Live TV streaming services aren’t exactly like cable or satellite, so curious cord-cutters rightfully have concerns: Is it worth it to switch to streaming? According to our survey results, most people feel they’re getting their money’s worth with YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.
CableTV.com surveyed over 6,000 current live TV streaming customers to get their feedback. With a few exceptions, the results match up with our own Best Live TV Streaming Services 2022 review.
Overall customer satisfaction
Spoiler: Like our expert reviewers, the people we surveyed mostly favor YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV for their live TV streaming needs. But, Sling TV, Philo, and fuboTV also have their fans.
DIRECTV STREAM, the rebranded AT&T TV, didn’t make much of a showing in our live TV streaming survey, so you won’t see it listed here. The same goes for new-ish service Vidgo.
Are you satisfied with your live TV streaming service?
YouTube TV: 72% — No shock here: YouTube TV carries over 85 live TV channels, features unlimited DVR space, and offers over 30 add-on channels and packages for $65 a month—that’s some excellent bang for your buck.
Hulu + Live TV, being a hybrid service that offers both live TV and exclusive on-demand content (original and otherwise), also has its advantages. But it’s also about to get more expensive (more on that later).
- Hulu + Live TV: 71%
- Philo: 60%
- Sling TV: 60%
- fuboTV: 50%
How effective is your live TV streaming service at meeting your needs?
Hulu + Live TV: 73% — As mentioned above, Hulu + Live TV’s unique combo of live TV channels and on-demand content makes it a great value. If you could only have one streaming service (perish the thought), Hulu + Live TV would be an easy choice (though not a cheap one).
YouTube TV: 72% — YouTube TV’s abundance of channels and DVR space are close to what you get with cable or satellite, but for less monthly payout. It makes sense that it’s so evenly matched with Hulu + Live TV throughout our survey.
- Sling TV: 63%
- Philo: 61%
- fuboTV: 50%
How easy is it to work with your live TV streaming service?
Hulu + Live TV: 74% — In our experience, we’ve found both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV to be proactively quick in fielding questions and complaints about their services.
Our survey audience feels the same, giving a slight 4% edge to Hulu + Live TV.
- YouTube TV: 70%
- Sling TV: 62%
- Philo: 59%
- fuboTV: 58%
How satisfied are you with your interactions with your live TV streaming service?
Hulu + Live TV: 74% — Similar results here to the previous question, with a significant switch between fuboTV and Philo.
- YouTube TV: 72%
- Philo: 60%
- Sling TV: 60%
- fuboTV: 49%
Would you to recommend your live TV streaming service to a friend or colleague?
YouTube TV: 70% — YouTube TV takes the top position again here, and the list as a whole lines up with CableTV.com’s reviews and rankings for the Best Live TV Streaming Services. We feel seen.
- Hulu + Live TV: 67%
- Philo: 59%
- Sling TV: 58%
- fuboTV: 55%
How does your live TV streaming service compare with the ideal?
Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV: 68% — Two ties, with fuboTV at the bottom again. While we don’t think this survey gives fuboTV it’s proper due—it’s an excellent service with a lot of channels and features—we’ll defer to our survey pool.
- Sling TV: 62%
- Philo: 62%
- fuboTV: 55%
Features and functionality
Basically, does it work? Bells and whistles are cool—YouTube TV has so many tech-nerd features that even we haven’t gotten to all of them yet—but those we surveyed just want to stream with no hassles.
How satisfied are you with your user experience?
Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV: 69% — A tie between YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, with Sling TV and Philo not far behind. Better luck next year, fuboTV.
- Sling TV: 62%
- Philo: 60%
- fuboTV: 47%
How satisfied are you with your service’s reliability?
Hulu + Live TV: 68% — Significant drop for YouTube TV here, but fuboTV continues to scrape the bottom. Nice bump up for Philo, too.
- Philo: 65%
- YouTube TV: 64%
- Sling TV: 56%
- fuboTV: 49%
How satisfied are you with your add-on channels and packs?
Hulu + Live TV: 63% — While we do agree that Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV offer a wide variety of great channel add-ons, we’re kind of surprised to see Philo tied with Sling TV. Philo only has a couple of available add-ons, while Sling TV gives you around 30 choices.
- YouTube TV: 61%
- Philo: 54%
- Sling TV: 54%
- fuboTV: 49%
Pricing and subscriptions
The big one: Cost. That monthly bill carries more clout than features and functionality with most people. In the early days of live TV streaming, it was far cheaper than cable or satellite TV service—but streaming prices are now creeping up every year. Value is king.
Given the quality of your service(s), how would you rate the price that you pay for them?
YouTube TV: 66% — Not to come to fuboTV’s defense again, but we’re coming to fuboTV’s defense again.
As we’ve said, YouTube TV gives you over 100 channels for $64.99 a month. fuboTV’s Starter plan features nearly the same channel lineup for the same price (albeit with less DVR space). Agree to disagree.
Also: Sling TV, which starts at $35 a month (just $10 more than Philo), scored slightly low.
- Hulu + Live TV: 63%
- Philo: 61%
- Sling TV: 59%
- fuboTV: 55%
Given your initial expectations, how would you rate the price that you pay for your service(s)?
YouTube TV: 66% — We knew customers would come around. A big stink was raised over YouTube TV’s price hike to $64.99 a month in 2020, but the others weren’t far behind in rate increases—it’s an even playing field now, and YouTube TV simply gives you the most for the money.
- Hulu + Live TV: 63%
- Philo: 61%
- Sling TV: 59%
- fuboTV: 55%
Given competitors’ prices, how would you rate the price that you pay for your service(s)?
YouTube TV: 66% — As we’ve said, YouTube TV is a good value for what you get in channels, cloud DVR storage, and overall ease of use.
- Hulu + Live TV: 63%
- Philo: 61%
- Sling TV: 59%
- fuboTV: 55%
How likely are you to continue to subscribe to your service(s)?
YouTube TV: 72% — This looks right to us, but Hulu + Live TV customers might have changed their tune after December 2021—read on.
- Hulu + Live TV: 69%
- Sling TV: 61%
- Philo: 60%
- fuboTV: 52%
How likely are you to increase the amount you purchase from your service(s)?
YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV: 45% — Hulu + Live TV’s monthly price went up by $5 in December 2021. The Hulu + Live TV (with ads) plan increased to $69.99 a month, and the Hulu + Live TV (no ads) plan rose to $75.99 a month. On the upside, both Hulu + Live TV plans now include the popular Disney+/ESPN+ bundle at no extra charge.
We predict that YouTube TV, which added more channels consistently throughout 2021, will also become pricier in 2022. It’s highly likely you’ll be spending more on live TV streaming this year, no matter which service you go with.
- fuboTV: 42%
- Philo: 39%
- Sling TV: 36%
Final take
We’ve had some wildly different opinions in our past customer service satisfaction surveys, but only a few minor quibbles arose this time around. We agree with our survey audience’s overall satisfaction picks for these reasons:
#1 YouTube TV: Over 100 live TV channels, unlimited DVR space, 30+ add-on channels and packages, excellent search functionality, and an interface that navigates like a dream. Our survey respondents think YTTV has some reliability issues, however.
#2 Hulu + Live TV: 70+ live TV channels and access to Hulu’s massive on-demand library of movies, TV shows, and original content. Our only dislikes with Hulu + Live TV are the limited DVR and higher price.
#3 Philo: Unlimited DVR space (for one year, as opposed to YouTube TV’s nine months), low pricing, and a selection of channels most other live TV streaming services don’t carry (like Lifetime and Hallmark). Philo carries no sports or local channels, though.
#4 Sling TV: Three different plans that are highly customizable with dozens of add-on packages (including sports), antenna deals for picking up local channels, and relatively lower pricing. Sling TV makes it easier than the rest to build your own skinny TV bundle.
#5 fuboTV: Huge channel counts (up to 200+), generous simultaneous streams (up to 10), and expandible DVR space (up to 1,000 hours). fuboTV also carries every sports channel a ball fan could want, especially futbol (a.k.a. soccer).
DIRECTV STREAM and Vidgo, the other US live TV streaming services that didn’t grab enough numbers to make our survey, are also worth checking out. Read more about all seven services in our Best Live Streaming Services 2022 review.
Methodology
CableTV.com surveyed over 6,000 live TV streaming customers, asking their opinions on reliability, functionality, cost, and overall satisfaction with their current service, controlling for region, age, gender, and race, among other factors. We then broke out the five services that ranked in the highest percentiles for excellence. If you have follow-up questions, please feel free to email us with your request at pr@cabletv.com.
