Hargray vs. MaxxSouth Broadband vs. Optimum Television plan comparison
![Headshot of Kathryn Casna](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2F7iu14vr1%2Fproduction%2F4ff2b6b8378499c325e2559bd4f030c1d3f5bb36-1564x1564.png%3Fw%3D96%26h%3D96%26auto%3Dformat&w=96&q=75)
![Headshot of Dave Schafer](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2F7iu14vr1%2Fproduction%2F736abaa92d2612ec1f1db6388505734154bf26d0-3024x3024.jpg%3Fw%3D96%26h%3D96%26auto%3Dformat&w=96&q=75)
![Rebecca Palmer smiles for the camera](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2F7iu14vr1%2Fproduction%2F3f3096af2c69399dc197a07680c2333dd598eebf-600x600.jpg%3Fw%3D96%26h%3D96%26auto%3Dformat&w=96&q=75)
![Headshot of Bri Field](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2F7iu14vr1%2Fproduction%2F1444b0ae12392461e10031add8ac5a5d9eee823b-1564x1564.png%3Fw%3D96%26h%3D96%26auto%3Dformat&w=96&q=75)
![Headshot of Michal Ash](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2F7iu14vr1%2Fproduction%2F8c3bba45b906c1ae891fbad980f64eb81d3e058e-1564x1564.png%3Fw%3D96%26h%3D96%26auto%3Dformat&w=96&q=75)
Hargray offers solid TV features and fast internet, but it’s expensive for what you get. On top of that, it competes against Xfinity and DIRECTV, both of which offer outstanding service. This makes Hargray a tough sell—unless you just don’t have any other options.
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.
Optimum offers exceptional value. You get tons of channels, a solid DVR, and a good selection of sports and premium channels for a very reasonable price. Despite some additional fees, Optimum is an excellent choice.
Hargray’s strengths are its news and sports channels, but it also has decent local channels, family-friendly channels, and entertainment channels. However, its Spanish-language options are lacking, so if you have a Spanish-speaker in your family, consider a different provider instead.
Local: 3/5
While the number of locals can vary from area to area, Hargray offers almost all of the English-language locals, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. But if you’re looking for Spanish-language local channels, you’ll probably be disappointed.
Sports: 3.5/5
While Hargray has only about half of the most popular sports channels, it makes up for that somewhat by going above and beyond with its breadth of ESPN channels, outdoor channels, and regional sports networks.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3/5
Hargray has about half of the most popular family and educational channels, including both Nat Geos, Discovery and Investigation Discovery, and Disney and Disney Junior. But it’s lacking Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TV Land, and some others.
News and politics: 4/5
Hargray has nearly all of the most popular news and political channels. However, if you’re looking for extras—like financial or international news—this might not be the provider for you.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 3/5
Hargray has more than half of the most popular entertainment and lifestyle channels, including HGTV, the Hallmark channels, TLC, and TNT. But it’s missing Bravo, BET, CMT, MTV, and Comedy Central.
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.
Optimum offers a great selection of channels, and pricing at each of its tiers is reasonable. If you’re part of a big family with diverse TV tastes, Optimum is easy to recommend.
Local: 5/5
Optimum offers a fantastic selection of local channels in each of its four package tiers. You get access to the four basic broadcast channels (NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX) plus Univision and Telemundo. That means local news and sports, big national games like the Super Bowl, and primetime favorites.
Sports: 5/5
Not only does Optimum offer a ton of great channels for sports, you can get most of it at either the Basic TV or Core TV packages. In addition to wrestling on USA Network and all that ESPN has to offer, you get TNT, Fox Sports 1, MLB Network, and NBA TV. NFL Network is available on the highest tier, and you can get NFL RedZone as an add-on. Sports aficionados should opt for at least the Select TV plan to get the best selection.
If Optimum's offerings aren't quite right, you're in luck! A lot of games and matches are now available via streaming or over the air. Find out how to watch the MLB, how to watch pro football, and how to watch the NHL.
Family and education: 5/5
Optimum TV truly offers something for everyone, and that includes all kinds of shows for kids and channels focused on education. You can get PBS, Disney, and Nickelodeon at the Core TV price. If you bump up to the next tier, you can get History, Discovery, NationL Geographic, Travel, Animal Planet, and more. There’s no Family Entertainment TV (FETV) or Me TV, but we aren’t too mad about it.
News and politics: 5/5
Optimum TV keeps hitting homers when it comes to news. You get a selection of US political news from both sides of the aisle plus international news, Spanish-language news, business news, and even sports news.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 4.5/5
When it comes to watching great movies, reality TV, and home improvement shows, Optimum TV has you covered. At the highest tier, you get a selection of premium channels including Reelz, HBO, and SHOWTIME, plus both Hallmark and Lifetime. A number of the top 100 channels in the US are missing, including Game Show Network, Grit, INSP and Ion Mystery, but all the most popular content is easy to find. (1)
Hargray service falls a bit short in the value department. Packages start low, at around $30 per month, but this is just for basic cable. To get a decent channel count, you’ll need to pay more than $100 per month—and even then, the channel selection is mediocre. You’ll get the basics covered, along with more than half of the more popular channels, like ESPN, Fox Sports, and the Disney Channel, but we wish there was more for the money here.
The bundle situation is a little better, but not much. There’s just no way around it—if you want a decent channel count and respectable internet speed, you’ll have to pay a premium with Hargray.
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.
Optimum TV offers excellent value, whether you live in an area that gets only cable internet or one wired for fiber-to-the-home. Internet-based TV packages are available for as little as $35 per month (for basic TV), while the higher-tier plans offer high channel counts for the price. There are as many as 420+ channels available—one of the highest channel counts of any provider.
The internet service is also a fantastic value, offering faster speeds for the money than many competitors. It’s worth noting that an internet plan is required, though, at a minimum price of $40 per month. There’s also a few hidden fees, but they’re lower than what we’ve seen from other cable providers.
There's a 2-year price lock on most plans, which is great! Prices go up in the third year of TV service, though, and the company doesn't say by how much. We've heard customers complain about price hikes in the range of $85–$115, though, and that's just for TV. Since you also need internet, your price could balloon by $200 per month by year three.
You may be able to save on your bill by calling in and threatening to switch to a competitor, so we recommend it!
Watching TV with Hargray is a decent experience. Its greatest downfall is its disappointing DVR features, but we'd also like to see Hargray offer a voice remote to make it easy to find shows if you don't have Google Home or Alexa.
Ability to watch: Great
Hargray’s equipment is surprisingly solid for a regional provider. TV boxes are inexpensive at just $8, but your first one isn’t free like with a lot of other providers. Hargray also has an app you can use to watch shows on the go.
Ability to record: Bad
There’s a steep monthly DVR charge, and you get just 50 hours of DVR storage (less if you record in HD). The good news is, if you try to catch a show within 24 hours of it airing, you can watch it without recording it. When you do record, you can capture up to six shows simultaneously.
Ability to find: Good
Hargray doesn’t provide a voice-control remote, but if you have Google Home or Alexa, you can use them to find shows and channels. Hargray's parental controls are also decent. You can block content by channel and rating, but you’ll have to do so on each device your kids use. And the only way to block previews and descriptions in the channel guide is to block entire channels—you can’t block them based on rating 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.
Optimum TV is a nice option for channel surfing, watching on-demand, and catching episodes or games you might have missed (whether on a TV set or on your phone or laptop). However, its costly DVR storage may not be worth the money.
Ability to watch: Great
Whether you go with the Optimum cable box, buy an Apple TV from the company, or use your own Apple TV, we think you’ll enjoy watching Optimum TV. Optimum gives you Wi-Fi equipment and the first set-top box for free, but you'll be charged an additional $10 per month for each additional TV box. However, it’s easy to get out of those fees using the sweet Optimum TV mobile app, so that’s what we recommend for most households.
Ability to record: Good
Optimum’s Cloud DVR system offers up to 150 hours of storage for your favorite shows and movies, and you can record up to 15 shows at the same time—perfect for large families or households with lots of roommates. The system comes with all the modern features we expect from a DVR: voice control, an Apple TV app, support for streaming services, and more.
You can also access your DVR and on-demand content from your iPhone, iPad, or Android device with the provider’s app. Our only gripe is that the DVR storage is costly—more than $20 per month for the full 150 hours, in addition to the fee for renting the box. You'll also be charged a DVR service fee for every set-top box you rent, but you can skip the DVR altogether if you want and there’s no charge.
Ability to find: Great
Optimum TV offers thousands of shows and hundreds of channels, and they’re pretty easy to find using the app, the company’s cable box, or an Apple TV. Both the cable box and Apple TV have voice search functionality, and you can enter in credentials for other streaming services like Netflix on either. With the cable box, you can even pause and restart live TV.
Hargray provides a decent customer experience with 24/7 phone support and live chat, but self-help troubleshooting content on its website is hard to search. First-hand customer reviews about Hargray’s TV service are hard to find, but internet customers seem to have a great experience overall.
Installation is less exciting. The provider charges a flat installation fee of $50, which isn’t terrible. However, there’s also a $99 activation fee, and the two together make the installation one of the most expensive we’ve seen.
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).
Most Optimum TV customers are happy with the service and self-installation is free if you order online. If you need a pro to come help (and you order online), the charge is $60. If you call in to order, self-install is free, the standard installation costs about $100, and premium installation costs about $150.