nickelodeon channels, Story Television, and Science. There’s no Disney, Cartoon Network, or PBS, but we love that Philo makes it easy to access free programming from services including Crackle, Cheddar News, Gusto TV, and RetroCrush, the new station featuring classic anime hits.
News and politics: 2/5
While you can catch BBC America and BBC World News on Philo, there’s virtually none of the news or analysis you would expect from traditional TV. There’s no Late Night Tonight, and no 60 Minutes or PBS Newshour. You don’t get Fox News, MSNBC, HBO, or CNN either, and we didn’t find any foreign-language news programming in our tests.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 4/5
Philo really shines when it comes to stories, movies, and inspirational shows. You get all the Hallmark and Lifetime channels before add-on pricing. Plus, you get A&E and the INSP channel. We also found shows from TV’s rich past, including I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, Matlock, Doctor Who, and even Touched by an Angel. There’s a strong selection of shows about the Black experience, too, including Rasheeda Frost's Boss Moves and much more. Even better, you get to choose from four different MTV channels before add-ons.
Optional add-on channels include Fandor, FMC, HDNet Movies, Movies!, Reelz, Sony Movies, MGM+, MGM+ Hits, MGM+ Marquee, Starz, Starz Encore, and Starz Kids and Family.
Xfinity is one of the country’s biggest cable TV providers, and it offers a wide range of basic and premium channels. If you pay for the highest tier of service, you’ll have access to an excellent selection of shows and games. Even at lower tiers, you’ll still get a respectable selection of channels, but you’ll miss out on a few faves. We based our scores primarily on English and Spanish options, but Xfinity has some great international options you might want to check out as well.
Local: 4/5
Local channels are some of the oldest and most popular networks out there, featuring local and national news, national sports, and syndicated favorites. With Xfinity TV, you get access to almost all the top local channels. You’ll miss out on Comet, but most users won’t be too sad about missing its infomercials and reruns. You also get CBS All Access, the streaming service from CBS, but whether you can watch your local CBS affiliate depends on where you live.
More Resources:
Sports: 4.5/5
Xfinity is one of the best TV providers out there for sports. It offers channels for everything from pro basketball and football to golf. You can get ESPN, TNT, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), and more. Whether you can access regional sports networks depends on where you live, so check the channel guide in your area if there are specific games or teams you can’t miss. There’s no way to see all out-of-market games like you can with NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube TV, but there’s still enough games for almost any appetite.
Family and education: 4/5
Xfinity offers a lot for families to love, including a huge selection of educational channels and shows for kids, with everything from travel and history shows to Disney and Disney Jr., Nickelodeon, and Animal Planet. You’ll miss out on Heroes and Icons and may not have access to CBS, which brings the score down a bit, but it’s still a solid choice.
News and politics: 4.5/5
If you live for breaking updates and political commentary, Xfinity has you covered. You get access to all the biggest national networks on both sides of the aisle, including Fox News, Newsmax, and MSNBC. You even get BBC America, VICE, and almost all your local channels. You’ll miss out on the Weather Channel and the Castilian Spanish station Estrella, but Xfinity is still one of the best options out there for news junkies.
Lifestyle and entertainment: 3.5/5
If there’s one area where Xfinity’s lacking, it would have to be movies and entertainment. Don’t get us wrong—you’ll still get Hallmark, Lifetime, Comedy Central, HGTV, and more, but you’ll have to pay add-on prices for HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME, Cinemax, and MGM+ (formerly Epix).
Astound’s base plans are pretty standard compared to competitors, and initial costs are low. However, if you start adding custom channels, costs quickly add up. Plus, after a year-long honeymoon with great introductory rates, Astound turns up the heat and quickly drains your bank account. Although Astound leans on Sling TV to deliver its live TV channels, it offers a better experience and more channels than just Sling alone.
Astound sells its TV and internet plans together. First, you’ll pick your internet plan, then you can add a TV plan. Whichever TV plan you choose, you’ll stream all your shows over your Astound internet connection, so getting the right internet plan is critical. If you’re a small household that doesn’t stream a ton of HD content, a 110 Mbps internet plan could be plenty. But if you want to take full advantage of Astound’s 4k streaming capabilities, we recommend at least the 400 Mbps plan.
Cleverly named after the inventor of the television, Philo is one of the cheapest live TV options available. It’s a great value for live TV and vast array of movies, entertainment, and lifestyle shows. There are other add-ons, but even if you pay for them all, you’ll still pay less than most of the other live TV services. You’ll also find more than 75,000 titles in the on-demand library.
Philo stays super cheap by skipping local channels, sports, national news, and many of the most popular national networks. (1) You’re also locked out of recently aired entertainment from PBS, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. A digital antenna is an easy workaround that can enable you to watch your local news.
Philo is easy to sign up for, and it's easy to manage your subscription. Philo comes with a free, 7-day trial, and it's easy to cancel online.
If you look at package rates alone, Xfinity is one of the cheapest TV providers out there—prices are low, and while the channel count isn’t the highest, it’s got all the most popular channels (1) covered. However, a slew of additional fees causes the monthly price to be quite a bit higher than advertised (it wouldn’t be a stretch to see $60 or more in fees on your TV bill, in addition to the package price). Ultimately, while the service itself is a solid value, it’s going to end up costing you.
Astound has put together a great list of equipment and features that allow you to easily find and watch or record your shows with relative ease. That said, we'd love to see more DVR storage included in Astound plans.
Ability to watch: Great
Getting your first TV set up with a Stream 4k box is free, and additional boxes cost just a few dollars per month. You'll also need an Astound Wi-Fi router, but you'll need that for your Astound internet service anyway. Astound uses the Sling app to deliver your streaming experience. The interface can be confusing at first, but once you get used to it, it's a decent experience.
Ability to record: Good
If you ever want to leave your couch (like, say, to run out and get more popcorn), you can use the Astound TV+ app to watch shows in line at the quickie mart, tap into a respectable 125 included hours of Cloud DVR storage, or schedule a future recording. Register up to 12 devices, and watch on up to five at a time.
Ability to find: Great
Astound leans on TiVo’s Stream 4k device to combine the capabilities of a DVR, live TV (via Sling), and streaming services (via Android apps). If that sounds like a lot of stuff to try to sort through while your popcorn gets cold, you can use the voice button on the remote to tell your TiVo what you’re looking for—or ask it to give you a few curated options.
Philo is pleasant on a day-to-day basis, and works better than some of its higher-priced competitors. There's no 4K, though, and we found some platform-specific quirks.
Ability to watch: Good
We tested the Philo interface on iOS and Android mobile phones, a few different web browsers, and an Apple TV. The interface was similar across devices, and the setup was one of the simplest among all the live TV streaming services we tested. After we entered payment info, we got right into the guide. The original browser saved our login info. Signing in later on different browsers and apps required two-step verification using a mobile phone number or email address, but we never had to enter (or remember) a password.
We didn’t run into any issues when we tried multiple devices and browsers from different locations, which was a refreshing change from services like Hulu + Live TV, which tracks your IP address. Unfortunately, there is no way to watch in 4K—Philo maxes out at 1080p resolution no matter how you’re watching.
The viewing experience is about what you’d expect from a live TV provider, but with some oddities. Watching live, the only way to skip commercials is to record the episode in progress, wait several minutes, and skip ahead whenever the commercials come on. You can also fast forward through most commercials on DVR content, and some channels let you skip ads with one click on Roku streaming devices.
We ran into some buffering issues with Philo on the Apple TV we tested, particularly with the channel guide. It happened on different devices in multiple locations, so we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a bandwidth issue. The slow loading wasn’t a dealbreaker, but we can see how channel surfers would be annoyed.
Ability to record: Excellent
The DVR and on-demand experiences with Philo were pretty par for the course in our tests, and Philo recently upgraded its cloud DVR to save recordings for up to a year. We are impressed that you get three extra months to watch your recordings, compared to competitors Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV, which give you only nine months. Unlimited recordings is also pretty sweet, and we liked Philo’s 72-hour Rewind feature. You can use it to watch almost anything that’s aired in the last 72 hours, even if you forgot to add it to your library before it aired.
To get the most out of Philo, we recommend spending some time in the beginning to find and add your favorite shows. Within a few days, your Saved library will fill up with dozens of episodes to choose from.
Ability to find: Good
When you get to the Home screen on Philo, you’ll find a roundup of trending live and recommended shows, plus top movies and other categories. You can see whether a show is available on demand by clicking through to the episode description or by hovering your mouse over a particular episode, but there’s no way to tell at the series level. However, you can favorite shows at either the episode or series level, and saving a series means all future episodes will be recorded in your Saved library. You can also favorite channels, and that makes them show up first in the channel guide. It’s fairly simple to unfavorite, and the changes appear across devices instantly.
The channel guide itself is less impressive. Channel numbers aren’t listed (just logos) and you have to click into a program to get additional preview info. It works, but there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles to rave about.
Ability to share: Good
Philo offers many of the features you’d expect from a modern live TV streaming service. In our tests, it was easy to create profiles for different viewers, and the DVR libraries and favorites were kept separate. You can add up to 10 profiles and assign each a separate mobile phone number, so different users can sign in using their personal phones. However, there were no parental controls to be found.
You can watch Philo on up to three screens at a time, without a lot of verification or hassle.
Xfinity brings a lot to the table for its viewers, from a very nice DVR system to decent picture quality and a nice on-demand experience. We like its remote options, but are a little less excited about its fees and DVR costs.
Ability to watch: Great
You can watch Xfinity on a standard TV in your living room, and it’s a nice experience. The picture quality isn’t quite as good as satellite and the fees are a bummer, but the viewing experience is perfectly acceptable for most families.
Xfinity also offers the highly rated Xfinity Stream app, which gives you access to your entire channel lineup—plus on-demand content and your DVR recordings—on any device. Xfinity Stream works on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, and it’s a great way to stay up-to-date with your favorite shows while you’re traveling (or just waiting in line).
Ability to record: Good
Xfinity offers the X1 DVR system, which is one of the best all-around DVRs on the market. It’s easy to use and offers a substantial amount of storage—up to 300 hours of HD video. You’ll have to pay $9 a month for the first box and each subsequent box, and you’ll have to pay extra if you want to record any more than 20 hours of shows.
Ability to find: Great
The standard X1 system from Xfinity comes with a sleek charcoal-colored voice remote with small buttons, and it works really well to help you find the shows and channels you crave. The company also offers a large remote with optional wrist-strap for customers who need the extra accessibility.
Most customers report an overall positive experience, but Astound’s large price hikes are understandably unpopular. The good news is, you won’t have to sign a contract, so if increasing prices are getting you down, you can jump ship anytime.
Astound has a free self-setup option and often runs promotions for free professional installation (otherwise around $80). If your house already has working coax outlets, you’ll probably get off scot-free with no installation costs.
Philo makes it easy to sign up for the service, easy to sign in on different devices, and easy to cancel if you so choose. It’s also fairly simple to find and understand add-on pricing, and we love that the free trial lasts a full seven days even if you cancel midway through.
If you run into trouble, there’s a nice Help Center, a chat line, or a phone number to call. In this category, we believe Philo’s perfect score is well-deserved.
Xfinity offers both professional and self-installation options. Having a pro come by costs less than $90, which is cheaper than many other providers. The self-install kit is free of charge, though you may pay for shipping and handling. We generally recommend self-installation whenever possible, both because it’s cheaper and because you can do it on your own time.
When it comes to billing, Xfinity has improved in recent years, and we hope the trend continues. It’s great that you can see the regional and broadcast fees right in your online cart, for example, but we wish Xfinity would just roll the fees into its regular pricing. Unfortunately, we’ve also experienced billing errors and had to call the company multiple times to get them resolved. The overall TV service is pretty great, but we recommend keeping an eye on monthly charges, especially if you pay automatically.