Cox Communications is one of the most expensive cable TV providers on the market, especially when you consider all the hidden costs. But if you want sports and premium channels, have only one TV, and bundle with internet and other services, this provider could make sense for you.
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.
WOW! (short for Wide Open West) offers a compelling case for switching to internet-based TV. You get a solid channel lineup at a great rate, all using top-notch Wi-Fi gear from eero—provided you’re willing to have a chillier relationship with your DVR and you don’t mind beta-testing the WOW! tv+ app.
Cox has some of the best channel line-ups we've seen, with more to watch for just about everyone. Family-friendly entertainment is Cox's weakest link, but it's still better than a lot of competitors.
Local: 4/5
Cox has a great local lineup, including staples like NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS, and The CW. It also includes some great Spanish-language locals like Univision, Telemundo, Unimas, and Estrella. However, it's missing Ion, Cozi, and Comet.
Sports: 4.5/5
Cox cable TV includes a great sports lineup in its Preferred (mid-tier) and Ultimate (top tier) plans. ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports, and the Golf channel are all included in a Preferred plan, and the Ultimate plan adds NFL Network, NFL Red Zone, the Tennis Channel, and the elusive MLB channel. Most competitors typically offer these last three as expensive add-ons, so Cox is ahead of the game here.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3.5/5
Cox has some decent family entertainment, especially when it comes to educational content. You'll get Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, History, National Geographic, and the Science Channel, but you'll miss out on Nat Geo Wild and Smithsonian. The kids will love Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Nick Jr., but the little ones won't get to enjoy Disney Junior.
News and politics: 4.5/5
Cox has excellent news coverage and politics content. Not only do you get the local news shows, you get most of the big national news channels too. You get C-SPAN, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Newsmax, and The Weather Channel. Our biggest gripe is that you'll miss out on the international perspective of BBC America.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 4/5
Cox has some decent entertainment options, including Comedy Central, Bravo, CMT, AMC, FX and FXX, two Hallmarks, and Sundance. It's missing some lifestyle channels though, like HGTV and The Cooking Channel, but it has the Food Network and TLC. But what makes Cox stand out is how many premium channels it includes in its top-tier plan. If you spring for the Ultimate plan, you’ll get ten HBO, eleven Cinemax, five SHOWTIME, and nine STARZ channels—at no extra charge.
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.
More Resources:
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.
WOW! doesn't have an incredible channel lineup, but it has a decent amount of content for just about everyone. That is, unless you want to watch in Spanish.
Local: 2.5/5
WOW! tv+ give you only about half the local channels you might expect. You get the big ones like NBC, ABC, FOX, CBA, and PBS, but you won’t get Ion, Cozi, or Comet. You won’t get a single Spanish-language local channel either. So if you want Telemundo, UniMas, Estrella, or Univision, you’re out of luck.
Sports: 3/5
When it comes to sports channels, you win some and lose some. You get the Tennis Channel in a Medium plan, whereas some providers only include it in their top-tier plans or as an add-on. NFL Network and NFL RedZone are both included in the Large plan, which is hit or miss among competitors. However, WOW! tv+ strikes out completely when it comes to the MLB channel, and there’s no way to get NFL SUNDAY TICKET.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3/5
With WOW!, you’ll get a decent amount of family-friendly content, but we’d like to see more channels for toddlers and young kids. You’ll get Cartoon Network, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. But you’ll get only one Disney, Nickelodeon, and National Geographic channel. Disney Junior, Nick Junior, and Nat Geo Wild are all missing, leaving less content aimed at the youngest kids.
News and politics: 3.5/5
WOW! has enough news and political coverage for most English-speaking viewers. You can keep up with Congress on C-SPAN and world events with BBC America. You’ll also get the biggest news channels like CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and MSNBC, along with Newsmax, HLN, and The Weather Channel. The biggest hole in coverage is Spanish-language news, but you’ll also miss CNN International, Bloomberg, CBS News, and Fox Business News.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 3/5
WOW! tv+ gives you a wide variety of entertainment and lifestyle, with at least one channel in some of our favorite categories: comedy, westerns, feel-good movies, food, and travel. But you might find only one channel that delivers your favorite genres. You’ll get Grit but not INSP (westerns) and Food Network but not the Cooking channel. But you’ll get all the best music channels—CMT, VH1, and MTV—and the top DIY channels HGTV and TLC. WOW! tv+ doesn’t include premium channels in any of its plans. You can add them to a Medium or Large plan, but they’ll cost more than other providers charge.
Although it looks like Cox has a ton of channels, its lineup (which varies by plan and location) is padded with up to 50 music channels. (1) Other than that, Cox delivers a great channel lineup, especially in its top-tier plan. However, it’ll cost you more than other companies.
You’ll get the most bang for your buck (and some sweet premium channels) with the Ultimate plan, but a Premium plan has plenty of channels for most people and the option to add inexpensive premium channels à la carte, which range from $5–$15 per. We don’t generally recommend the Starter plan because you can get most of its channels for free with an HD antenna, though that signal is less reliable than what Cox provides.
Cox Communications has two types of plans. Cox TV includes live TV and on-demand TV. Cox Contour adds the ability to connect streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime to your TV and search their content using a remote. All plans come with a one- or two-year contract, after which you’ll be on month-to-month pricing, which is around $15/month more.
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.
WOW! Has some great introductory prices, but we’ve seen longer channel lineups from other companies. Channel quality is decent, but nothing to write home about. The real bargain comes when you realize your plan price already includes regional sports and broadcast fees, which can add $20–$40 in monthly fees with other providers.
You’ll have to get a WOW! internet plan, since this TV service is internet-based, but that comes at an excellent price too. All things said, WOW! provides a ton of value, but if you want all the channels and premiums to boot, it’s probably not the company for you.
When it comes to equipment and features, Cox is ahead of the pack. From a great app to exceptional DVR features to a search remote that simultaneously searches streaming apps and cable TV, using Cox is a top-notch experience.
Ability to watch: Great
Cox offers some solid features that make for a great entertainment experience. Cox TV uses cable infrastructure to keep you reliably binging your favorite shows. Your first Contour box is free, and every additional one is $8.50/month, which is cheaper than average. Plus, it has the Cox Contour app, so if you have smart TVs and don't need DVR on all of them, you don't need additional boxes. On the down side, the Cox Contour App has low ratings for both iOS and Android, so you might want to opt for more Contour boxes anyway.
Ability to record: Excellent
The Cox DVR service uses cloud storage so you can access recorded shows anywhere with the Cox Contour app. The Contour app also lets you download on-demand content to watch offline from anywhere.
How much storage you get (50–1,000 HD hours) and how many shows you can record at a time (1 to a whopping 24!) depends on which DVR package you buy. Or you can skip DVR altogether to avoid the additional cost.
Ability to find: Great
While at home with your TV, you’ll use a voice remote to sort through your shows—even the ones on streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu. You don't have to remember which app your show is on to find it, which we loved. It made our entire watching experience—not just our live TV experience—a delight.
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.
Because WOW! is internet-based TV, its equipment is makes it feel more like a streaming service than traditional TV. However, its features fall short of many streaming services when it comes to catching your shows where and when you want.
Ability to watch: Good
Since WOW! tv+ uses WOW! Internet, you need Wi-Fi gear. WOW!’s modem is free for your first year ($14/month after that), and its eero Wi-Fi system ($9.99 per month) is reasonably priced to rent. It’s also some of the best, most reliable Wi-Fi gear we’ve seen. WOW!’s TV boxes can get pricey if you want more than one ($10 per month), but since you can use WOW! tv+ with Amazon Firesticks, you shouldn’t need more than one box to get your shows on multiple TVs. You just need multiple Firesticks ($29.99 and up), but these will be one-time purchases instead of a monthly rental rate.
While you can use your phone to watch WOW! TV, its Android and iOS apps are in beta, which means they’re still working out some of the kinks. The apps have a pretty low rating on both Android and iOS (1, 2), which is a bummer. If you end up throwing your phone across the room in frustration, you can circumvent the app altogether by going to an individual channel’s website and logging in with your WOW! credentials. But you might still end up frustrated—and watching your shows through a cracked phone screen.
Ability to record: Fine
The WOW! tv+ box and remote are pretty standard, and you can find content and set up DVR recordings using voice commands or navigating through a guide. The downside is that all three of WOW!’s plans come with 50 hours of DVR cloud storage, which is pretty low. You can jump up to 100 (for about $20 per month) or 200 (for about $30 per month) hours, but that’s a steep charge when some competitors include 1,000 hours in their top-tier plans.
Ability to find: Good
WOW! doesn't have its own voice remote, but it's compatible with Google Voice. Without voice, it's still pretty easy to find channels in the guide, and parental controls make it easy to block the content you don't want your kids to see—or restrict TV time altogether. However, finding recorded shows can be challenging without sorting and filtering capabilities, even if you only get 50 hours of storage. That's still a lot of scrolling.
Most customers report that Cox has solid customer service, and that's been our experience too. Cox also has some good self-help content on its website. We liked having the option to save money by signing a contract or skip the commitment altogether. However, Cox could work on its transparency. It has some hidden fees that you can't see until after you supply personal information. We'd love the ability to build a cart and see what our bill will be before sharing that.
Installation is generally fast and priced about average. If your house is already wired with cable jacks for all your TVs, self-install is a free, easy option. Professional installation varies by location but will run you around $75, which is pretty inexpensive. Learn how to choose between self installation or professional installation.
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).
WOW! is a decent experience, and most customers feel good about this provider. We love that you don't have to sign a contract. And although you have to get WOW! internet to get WOW!'s TV service, we like WOW! internet even more.
Self-installation is free and fairly easy, but you can hire a pro to come by and get you set up for $75. The website has plenty of self-help content if you run into trouble, or you can use its chat service to talk with a specialist.
What we don't like is WOW!'s lack of transparency. Prices aren't listed on its website, and you can't order TV without talking to a sales representative on the phone. That's not a great start.