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3.0

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4.0

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4.5

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Staff rating

3.3

Customer rating

4.1

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Staff rating

3.0

ESPN+ has extra sports at an extra cost

We loved how much extra sports content ESPN+ served up, but we couldn’t get around pay-per-view fees or regional blackouts. ESPN+ won’t replace our other live streaming services or help us cut the cord, but it makes for a great add-on for fans.

What we like

National and international sports
Live game stats
Sports content variety

What we dislike

Bad for cord-cutters
Frequent price hikes
No free trial/version

See full review

Savings tip: ESPN+ often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

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Staff rating

4.0

Hulu + Live TV offers a great on-demand library and original content

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.

What we like

Huge streaming library
Access to Disney+ and ESPN+
Exceptional original content

What we dislike

Ad-free costs more

See full review

Savings tip: Hulu + Live TV often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Staff rating

3.3

Sling TV offers a great value and lots of customizations

Sling TV is one of the lowest-cost live TV streaming services we tested at just $40–$55 per month. Sling TV's highly customizable plans and low-cost add-ons keep prices low and empower you to customize your TV plan to your interests and lifestyle.

What we like

Low cost
Customizable add-ons
Intuitive interface

What we dislike

Potentially confusing plans
On-the-go glitches
Difficulty sharing

See full review

Savings tip: Sling often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Content

4.0

Something for every sports fan—but it won’t solve your blackout woes

ESPN+ has tons of live (and replay) sports to stream, including NFL, UFC, multiple international soccer leagues, the US Open, PGA, X games, NHL, and a multitude of college sports, to name just a few. Some games even come with live stats and analysis when you watch them with the ESPN app. This service even helped us discover the rising Indian sport kabaddi, which is like watching adults on the playground at recess. It’s just delightful.

You’ll also get a metric ton of documentaries like the 30 for 30 and E60 series, which cover everything from Payton Manning’s life story to the history of boxing. There’s even an entire series following the Savannah Bananas, a team putting an entertaining spin on baseball (seriously, check out Banana Ball). An ESPN+ subscription also gives you access to multiple daily articles so you can read about last night’s game even if you missed it.

Unfortunately, if you’re hoping to get around regional sports fees or blackouts to watch your favorite local teams, ESPN+ won’t help you there. You have to share your location to watch certain games. And depending on the rules in your area, there’s a good chance you’ll still need to add your login credentials from a cable TV provider or another live TV streaming service like Fubo or Sling to catch the big game.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

ESPN+ channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Content

4.0

Great on-demand experience, plus most local networks and dozens of channels

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.

More Resources:

How to watch NFL Games

How to watch NBA Games

How to watch NHL Games

How to watch MLB Games

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.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Hulu + Live TV channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Content

4.0

Solid channel lineup and customization options

Sling TV helps keep down your monthly TV costs by offering customizable TV packages. Sling TV provides a good mix of channels, including a few sports, kids, lifestyle, comedy, and local channels. Compared to other TV services, it has fewer channels in its base packages (hence the lower price tag), but it offers plenty of add-ons and customizations. You can add extra sports, entertainment, kids, news, and lifestyle channels for as little as $6 a month per add-on package. Depending on your location, certain Sling TV packages include local news channels, including MSNBC, FOX News, and ABC.

Local TV Channels: 2/5
Sling TV offers a solid local channel lineup, depending on your location. With the Sling Blue package, or Sling Orange + Sling Blue package, you can enjoy live streaming on FOX, NBC, and ABC if it's available in your city. At this time, Sling TV's local TV channels may be limited to Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Sports Channels: 4/5
Sling TV offers a variety of top sports TV channels, including about two-thirds of all the top sports channels. You can choose a package according to the channels you care about most, or you can sign up for them all. To get them all, you’ll want to get the Sling TV Orange and Blue plans and the sports add-on. The Sling Orange plan alone includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and MotorTrend. The Sling Blue plan alone features FOX, FOX Sports 1, NFL Network, and MSNBC. If you add the Sports Extra add-on to any plan at about $11 a month, you'll get SEC ESPN and SEC ESPN+, ACCN ESPN, Longhorn Network, U ESPN, ESPNews, MLB Network, NBA TV, beIN Sports, Tennis Channel, NHL Network, and MLB Strike Zone.

More Resources:

How to watch NFL Games

How to watch NBA Games

How to watch NHL Games

How to watch MLB Games

Family and Education Channels: 4/5
In all their plans, Sling TV offers some great family-friendly favorites including Cartoon Network, Nick Jr., HGTV, Investigation Discovery, History Channel, and Travel Channel. In the Sling Orange package, you'll find the Disney Channel and Freeform. In the Sling Blue package, you'll find National Geographic, TLC, and Discovery. If you add the Kids Extra package for about $6 a month, you'll also get Disney Junior, Disney XD, Nicktoons, TeenNick and BabyTV. Note that you may miss out on some staples like Nickelodeon and PBS.

News and Politics Channels: 3.5/5
All Sling TV packages include national and international news from CNN, BBC America, Bloomberg TV+, and Local Now from The Weather Group. The Orange Sling package includes FOX News, and CNN Headline News. Note that local channels are only available in limited markets, so you may miss out on some local news, depending on where you live and availability.

Entertainment and Lifestyle Channels: 4/5
Sling TV offers a good variety of entertainment and lifestyle channels, which is where it really shines. You can really find your niche and geek out with your interests. With other TV providers, it can be difficult to find all these channels bundled together, especially for such a low price. All Sling TV packages include TBS, TNT, AMC, A&E, Food Network, Comedy Central, Travel Channel, BET, Lifetime, IFC, Vice, MGM Drive In, Fuse TV, AXS TV, Comet, and Charge! TV. You can also choose from many add-ons. The Entertainment Extra add-on includes Paramount, MTV, MTV 2, CMT, TV Land, Game Show Network, Logo, Laff, TruTV, and FETV. The Lifestyle Extra includes the Hallmark Channel, VH1, Cooking Channel, FYI, WE TV, LMN, Hallmark Mystery, and Hallmark Family. Adding the Hollywood Extra add-on gets you a cess to Turner Classic Movies and Sundance TV, among others.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Sling channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Value

2.5

ESPN’s monopoly on tons of sports content gives it free rein for hidden costs

ESPN+ is one of the cheapest streaming apps we reviewed at just $10 per month or $100 per year. You can even bundle it with Hulu and Disney+, which helps you save more than $10 per month—making ESPN+ a sort of free add-on. You could spend just $13 for all three ($20 for commercial-free Hulu), then add an inexpensive live streaming service like fubo or YouTubeTV to cover all your bases.

Unfortunately, ESPN has a history of making it expensive to be a sports fan, and ESPN+ carries on the tradition. Since its launch in 2018, the monthly price has doubled from $5 to $10, and it comes with a ton of hidden costs that many fans don’t see coming. For starters, you won’t get any actual ESPN channels, so you’ll be disappointed if you sign up hoping to get ESPN1, 2, or 3, or other channels like ESPN U, Longhorn, SEC, or ACC. Technically, you can watch these channels from ESPN+, but you’ll still have to log in with credentials from a cable TV or other streaming provider that has these channels. Cord cutters take note: you’ll still have to pay for live TV if you want that.

Speaking of needing more credentials, you won’t get around regional sports fees or blackouts—nor will you get a discount on pay-per-view events, like numbered UFC matches. Although the ESPN+ website touts “unrivaled UFC access,” you’ll still have to cough up a whopping $75 for each pay-per-view Fight Night game on top of your ESPN+ subscription. That’s a jab to the faces of MMA fans if we ever saw one.

If you’re hoping ESPN+ will save you money on sports entertainment, you’re in for a rude awakening—especially since ESPN+ doesn’t have a free trial.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

ESPN+'s website.

Check address

Value

4.0

Decent channel lineup and an exceptional streaming library

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.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

Hulu + Live TV's website.

Check address

Value

4.0

One of the lowest-cost options out there, but one of the smallest channel counts, too

Sling TV is one of the cheapest live TV streaming services that still delivers a relatively comprehensive channel lineup, but its cost per channel of $1.15 is relatively high. Sling TV's largest base plan includes just 43 channels, with an additional 30 or so available as add-ons. That makes Sling TV great at letting you customize your service, but you could end up paying a higher price if you want a lot of channels.

Most add-ons cost about $6, or you can grab a bundle if you find one you like. The Sports Extra add-on is pricier at $11–15 per month. You can also add more than 40 premium packages, and many are priced lower than we’ve seen elsewhere.

Which channels you get depends on which plan you choose (and here’s where it gets a little confusing). Sling has three plans: Orange, Blue, and an Orange + Blue combo. The Orange and Blue plans each have a few channels in the same genre the other doesn’t, so be prepared to make some hard choices unless you spring for the combo plan. If you’re a sports fan, you’ll have to choose between ESPN (Orange) or FOX Sports, NFL Network, and NBC (Blue). If you have kids, you’ll have to choose between Disney Channel (Orange) or the Discovery Channel (Blue).

Unlike other streaming services, Sling TV has a truly free version. And this is no time-limited free trial that you forget to cancel until you see your credit card bill two months later. This is genuinely, indefinitely free—no credit card required. You can’t record shows with it, but it’s a great way to dip your toe into the cable-cutting waters at no cost.

Oddly, the free version of Sling gives you way more channels: 150+. But many of these extras are super specific—there’s a channel that plays The Carol Burnette Show 24/7, for example—or on-demand channels. But there are some gems, like Outside TV+, Bon Appetit, and CMT.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

Sling's website.

Check address

Usability and features

3.0

Some cool sports features, but not enough streaming features

In addition to adding exclusive content to the regular ESPN app and browser experience, ESPN+ adds some extra features like joining a fantasy league and live stats and scores for some events. But beyond that, ESPN+ doesn’t have as many features as other live streaming services—and that made it hard to use at times.

Ability to watch: Great
ESPN+ builds on the features of the regular (free) ESPN experience. So if you’ve already had the ESPN app, ESPN+ simply adds another tab for its exclusive content. The browser experience is a similar tacking-on of ESPN+ content. That meant we got all the regular ESPN features we were used to, but it was also frustrating to use compared to dedicated streaming apps.

In some formats (like our Chromecast and Samsung smart TVs), getting properly logged into the ESPN+ experience was confusing, because it wasn’t obvious which experience we were logging into: ESPN+ or regular ol’ ESPN. But after a few false starts, we got it working.

On the app, we liked that some events provided game stats and other graphics before the video when our devices were in portrait mode. It helped longtime fans get a fast glimpse of the game while multitasking, and helped the non-fans among us learn about a new sport.

Ability to record: Bad
ESPN+ lets you download some content to watch offline, but there’s no DVR capability. We were able to download some of the documentary content to watch offline, but no actual events. It was useful for calming our sports cravings on the go, but it wouldn’t satisfy us on an hours-long road trip or flight. But if we missed a live game and ESPN removed the replay, it was just gone.

Ability to find: Fine
Finding shows on ESPN+ is easier in a browser than with the app, but neither is stellar. We logged in to see the familiar ESPN website with an added ESPN+ bar at the top with all our premium content. The tabs helped us find featured content, documentaries, and live and replay events, or we could hit the Browse tab to choose a specific sport or league.

However, the Tools tab left us confused. It took us to an ad for fantasy leagues, then prompted us to sign up for ESPN+... which we clearly already had. It tried to push us into an annual subscription, and when we selected “Skip and get started,” it just took us back to the ESPN+ home screen. We were able to get onto a fantasy league using the Fantasy tab in the top (regular ESPN) navigation bar, which made the Tools tab seem completely pointless.

On the app, it got tough to find the events and shows we wanted. There’s no Live/Replay section to find currently or recently playing events. To find the kabaddi game we were looking for (a sport which is rarely in the Featured section), we had to dig around in the Browse tab for the correct league (Pro Vivo Kabaddi) to find it. There’s also no “Continue watching” section (though the browser version has it), so we had a hard time picking up where we left off. And switching between the app and the browser was annoying because ESPN+ didn’t remember our progress across platforms. It started up back at the beginning, and we’d spend several minutes trying to find our place again. Ugh.

Finally, there are no parental controls with ESPN+. While this streaming service was specific enough to quiet some of our concerns—we knew we wouldn’t log our kids in to watch cartoons and come back to find them watching a horror flick—we wanted more control over screen time and the kinds of sports content they watch. The lack of parental controls made us wary of sharing login credentials, which meant more active monitoring on our part.

Ability to share: Fine
ESPN+ doesn’t seem to be designed for sharing. It doesn’t have multiple user profiles and many events prompt you to input your location before they’ll play. The good news? ESPN+ says you get up to three simultaneous streams—but we were able to get five going at once without anyone getting kicked off. Looks like ESPN accidentally left some hidden value on the table, and we’ll take what we can get.

Features and usability

4.0

Sleek interface with great custom recommendations

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.

Usability and features

2.5

Sharing a subscription and watching on-the-go can be difficult

Sling TV's app and browser experiences are just fine, but they don't have the premium look and feel of pricier streaming services like YouTubeTV and DIRECTV STREAM.

Ability to watch: Good
The browser and app interfaces were generally easy to use, and Sling TV is compatible with a ton of devices. Sling TV says you can run it on just a 5 Mbps internet connection but recommends at least 25 Mbps. When we tested it, Sling TV was laggy on a cell signal connection, but that’s not uncommon. And when it comes to watching shows on the go, there are a few areas where Sling can improve.

If you’re looking for 4K content, you won’t find it here. Live content streams in 720p and on-demand content is 1080p.

Ability to record: Good
All Sling TV plans include 50 hours of cloud DVR storage, which isn’t much, especially if you want to share your plan with family or roommates. Adding DVR Plus for $5 will get you 200 hours and—we’re willing to bet—fewer fights over deleted shows. And you’ll get the ability to lock your favorite episodes so they aren’t automatically deleted to make room for new recordings if you go over the limit.

The DVR is a decent experience. You can record live shows and skip the commercials when you watch them later. It’s easy to record shows as you find them in the Guide, but starting a recording mid-show won’t record what you’ve missed. And you can’t use your phone to record a show that’s already started. The record button just isn’t there. Shows that you’ve already recorded pop up behind the DVR tab, along with how much storage you’ve used and your scheduled recordings. If you delete something you didn’t mean to (or Sling deleted a show to make room for new recordings), it’ll stay in the Trash section for 48 hours in case you want to reinstate it. We found that handy, especially if you don’t want to spring for extra DVR storage.

Ability to find: Fine
Finding shows could be easier. We had to click into a show to see its description, which was annoying. And the channel guide for live TV is a bit confusing if you have both Blue and Orange plans because you’ll see some channels—those included in both plans—listed twice.

With on-demand content, we sometimes had trouble picking shows to back up if we’d started them and had to step away. Finding the “Continue watching” section on the home tab was hard because it kept moving. And when we switched back and forth between devices (like between the app on an Android phone and the Safari browser on a Mac laptop), Sling didn’t always remember where we were in a movie. Sometimes, this kind of switch stumped Sling completely, resulting in an error and Sling forgetting that we’d ever watched the show. That meant having to find our place again—and having to sit through commercial blocks we’d already watched.

Parental controls are PIN protected and easy to set up, and your kids won’t even be able to see descriptions of restricted content. But because Sling doesn’t have different user profiles, you’ll have to put in your PIN for every grown-up show you want to watch without the kiddos. You can’t even have separate settings for different devices.

Ability to share: Bad
Unlike most of the other live TV streaming services we’ve tried, you can’t make separate profiles for different users to watch, record, and save their favorite shows. That’s a bummer because figuring out how to stream multiple live shows at once is confusing. Sling TV decides how many streams you can have based on the channel you’re watching: Orange channels have just one stream and Blue channels have up to three.

If you have the Orange + Blue combo plan, you’ll see both Orange and Blue versions of some channels in your Guide, since these lineups have some overlap. One person can watch the Orange version of TNT, for example, but three people can watch the Blue version. If too many people start watching the same channel, someone will be kicked off about a minute later—but the offending viewer will never know they just ruined someone’s day because Sling doesn’t tell them.

Add it all up, and sharing a single Sling TV subscription with members of your household may be difficult.

Customer experience

2.5

Lack of transparency and cancelation challenges, but mostly helpful service representatives

The ESPN+ website is overall very usable, but we’d like to see clearer pricing right away. You have to click the tiny print for terms or scroll down to the bottom and open an accordion to find out how much a subscription costs. If you miss these clues, you’ll have to give ESPN+ your email address before you know how much the service even costs.

Getting help is easy—at least, after you scroll to the bottom of the ESPN+ website homepage again. There, you’ll find step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting tips, videos, and contact options—including a live chat option. There’s even an entire section for troubleshooting UFC PPV events—though our biggest takeaway here was to purchase an event on the app at least 30 minutes before the event, or it may not go through the Apple Store or Google Play before the event starts.

Generally, people seem to like ESPN+ customer service representatives. However, many users seem to have trouble canceling their subscriptions, especially if they purchased it through a third party like Apple or Verizon. Some went as far as freezing or canceling a credit card to make the monthly fees stop, but most customers were able to cancel in a few minutes if they used live chat to talk to a representative. As for us, we purchased our subscription through a browser directly on the ESPN+ website and could easily cancel the same way.

Visit ESPN+'s website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer experience

4.0

Easy purchase experience and lots of add-on options

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:

Ad-Supported Hulu: Starts at $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
Ad-free Hulu: $17.99 a month.
Hulu with Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (with ads) and ESPN+ (with ads): $76.99 a month.
Hulu with No Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (no ads) and ESPN+ (with ads): $89.99 a month.
Hulu with Ads + Live TV, Disney+ (no ads) + ESPN+ (with ads): $81.99 a month.
Live TV Only: $75.99 a month.

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.

Visit Hulu + Live TV's website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer Experience

3.0

Long wait times and channel volatility, but overall a good experience

Sling’s website is easy to navigate and shows plans and pricing upfront before you have to create an account or add a credit card. It also has a solid self-help section that you can find by scrolling to the bottom of the home page and clicking on the link in the footer.

Contacting customer service can be a little challenging. Agents are available via chat, social media, and phone for around 15 hours a day (depending on which contact method you choose). However, the website notes that you should expect long wait times for all avenues.

To help counter long wait times, Sling asks you to fill out a questionnaire before calling in, which is an okay idea in principle, but it asks for your email address. If you just want to know a few specifics before deciding whether to sign up, that feels invasive. But if you’re already a customer troubleshooting your technology or asking about billing issues, it’s not a big deal.

Finally, Sling TV’s channel lineup can be a little volatile. In October 2022, Sling lost ABC, ESPN, FX, Nat Geo, and Disney due to a dispute with Disney, but then got them back soon after. While other TV services were also affected, Sling seems more willing than competitors are to lose channels—at least temporarily—while renegotiating carriage deals.

Visit Sling's website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Made up your mind?

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ESPN+

0.0

(0)

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Hulu + Live TV

4.4

(52)

5 Star

58%

4 Star

33%

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Steven from Muskegon, MI

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8/17/2022

A wonderful experience and fulfills all my desires to watch movies that I love

Christopherfrom Euless, TX

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8/5/2022

Better than Dish or cable, overall. But packages are deceiving, because there is no true "no ads" tv. Also, price increases at least twice a year.

Robert from Lueders , TX

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 7/4/2022

The service goes as far as the service goes it's a pretty good service it's a little pricey but the DVR is good I get all the channels I like and the only thing I can approve improve it would be to lower the price

Djfrom Lincoln , NE

Hulu + Live TV Customer for 8+ years

Reviewed on: 7/1/2022

Hulu is GREAT

Sling

4.0

(12)

5 Star

33%

4 Star

42%

3 Star

25%

2 Star

1 Star

Jerline from Raleigh , NC

Sling Customer for 4+ years

Reviewed on: 9/4/2022

At this time needs no improvement

Johnfrom Ellijay, GA

Sling Customer for 4+ years

Reviewed on: 8/28/2022

Nice programming, plenty channel options, easy to use, $$ for service

Stevenfrom Columbus, OH

Sling Customer for 4+ years

Reviewed on: 8/26/2022

Has the channels I want to watch and charges a decent price for this service

Merrifrom Indianapolis, IN

Sling Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8/21/2022

I wish they offered cheaper access to local TV

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Endnotes and sources

(1) "Network Ratings 2021 Top 100 Channels," Variety. Retrieved 7 September 2022.

Endnotes and sources