Streaming Providers

Live TV streaming vs. on-demand TV streaming

The on-demand TV streaming model is well established at this point—you see a show or movie in the menu, click it, play it, and you’re done. Basically, you watch on your own schedule, not a network’s.

Livestreaming content works on a real-time schedule, so you scroll through a set of channels like you would with cable or satellite to choose a show that’s on right now. Watching tonight’s new Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode as it airs on NBC rather than waiting for it to turn up tomorrow or next week on Hulu, for example.

Cable and satellite still have the edge in live TV, though streaming services like DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV come close to re-creating the experience. That’s probably because they’re owned by DIRECTV and DISH respectively.

Right now, no single livestreaming TV service carries the complete roster of channels you could get with a standard cable package. So don’t assume your favorite channels are there; look over the lineups.

And look over this, too: CableTV.com has reviewed 11 of the top streaming TV services, including livestreaming and on-demand flavors. We go into greater detail about channel lineups, device availability, and the pros and cons of streaming to help ease your cord-cutting mind.

Streaming TV devices

Most streaming TV apps are available on smart TVs and Blu-ray players, but the optimal way to stream is through a dedicated device separate from your screen, connected to the internet through an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi.

Streaming TV devices come in either HDMI dongle or small set-top box form. Either takes up less entertainment-center space than the average cable or satellite box because there’s no physical DVR hard drive. You can still record, though; livestreamed shows are stored on a cloud DVR, and total hours allowed vary by service.

Conveniently, CableTV.com has also reviewed five of the top streaming devices for you, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV.

Internet connection

If your household already has heavy internet demands between web surfers and gamers, streaming TV is going to add considerably to the load.

Services like Netflix recommend at least 25 Mbps of download speed for HD viewing, which is fine if you’re watching Black Mirror and engaging in nothing else online.

But let’s get real: if we weren’t compulsive internet multitaskers, Black Mirror wouldn’t even be a show.

That said, if streaming is important to you, make “the more Mbps the better” your new motto. Especially if you like HD and 4K viewing, which compete for a huge chunk of bandwidth, you’ll need at least 25 Mbps to keep everybody un-pixelated and happy. Some DSL connections can achieve those numbers, but cable or fiber-optic internet is a better bet for handling the extra data strain.

Before you sign up for any streaming service, test your internet speed. If it doesn’t meet the minimum double digits, it’s probably time to switch internet providers.

Streaming TV has (almost) arrived

Cord-cutting isn’t like switching from one cable provider to another. There are expectations to be adjusted and compromises to accept. Streaming TV doesn’t yet cover everything cable and satellite can deliver—in the traditional viewing sense.

But in the non-traditional sense, streaming TV can already do far more, and new innovations are coming along every day.

Even if you have to subscribe to more than one service to get everything you want, it can still add up to less than a cable bill, and the convenience can’t be overstated. So shop around for yourself, and you might find you’re a cord-cutter after all.