MaxxSouth Broadband vs. Mediacom vs. Peacock TV Television plan comparison
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Staff rating
2.7
Customer rating
5.0
(1)- Plans starting at $14.99
- 55 channels
Staff rating
2.8
Customer rating
3.7
(4)- Plans starting at $24.99
- 170+ channels
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See what providers service your area.
Staff rating
2.7
Lackluster TV plans might still be your best option
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.
What we like
- Few hidden costs
- Local sports channels
- No contracts
What we dislike
- High cost per channel
- Mediocre customer service
- Minimal DVR storage
Savings tip: MaxxSouth Broadband 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
3.6
Peacock TV is a great supplemental service but doesn’t replace live TV
Home to greats like The Office, Parks & Rec, Real Housewives, and Law & Order, Peacock has some great content at a price we loved. But our hands-on testing revealed that its channel lineup was disappointing and couldn’t fully replace a more expensive live TV streaming service like Fubo or YouTube TV.
What we like
- Great shows
- Delightful interface
- Low price
What we dislike
- No DVR
- Mostly runs on "live" channels
- No NBC, MSNBC, or CNBC
Savings tip: Peacock TV often has
sign-up promotions
for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.Check deals
Content
3.0
Incredible local sports options round out an otherwise mediocre channel lineup
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.
Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out
MaxxSouth Broadband 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
3.5
Great live sports, on-demand movies, and day-old NBC shows—but its channel lineup is lacking
Peacock TV is different from other streaming services because it focuses on only NBC content. NBC has a little something for everyone though, so we were able to rate all five content categories. But instead of basing our ratings on the channels Peacock offers, we focused on the shows themselves.
If you’ve had cable TV or another live TV streaming service like YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, or fubo, you might see Peacock’s channel lineup and snort out loud. And you’d be totally within your rights. Most of Peacock’s “live” TV channels just play reruns of specific shows all day and night. You can’t control which episode you watch or when you start one, nor are you getting brand new content. It’s kind of the worst of both the live TV and on-demand worlds.
Our advice? Get Peacock TV for the sports, day-old NBC shows, and movies—not for the channels.
Local: 2/5
If you spring for the $10 per month subscription, you’ll get your local NBC channel. Otherwise, you won’t. If you live in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, South Florida, Boston, or Los Angeles, you’re in luck. You’ll get a local NBC news channel. If you live elsewhere, you won’t get any content local to you.
Sports: 4/5
Peacock Premium and Peacock Premium Plus have some great sports content too. You’ll get a bit of everything, from soccer to golf to cycling to NASCAR to Sunday Night Football—all live or on-demand, depending on when you log in to watch. You also get the Olympics, of course, but these won’t be live. So if you like to stay up til three in the morning to watch your favorite curling team sweep their hearts out, consider this your permission to sleep in and catch all the bonspiels (that’s curling-speak for games) during normal waking hours. Oh, and if classic WWF matches are your jam (wait, is that just us?), Peacock has a channel that plays them 24/7/365.
More Resources:
Family and education: 3.5/5
Peacock has some great family-friendly movies and finding them is super easy. Create a kids profile, and it’ll be packed with Dreamworks movies like Turbo, Shrek, and Shark Tale alongside shows like Blippi, Strawberry Shortcake, and Trolls: The Beat Goes On. Plus, you can dress to the nines in your living room and join the Gentleminions movement without besmirching your polite theater-goer reputation.
News and politics: 2.5/5
Peacock has some strong news content in addition to its six local news channels. You’ll get a 24/7 Dateline channel, Today All Day, Sky News, and LX News. If you’re looking to get a sample of headlines and stories, it’s great. But all news programs are created by NBC, so you may not get the variety of perspectives you’re looking for. We like to see Peacock as a supplemental way to get news coverage, we prefer to get our news elsewhere.
Entertainment and lifestyle: 5/5
NBC has some award-winning shows, both new and old. From The Office, 30 Rock, and Parks & Rec to Blacklist, all the Saturday Night Live, and Real Housewives, there’s some great content to watch on Peacock. If you work your way through all the episodes of these shows before you’re done binge-watching (though we’d be surprised if you did), you can pick from classics like Dennis the Menace, reruns of Jimmy Fallon, and more.
Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out
Peacock TV channel offerings
in your area.View plans
Value
3.0
High prices and mediocre channel lineups could still be your best option due to low competition
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.
Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-844-719-0032 or check your address at
MaxxSouth Broadband'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
Great shows, movies, and sports—but don’t pin all your live TV streaming hopes on it
Peacock is a great deal, and it’s one of the cheapest TV streaming apps. Peacock gives you access to arguably some of the greatest shows on TV, solid news coverage, and a great sports lineup—especially international sports.
It’s a ton of value, but we recommend considering it an addition to a more complete live streaming option like Sling or Hulu + Live TV—especially since Peacock doesn’t give you access to NBC/Universal’s live stations, like CNBC, MSNBC, or, well, NBC. That means you can’t watch live episodes of The Voice with your friends. Instead, you can get them on Peacock the next day—after your co-workers passive-aggressively feed you spoilers. Womp-womp.
Peacock TV has three versions. The free version is kind of like a teaser for the paid versions. You get to watch a few new shows and a bunch of channels packed with syndicated reruns, all while drooling over all the shows you’d get if you coughed up the cash for the paid version. The next step up, Peacock Premium, is a great buy at $5 per month. You get all the content Peacock has to offer, and the commercials were surprisingly low-key.
Finally, the premium tier is Peacock Premium Plus. It’s twice the price and, in our opinion, rarely worth the cost. You get the same content with fewer commercials and the ability to download shows to watch offline (but no ability to DVR live content). It’s pretty meh.
Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at
Peacock TV's website.
Check address
Equipment and features
2.5
Limited TV Everywhere and DVR features leave you with tough choices about what to watch
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.
Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit
MaxxSouth Broadband's website
or call 1-844-719-0032 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.Usability and features
4.0
Easy parental controls and delightful details, but no DVR
Peacock makes watching and finding content a wonderful experience. You can’t DVR anything, but with so much on-demand content, we didn’t feel much need to anyway.
Ability to watch: Great
Peacock delivers a solid watching experience in both its app and browser versions. Something Peacock TV does really well is let you jump between devices in the middle of watching a show. It easily picked up where we left off when we switched from a computer to the phone app to TV and back again, whether we were watching live or on-demand content. For some streaming services, (we’re looking at you, Sling TV) switching devices mid-stream can get glitchy fast. So well done, Peacock!
In other ways, Peacock wasn’t as easy as some of the other live TV streaming services we tested, especially on our phones. We were bummed that we couldn’t multitask: there was no mini video we could watch while firing off an email or answering a text.
Ability to record: Fine
No matter which Peacock plan you get, you’ll never be able to record live shows. There’s no DVR capability, but we’re not sure you’d need it. Most of the content we wanted to record was available on-demand anyway (except for live sporting events). And if you spring for Peacock Premium Plus (the highest-cost plan), you can download on-demand shows to watch offline later. We’d probably skip the upgrade, though. We liked the idea for long flights or keeping the kiddos entertained at the car wash, but we didn’t find a ton more uses for this pared-back feature.
Ability to find: Great
Peacock makes it pretty easy to find the shows you want. Its interface is intuitive and it easily tracks where you left off, even when switching between devices. Parental controls are also super easy and effective. Just create a kids profile for quick access to only children's shows. You can also set up a PIN to keep the little ones restricted to these kid-friendly profiles. As a bonus, parents’ profiles won’t be bogged down with Curious George or Blippi episodes. (Although we’d probably keep a kids profile around just for all the Dreamworks movies.)
There are a few ways Peacock could improve its usability though. For starters, the app made us browse shows and channels in portrait mode, then flipped us to landscape mode to watch, which was annoying. Additionally, there’s no “back” button on the app, so if you get a few clicks into browsing for on-demand shows, you have to hit the Home button and start all over if you want to back out. (If you’re using a browser, you can hit its back button.)
There’s a “back” button on the live TV side of things, but, oddly, it doesn’t take you back a step. Instead, it brings up the channel guide on the bottom half of the screen while your show keeps playing. We liked being able to browse while catching up on the news, but it was confusing at first.
The only real gripe we had about using Peacock TV on a browser was that a lot of the descriptive text (like the channel guide and show descriptions) disappeared faster than we could read it, which meant we had to keep moving the mouse to get it back. It was a minor annoyance, but we’d love to see this fixed in the future. We’re not all speed readers, Liz Lemon.
Ability to share: Great
You can make up to six profiles on Peacock, which is a decent amount, and making new profiles is super easy. Beyond the basics, Peacock has some fun extras that delighted us. We loved picking profile avatars using headshots of our favorite NBC characters (hello Ron Swanson!).
We also confirmed that you can stream only three devices at once on Peacock. When you try to add the fourth, you’re alerted (by the adorable Puss in Boots from Shrek giving you those big, precious eyes in apology). You don’t have to worry about kicking anyone else off their show—but you can’t choose to either. You’ll have to kick them off the old-fashioned way, with a text, phone call, or shout down the hall.
Customer experience
2.5
Patience and persistence will give you the best experience
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).
Visit MaxxSouth Broadband's website
or call 1-844-719-0032 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
Peacock delivers a great overall experience, but if you need help, it’s hard to find
Peacock’s website is easy to navigate and it’s super easy to see right on the home page exactly how much a subscription will cost you. It also has a well-organized help page, though you’ll have to scroll to the website’s footer to find your way there. You can ask the chat bot for help, but to get more personalized service, you have to sign into your account.
Unfortunately, getting a live person to help isn’t as easy. There’s no phone number displayed, and the “Get in Touch” button just takes you to more self-help articles. To speak with an actual person via chat, you have to click into a help article, then click “No” to answer the question “Was this article helpful," and answer a feedback survey. Ugh.
That said, we had little genuine reason to seek out customer service because everything worked well, checkout was simple and transparent, and it was easy to cancel.
Visit Peacock TV's website
or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.Go to provider
Made up your mind?
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MaxxSouth Broadband
5.0
(1)5 Star
100%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
T
Tajariafrom Baton Rouge , LA
MaxxSouth Broadband Customer for 1+ years
Reviewed on: 9/9/2022
Everything is really good
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.
Peacock TV
0.0
(0)5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
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