Hargray vs. Mediacom vs. WOW! Television plan comparison
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Staff rating
2.7
Customer rating
0.0
(0)- Plans starting at $20.00
- 170+ channels
Staff rating
2.8
Customer rating
3.7
(4)- Plans starting at $24.99
- 170+ channels
Staff rating
3.1
Customer rating
4.0
(2)- Plans starting at $9.99
- n/a channels
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See what providers service your area.
Staff rating
2.7
Hargray TV offers some interesting features, but faces stiff competition
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.
What we like
- Channel selection covers most of the top channels
- No contract
- Solid equipment and features
What we dislike
- Expensive for what you get
- Lacks niche channels, especially for sports
- Somewhat limited coverage area
Savings tip: Hargray often has
sign-up promotions
for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.Check deals
Staff rating
2.8
Decent value if you plan to bundle
Mediacom offers a decent value in TV, but it’s far from perfect. First, you must bundle it with internet—standalone TV isn’t available. A thin sports selection and lots of fees also hurt. That said, Mediacom internet isn’t bad, so if you’re going with that, it probably makes sense to go with Mediacom TV, too.
What we like
- Solid prices
- Lots of bundle options
- Nice TiVo set-top box
What we dislike
- Must bundle TV with internet
- Lack of sports channels
- Lots of fees
Savings tip: Mediacom often has
sign-up promotions
for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.Check deals
Staff rating
3.1
Easy cord-cutting, limited DVR
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.
What we like
- Low prices
- Top-notch Wi-Fi gear
- Good sports lineup
What we dislike
- Meager DVR features
- Low-rated streaming apps
- Limited availability
Savings tip: WOW! often has
sign-up promotions
for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.Check deals
Content
3.5
Hargray offers a solid sports and news selection but lacks other top channels
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.
Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out
Hargray channel offerings
in your area.View plans
Content
3.0
Standard fare for cable TV, with unusual add-on pricing
Mediacom offers pretty standard fare to its TV customers. It's not wonderful, but it isn't horrible either. Depending on your chosen package, you get 50+, 125+, or 170+ channels, along with internet speeds up to 1 Gbps. The channel selection is good, with popular networks available. Channel selection varies quite a bit based on where you live.
Local: 3.5/5
While your exact channel lineup depends on your exact address, Mediacom does a decent job of providing local channels in most of the markets it serves. You can get your standard CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX channels at the lowest package price, and often a handful of other local options like PBS and Antenna TV (but not Telemundo and Estrella). For local news, sports, and network TV in English, Mediacom is a decent option.
Sports: 2.5/5
We don’t usually recommend Mediacom TV for households that watch a lot of sports. While you can get Fox Sports 1 and TNT plus your local channels for some pro games, the Golf Channel and NFL Networks are available only as add-ons and there’s no MLB coverage available at all. You'll need the third tier for ESPN, TUDN, and most regional sports networks.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3.5/5
It’s possible to get a great selection of family and educational shows from Mediacom TV, but some of the best options aren’t available in any package tier. Instead, for channels like Smithsonian, Science, Nat Geo Wild, and the Cooking Channel, you have to pay extra every month for the “Kids and Variety Digital Pak.” It’s unusual to have to pay extra for family-friendly shows that come standard with most cable TV competitors.
News and politics: 4/5
Mediacom has a lot to offer when it comes to news, but it's not available in the basic package. At the second tier, you get CNN and Fox News, but you have to bump up to the third tier for MSNBC, Newsmax, CNBC, and Fox Business. If you go with the “Sports & Information Digital Pak,” you can also catch Cheddar News, BBC News, Bloomberg, and China Global Television Network.
Entertainment and lifestyle 3.5/5
From blockbuster movies to reality TV and travel shows, Mediacom has a lot of the most popular channels available. The only caveats are that you may have to pay add-on prices for channels like HBO and Reelz, and these prices tend to be more expensive than what you would find with national cable TV competitors. The premium channels are also usually more expensive than going with streaming services from each brand name.
Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out
Mediacom channel offerings
in your area.View plans
Content
3.0
Mediocre channel lineups get the job done
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.
Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out
WOW! channel offerings
in your area.View plans
Value
2.0
Hargray falls short in the value department, especially compared to competitors
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.
Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-877-427-4729 or check your address at
Hargray's website.
Check address
Value
2.5
Internet required, plus required hidden fees
Mediacom offers reasonable value to TV customers. It’s not the most affordable TV provider and doesn’t offer the highest channel count or fastest internet speeds, but it’s also not outrageously expensive. It’s just…reasonable. The average price per channel is a little higher than most, and the company offers about two-thirds of the nation’s top 100 channels, which is a little worse than average.
It’s worth noting that Mediacom does not offer a standalone TV service. That means you have to pay for Mediacom internet if you want Mediacom TV, with plans (which go up after the first year) starting at $69 per month. There’s also a modem fee, a broadcast fee, and a regional sports fee to worry about. In our tests, the average monthly bill was about $50 more than the original quoted price.
Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-844-716-2788 or check your address at
Mediacom's website.
Check address
Value
4.0
Decent lineups at great prices
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.
Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-844-898-8626 or check your address at
WOW!'s website.
Check address
Equipment and features
2.5
Hargray offers some decent features for a small provider, but its DVR falls short
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.
Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit
Hargray's website
or call 1-877-427-4729 for more information.Equipment and features
3.5
Everything you'd expect
The everyday experience with Mediacom TV is about average compared to other TV services we review. We like the familiarity of the TiVo system, just wish it cost less every month.
Ability to watch: Great
Watching shows and games on Mediacom TV is a pretty standard experience. You can channel surf, record to DVR, and catch a lot of shows and games in HD. It’s easy to see what’s coming up next without leaving your current show, and we like how the set-top box learns what you like and changes its suggestions at different times of day. You can even use your login on different platforms with the Mediacom TV Everywhere service or watch from your mobile phone on Mediacom’s Xtream mobile app.
Ability to record: Great
Remember TiVo? Well, it lives on with Mediacom as the provider’s DVR of choice. Mediacom subscribers get a TiVo DVR box that can record up to 150 hours of HD content (or 1,000 hours of standard definition), which should be plenty for most users.
We particularly like bonus features like QuickMode, which lets you speed up live TV by 30%. It means you can easily get caught up if you start a show or game late. Monthly DVR access fees are pricey and you can’t upgrade your DVR, but once you get the DVR set up and start using it, we think you’ll be pleased with the experience.
Ability to find: Great
From the TV guide on your screen to your Xtream remote, Mediacom makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. We particularly like the voice remote, which lets you ask for a specific show, genre, or channel. It even works with your DVR library and separate streaming apps (but a few extra steps may be required). Parental controls are pretty standard and seem to work well. We only wish the mobile app were more highly rated.
Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit
Mediacom's website
or call 1-844-716-2788 for more information.Equipment and features
2.5
Meager cloud storage and low-rated (beta) apps
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.
Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit
WOW!'s website
or call 1-844-898-8626 for more information.Customer experience
3.0
Hargray’s customer service is decent, but installation will cost you
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.
Visit Hargray's website
or call 1-877-427-4729 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.Go to provider
Customer experience
2.5
Fees galore, and contracts too
Installation of your new Mediacom service will cost at least $35, and there’s no option to self-install. This fee can sometimes be waived with certain promotions, and we highly recommend hunting one down or discussing it with your sales rep. There’s also a $10 activation fee that’ll show up on your first bill.
The first TiVo DVR is included in your monthly price, but you'll have to pay at least $15 per month to use it. Additional boxes cost about $9 per month. Finally, since you have to bundle with internet, you’ll be on the hook for a $14 modem fee each month, plus broadcast and sports surcharges. There’s also a standard $10 monthly fee for an eero Wi-Fi router system, but you might be able to get it free with certain promotions.
There are also contracts to worry about, and they can be for 12, 24, or 36 months. Depending on how many months left in your contract, you could be charged up to $240 if you quit early.
The upsides are that Mediacom is available where a lot of other providers aren’t, and customer service scores are about average among cable TV providers.
Visit Mediacom's website
or call 1-844-716-2788 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.Go to provider
Customer experience
3.0
No contracts and good customer service, but a lack of transparency
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.
Visit WOW!'s website
or call 1-844-898-8626 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.Go to provider
Made up your mind?
Find out what providers are available near you.
Hargray
0.0
(0)5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
Mediacom
3.7
(4)5 Star
25%
4 Star
25%
3 Star
50%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
D
Dennisfrom Corsicana , TX
Mediacom Customer for 4+ years
Reviewed on: 9/4/2022
It's a great value. Has a ton of options for shows and programs.
R
Robert from Columbus , GA
Mediacom Customer for 4+ years
Reviewed on: 9/3/2022
They are your average cable television and Internet service they do off the phone on a customer service note I've had issues and multiple technicians come out to my house and they still can't fix the issue with the cable television and that's the primary market
J
Joanfrom Springfield , MO
Mediacom Customer for 1+ years
Reviewed on: 8/7/2022
Amazing
L
Larryfrom Columbia, MO
Mediacom Customer for 8+ years
Reviewed on: 7/1/2022
They are expensive and I do not get a discount for being a loyal customer. They have terrible service.
WOW!
4.0
(2)5 Star
0%
4 Star
100%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
J
Jimmyfrom Columbus, GA.
WOW! Customer for 4+ years
Reviewed on: 8/27/2022
They show ever thing that I want to see and they could lower the payment
R
Rexfrom Roseville, MI
WOW! Customer for 8+ years
Reviewed on: 7/19/2022
They are ok but need to ofter more for the price
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Endnotes and sources
Endnotes and sources
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Endnotes and sources
1. "Watch WOW!," Google Play. Accessed 7 December 2022.2. "Watch WOW!," App Store. Accessed 7 December 2022.As an Amazon Associate, Switchful.com may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.
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