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.
Hulu + Live TV offers an impressive streaming experience for live television. With a competitive price point, Hulu + Live TV provides a wealth of great features such as unlimited DVR storage for 9 months, access to an extensive on-demand library, and the ability to watch on multiple devices simultaneously.
MaxxSouth charges a lot per channel and doesn’t deliver a ton of features. Still, there are few hidden costs and no contracts, so this provider might be your best option. And we like its unique local sports channels and internet service.
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.
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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.
With Hulu, you'll always have something to watch. In our review, we found that Hulu + Live TV shines when it comes to content. (1) You get access to most of your local channels and dozens of live TV options from popular cable networks. You also get access to the full on-demand libraries of Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+. It’s a truly massive offering.
Local: 3/5
Hulu + Live TV gives you access to about half of the local channels you would get from a digital antenna or traditional TV provider, but those channels are the most popular of the standard local options. You get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and The CW in most markets, for instance, but not PBS, Antenna TV, Estrella TV, or Univision. There are probably better live TV options for most Spanish speakers, but Hulu + Live TV isn’t bad if you just want your local news, sports, and primetime favorites in English. Hulu + Live TV is a nationwide service, but there are some geographic differences in the lineup. Find channels available in your area.
Sports: 3/5
Hulu + Live TV is pretty good in its sports offerings. There’s no NBA TV or MLB coverage, but you do get ESPN, TNT, Fox Sports 1, and the Golf Channel, plus local channels (which often show big national games). There’s no way to get NFL SUNDAY TICKET (now available only from YouTube TV), and you’ll miss out on all the regional sports networks you could get with DIRECTV STREAM or many traditional cable TV providers.
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Family and education: 4/5
If you have kiddos in the house, Hulu + Live TV should have plenty of shows and channels to keep them entertained. You get three Disney channels, two Nickelodeon channels, and Universal Kids channel. There's no PBS, but you get all the other most popular kids' channels.
News and politics: 3/5
You get all your news heavy-hitters with Hulu + Live TV, including local news, national news from several sources, and financial news. You can also add Español Add-on for news, weather, and sports in Spanish at a cost of about $5 per month.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 4.5/5
You get about half of America’s Top 100 channels to watch live with Hulu + Live TV, and Hulu earns extra points for having a stellar on-demand library on top of its live TV offering. This includes many original titles from Hulu with hits like Only Murders in the Building, The Bear, American Horror Story, Reservation Dogs, and more.
That said, you’ll have to get the Entertainment add-on ($8 per month) for Discovery Channels, MTV Classic, Crime+Investigation, and BET Her. You can also get HBO MAX, CINEMAX, SHOWTIME, and STARZ, but additional pricing of between $9 to $15 each applies every month.
Depending on what you like to watch, MaxxSouth’s channels are a mixed bag. Most households will find enough family and entertainment channels, but news is a little lacking. And for being a local company, MaxxSouth’s local content isn’t great. That is, except for its local sports coverage, which is a homerun.
Local: 2/5
MaxxSouth has the top four local channels covered (NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX), plus PBS and The CW, but after that things go, well, south. You’ll miss out on Cozi, Comet, and all the local Spanish-language stations. If local channels are important to you, consider going with another provider or picking them up on an HD antenna for free.
Sports: 3/5
MaxxSouth’s national sports offerings are a mixed bag. You get a little over half of the best sport channels, including ESPN1 and 2, TNT, TBS, Fox Sports, and the Golf Channel, and you can also add the NFL Channel and NFL Red Zone for an additional monthly fee. But where this provider shines is local sports. MaxxSouth has its own regional sports network where you can see everything from high school games to community college events in HD quality. You could watch your kid hit a home run from your living room—and get a DVD of it for around $20 to relive their glory as a family later.
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Family and education: 3/5
If you’re looking for family-friendly content, MaxxSouth gets the job done with the Discovery Channel, two Disney channels, Nickelodeon, Animal Planet, and National Geographic. But you’ll miss out on Nat Geo Wild, additional Nickelodeon channels, and the Smithsonian channel.
News and politics: 2.5/5
MaxxSouth’s news options are probably fine for most people. You get the basics like CNN, C-SPAN, BBC America, Fox news, and all three NBCs (NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC). But you’ll miss out on Newsmax, The Weather Channel, and in-depth financial news coverage.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 3/5
MaxxSouth delivers a decent entertainment lineup with favorites like Bravo, Lifetime, FX, and the three T’s—TBS, TLC, and TNT. You’ll also get some of the best lifestyle shows with HGTV, Food Network, and the Travel Channel. But you won’t get Magnolia, either Ion channel, the Cooking Channel, or Grit.
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.
Hulu + Live TV has a lot to offer, including a huge library of on-demand content from the Classic Hulu service plus dozens of channels featuring news, entertainment, sports, and more. You can’t get PBS or Univision, but it feels like a true replacement for cable TV.
Hulu + Live TV is the one of the most expensive live TV streaming services we reviewed at the starting tier, but just by a few dollars. The high cost starts to make sense when you realize it’s a bundle price. In addition to live TV, you get access to Hulu’s on-demand library ($7.99 per month with ads), Disney+ ($7.99 per month), and ESPN+ ($9.99 per month). That means you get Hulu originals, tons of live sports and events, and thousands of shows and movies.
While MaxxSouth’s internet service offers a ton of value, its TV service is way less impressive. It offers two plans: Basic has just 20+ channels, and you can get most of them for free with an HD antenna. An expanded plan gives you 100+ channels, which is also lower than mid-level plans from other providers. There is no top-tier plan, but you can add premium and sports channels for an additional cost.
Overall, MaxxSouth is expensive for what you get. While the channel lineups are average at best, you pay $1.50–$1.75 each, which is way higher than most companies. Unfortunately, most Mississippians don’t have a lot of other providers to choose from, so MaxxSouth might still be your best bet. The good news is that there are few hidden fees and no contracts to worry about.
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.
When you first sign into Hulu, you'll be welcomed by a sleek, intuitive interface. You can set up multiple profiles, so each family member can keep their own to-watch list and customized recommendations.
Hulu + Live TV has most of the features you’d expect from a live streaming TV service, including unlimited DVR for nine months and the ability to stop and rewind live TV. We loved all the on-demand options, too.
If you sign up for Hulu, we highly recommend paying more for the ad-free version. Otherwise, you'll be sitting through ads that can get repetitive really quckly.
Ability to watch: Good
Hulu + Live TV feels like it was designed for on-demand streaming rather than live TV watching. You can watch in 1080p on traditional TVs, mobile devices, browsers, or streaming sticks. In our tests, it worked well on some browsers, but we had minor issues with either casting or resizing with the Amazon Firestick, iOS phone, and both Safari and Chrome browsers.
It is possible to get to the channel guide for a standard surfing experience, but it took us a few minutes to find it in the mobile app. Finding channels to surf took even longer on the streaming devices and smart TVs we tested. Once we got set up on a particular device and got used to the interface, though, the experience felt pretty standard.
Ability to record: Great
We like that Hulu + Live TV’s DVR is unlimited and saves recordings for up to nine months. You can record ongoing shows or future shows through the channel guide, or record entire programs. You can watch offline, which is cool, and you can set recordings or download certain episodes for offline viewing from any device with the app. However, you can’t DVR anything from premium channels or the on-demand library, and you can’t skip certain promotions even if you pay for the highest possible package.
Ability to find: Great
Within the Hulu interface, it's easy to find whatever you want to watch and browse recommnedations. The search tools are easy to find and work well, and you have choice of different views. If you add a show to "My Stuff," it's really easy to keep everything organized in one place.
Hulu has some of the best customized recommendations we've experienced with a streaming service. It can get really niche, so you can explore similar movies to shows to ones you already love. We really like the Hulu recommendation engine at any service level, and we like that you can easily get to the next episode on a show you’re watching (even if you’ve watched the whole series before).
In our tests, the on-demand experience was completely seamless. You can browse by format (TV, Movies, Sports) or search for a specific show or channel. We also liked the Hubs, which are curated collections based around a theme.
Ability to share: Fine
Hulu has cracked down on password sharing among multiple households, and it shows. It’s easy to create profiles for up to six users, but you get only two simultaneous streams with the standard package. You can pay more for unlimited screens, but you may not be able to watch away from home.
In our testing, we ran into a little trouble trying to watch in different locations. If you switch to a new or different device, you'll probably have to sign in again and do a two-factor verification.
If you are just sharing with family, it’s easy to designate profiles for kids so they have access to only kids shows. That’s the only parental control option available, and we like that it’s set at the account level instead of the device level.
MaxxSouth has decent equipment, but it's a little light in the features department. While you can improve some of the experience by spending more per month, you'll still be limited by MaxxSouth's minimalist approach.
Ability to watch: Fine
MaxxSouth uses decent equipment at a decent price. Renting a TV box will cost you just $6 per month, but you’ll also have to rent a remote for $7.99 per month, which brings gear costs inline with competitors.
Like many TV services, MaxxSouth has a TV Everywhere feature that lets you watch your shows on your phone, tablet, or laptop when you’re not at home. However, it’s not an app. Instead, you have to use a browser to go to the MaxxSouth website and click around to find what you want or download each programmer’s app onto your device. The upside is you can do this with over 80 apps, from A&E to Vice. The bad news is, that’s a quick way to max out your phone’s storage, so you’ll have to pick your favorites and skip the rest.
Ability to record: Good
With MaxxSouth, you get a solid amount of storage included in your plan—90 hours. You can get up to 500 hours, but you’ll have to purchase them for $5 per month for every additional 50 hours. You’d spend more than $40 to max that out. Yikes!
If you rely on your trusty DVR to catch a lot of shows simultaneously, you’ll be disappointed. With MaxxSouth, you can record only one show at a time, so you’ll be forced to choose a favorite during primetime.
Ability to find: Fine
Finding shows you want to watch is harder than it should be. MaxxSouth doesn’t have a voice remote, so you’ll have to dig through the channel guide, on-demand library, and your DVR recordings manually. Parental controls are fairly customizable and easy to set up, but you’ll have to create—and remember—a second pin if you want to block purchases.
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.
It's really easy to purchase Hulu, manage your subscription, and add-on additional features. There’s no free trial for the live TV package with Hulu, but we like that the service is easy to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel. You can do it all online, and your access to content will continue through the end of the time period you’ve already paid for. That's great customer service.
You can choose from several Hulu options to find one that meets your needs and budget:
We like that there are many options for Hulu plans, so you can find one that meets your needs. We like that there are no contracts or hidden fees to worry about. It’s a refreshing change from what you’ll find with most classic TV providers.
The MaxxSouth experience is mostly fine, but we’d like to see some improvement. It has live chat, 24/7 phone support, and a decent amount of self-help resources on its website and YouTube channel… if you’re willing to sort through it. We didn’t like that we couldn’t order TV service online like we could with MaxxSouth’s internet service. Customers report that MaxxSouth works hard to resolve any issues—if you’re persistent and contact them multiple times.
Professional installation runs a super-low $20 for most setups, but there’s no self-setup option. That means you’ll have to wait for an appointment before you get up and running. But with such a low cost, we’re happy to white-knuckle it through a TV cleanse for a few days (or carefully plan to cancel our old provider around MaxxSouth’s schedule).