Short answer: for most US homes, YouTube TV is still the best live TV streaming service. It carries local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in markets covering over 98% of TV households, records without limits and costs $82.99 a month after its intro offer. The catch is that "best" changes with who lives in your house. A sports family with a local team on a regional network will be better off with DIRECTV, and a household that never watches sports is wasting about $55 a month on any of the big three.
At a glance
Best live TV streaming service, October 2026
| Best for most homes | YouTube TV, $82.99/mo |
| Best for local-team sports | DIRECTV Choice, $94.99/mo |
| Most screens for the money | DIRECTV, unlimited at home |
| Best with Disney+ and Hulu | Hulu + Live TV, $99.99/mo |
| Best with no sports | Philo, $25/mo |
| Watch out for | Fubo has no NBC; Sling has no CBS |
The master comparison table
Every price below is the regular monthly rate after any introductory deal, taken from each service's own sign-up page in early October 2026. Promo prices are real, but they expire after one to six months, and that's the number you'll be paying for most of the year.
| Service and plan | Monthly price | Local channels | Cloud DVR | Screens at once | Sports strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube TV (Base) | $82.99 | ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC in 98%+ of households | Unlimited, 9 months | 3 (unlimited at home with 4K Plus) | Strong national, few RSNs |
| YouTube TV Sports + News | $71.99 | Yes | Unlimited, 9 months | 3 | Sports and news only |
| DIRECTV Entertainment | $89.99 | Yes, where available | Unlimited | Unlimited at home | ESPN Unlimited, no RSNs |
| DIRECTV Choice | $94.99 | Yes, where available | Unlimited | Unlimited at home | Best: most RSNs, SEC, ACC, BTN |
| Hulu + Live TV | $99.99 | Yes | Unlimited, 9 months | 2 at home, 3 away | Good, no RSNs |
| Sling Orange & Blue | $60.99 | ABC, FOX, NBC in select markets, no CBS | 50 hours | Up to 4 | Partial, add-ons needed |
| Fubo Pro | about $74 (third-party listings) | Yes, but no NBC | Unlimited | 10 at home, 2 away | Good, no NBC or TNT |
| Philo Essential | $25 | None | Unlimited, 1 year | 3 | None |
Two things stand out. First, the gap between the "full" services has widened: Hulu + Live TV now lists $99.99, while YouTube TV holds at $82.99. Second, the cheaper options cut exactly what most people assume they're getting. Sling's Blue plan has no CBS anywhere, and Fubo has had no NBC since a carriage dispute in late 2025.
Most households: YouTube TV
If your house watches a bit of everything, local news, a few football games, some cable shows, YouTube TV is the easy pick. It gets the basics right more consistently than anything else:
- Locals almost everywhere. YouTube says its local stations reach more than 98% of US TV households. That's the widest coverage of any live service.
- DVR you don't have to manage. Recordings are unlimited and kept for nine months.
- Six household accounts. Each person gets their own library and recommendations, so nobody's recordings get buried.
- ESPN Unlimited access included. Since the Disney carriage deal, subscribers get the ESPN app's full tier at no extra charge. On its own, that tier is $31.99 a month.
Where it falls short: only three people can stream at the same time unless you add 4K Plus for $9.99, and regional sports networks are mostly missing. The price has also risen steadily, from $35 at launch to today's $82.99. We track that history in our YouTube TV price increase timeline.
If nobody in the house watches HGTV, Bravo or cable dramas, look at YouTube TV's newer Sports + News plan. It's listed at $71.99 after an intro rate and carries 50+ channels. That saves $11 a month without losing football, though it's a smaller saving than the name suggests.
Sports families with a local team: DIRECTV
The single most common reason people end up unhappy with YouTube TV is a missing regional sports network. If you want every game from your local MLB, NBA or NHL team, check whether that team still airs on an RSN in your ZIP code. Several teams moved to local broadcast or team-run apps in the last two seasons, so it's no longer automatic.
If your team is still on an RSN, DIRECTV Choice at $94.99 is the service most likely to have it. Choice adds RSNs where available plus SEC Network, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, MLB Network and NBA TV. Every DIRECTV package also includes ESPN Unlimited, unlimited cloud DVR and unlimited screens at home.
The downside is cost creep. Choice is $12 a month more than YouTube TV, and DIRECTV's sign-up flow leans heavily on promos (first month $64.99, then $74.99 for two months). Budget for the full $94.99. Our guide to regional sports network streaming explains which teams have moved where.
Big households with lots of screens
Teenagers in separate rooms change the math. A three-stream limit sounds fine until a game, a cooking show and a news channel are all on at once and somebody's phone at practice becomes the fourth.
| Service | Streams included | To go higher | Cost at "unlimited" |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube TV | 3 | 4K Plus, $9.99/mo (unlimited at home) | $92.98 |
| DIRECTV | Unlimited at home | Included | $89.99 (Entertainment) |
| Hulu + Live TV | 2 at home, 3 away | Unlimited Screens add-on | Add-on on top of $99.99 |
| Fubo Pro | 10 at home, 2 away | Included | about $74 |
| Sling Orange & Blue | Up to 4 | Not available | $60.99 (capped at 4) |
For a family of five that wants locals and some sports, DIRECTV Entertainment at $89.99 with unlimited home screens is the cleanest answer. YouTube TV with 4K Plus costs about $3 more and adds 4K on the handful of events that have it. Hulu's two-screen base is the weakest here. We go deeper on this in every service's screen limit.
Disney and Hulu families: Hulu + Live TV
Hulu + Live TV's argument has always been the bundle: 100+ live channels plus Hulu's on-demand library, Disney+ and ESPN Select, all with ads. If you'd pay for Disney+ and Hulu anyway, that bundle is worth roughly $20 to $30 a month on its own.
But at $99.99 a month after the intro offer, it's now $17 more than YouTube TV. The math only works if you'd genuinely subscribe to Disney+ and Hulu separately. If those apps would go mostly unwatched, you're paying a premium for a two-screen limit. Disney has also said the standalone Hulu app is being folded into Disney+ during 2026, so expect the interface to change.
Our opinion: Hulu + Live TV is worth it for Disney-heavy homes with young kids and nobody else. For a side-by-side with cheaper routes, see what $99.99 buys over a cheap playlist.
No sports at all: Philo
A surprising number of households pay $80+ a month mainly for ESPN without anybody watching it. If your viewing is reality, lifestyle, movies and cable dramas, Philo at $25 is the best value in live TV. It carries 70+ live channels (A&E, AMC, BET, Discovery, HGTV, Hallmark, History, TLC and more), keeps recordings for a full year and lets three people watch at once.
What it doesn't have: no local stations, no news networks and no sports. Pair it with an antenna for local news and network shows and you have a $25 setup that covers most non-sports viewing. The Bundle+ plan at $33 adds HBO Max Basic with ads, AMC+ and discovery+.
One or two people on a budget: Sling
Sling is the cheapest way to get a cable-style lineup with some live sports, but it's built around trade-offs you have to understand before signing up:
- Orange ($45.99) has ESPN and the Disney channels but allows only one stream.
- Blue ($45.99) has FOX, NBC and ABC locals in select markets, FS1, NFL Network and three streams. It has no CBS anywhere.
- Orange & Blue ($60.99) combines both and allows four streams.
- Essentials and Select start at $19.99 for slimmer lineups.
Sling's day and week passes have been discontinued, which removes its best trick for occasional sports viewers. DVR starts at 50 hours. With an antenna for CBS, Orange & Blue at $60.99 covers most of what a couple watches for about $22 less than YouTube TV. Compare it with other low-cost routes in the cheapest way to watch live TV.
Where Fubo fits now
Fubo used to be the obvious sports pick, and it still has real strengths: a large channel count, ten streams at home, 4K on some events, and ESPN Unlimited plus Fox One included with its main plans. Its Pro plan is listed around $74 by third-party price trackers. Fubo's own site shows prices only after you enter a ZIP code.
The problem is two holes that matter for most American households. Fubo has carried no NBC or NBCUniversal cable channels since a carriage dispute in late 2025, which means no local NBC station, no Sunday Night Football and no Bravo or Telemundo. It has also never carried TNT or TBS. If neither gap affects you, perhaps because you mostly watch soccer and college football on ESPN and FOX, Fubo is good value. For everyone else, it's a hard sell until those channels come back.
Fubo and Hulu + Live TV now operate under the same Disney-controlled company, so check whether that has changed by the time you read this.
Quick answers
What is the best live TV streaming service overall? YouTube TV, for most households. It has local channels in markets covering more than 98% of US TV households, unlimited DVR, six household accounts and ESPN Unlimited access included, for $82.99 a month after the intro offer.
What is the cheapest live TV streaming service with local channels? YouTube TV's Sports + News plan, at $71.99 a month after its intro rate, is the cheapest way to get all four major networks from one service. Sling Blue is cheaper at $45.99 but has no CBS and carries ABC, FOX and NBC only in select markets.
Which live TV service has the most screens? DIRECTV allows unlimited streams at home on every package. Fubo allows ten at home and two away. YouTube TV allows three, or unlimited at home with the $9.99 4K Plus add-on.
Is Hulu + Live TV worth $99.99 a month? Only if you would pay for Disney+ and Hulu separately. The bundle includes both with ads plus ESPN Select, but the live TV part has a two-screen limit and costs $17 a month more than YouTube TV.
Does Fubo have NBC? Not at the time of writing. Fubo has carried no NBC or NBCUniversal cable channels since a carriage dispute in late 2025, and it has never carried TNT or TBS.
Which live TV service is best without sports? Philo. At $25 a month it carries 70+ entertainment and lifestyle channels with a one-year DVR and three streams. It has no locals, news or sports, so pair it with an antenna.
Do live TV streaming services have contracts? No. YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, Sling, Fubo and Philo are all month to month, so you can cancel before the next billing date. Promo prices usually require you to stay through the promo months to get the full discount.
Prices are regular monthly rates from each service's sign-up page in early October 2026, before taxes and regional sports fees. Promo offers, channel lineups and carriage disputes change often, and local channels and RSNs depend on your ZIP code. Checked October 2026.