Video streaming is taking over, but picking the right service for your needs can be daunting.
fuboTV is not as well known player in the video streaming wars, but they are one of the top live TV services you should consider
What is fuboTV?
fuboTV is a live television video streaming service.
The service focuses its plans around offering sports programming and does an excellent job of giving you a lot of channels while keeping their prices competitive.
Content Available
There are 113 channels available on the Fubo standard plan. This includes 34 sports channels.
Through several add-on channel packages, you can increase your total number of channels to include an additional 68 channels. Giving fubo a total of 181 channels available to its subscribers.
The only drawback to fuboTV is that they do not carry any Disney owned properties. This means that not only are they missing Disney Channel, they are also not carrying any of the ESPN channels.
That seems like a major mistake for a streaming service that wants to promote its sports coverage. However, fuboTV has not been able to get Disney to offer just ESPN to the fuboTV packages.
This means Disney is demanding that they take not only ESPN but the Disney Channels as well. That would be a significant jump in the cost of the fuboTV pricing.
What makes this negotiation even more puzzling is that Disney is an investor in fuboTV. So they aren’t even bending these hard rules for their own investments.
I guess we now know why cable company packages are so expensive.
Devices Supported
fuboTV has been around long enough that they have been picked up as an app on all the major platforms. Like the other top streaming services, video players that work with fubo include:
- Roku
- Apple TV
- Amazon Fire TV
- Chromecast
- Android
- IOS
- Web Browsers
fubo is also available on several of the smart television platforms.
Pricing
Wanting to give you as much flexibility as possible, fuboTV offers several ways to customize your live video streaming.
fubo Standard
Cost – $54.99/month
Channels – 113 (includes local channels)
The fubo Standard plan is the base of their service. All channels are live-streamed and include cloud DVR service with 30 hours of space and up to two screens that can watch at the same time.
Family Add-On
- Cost – $5/month
The family add-on allows you to watch fuboTV on an additional screen. So if you have a family that watches different shows at the same time, this makes it so that everyone can watch their content.
fubo Extra
- Cost – $5.99/month
- Channels – 37 additional channels
The Extra add-on includes a combination of news, sports, and entertainment channels. This add-on must be in addition to the basic plan.
fubo Showtime
- Cost – $10.99/month
- Channels – 9 Showtime channels
As the name says, the Showtime add-on gives you access to all the Showtime channels you could want. This includes the regional channels as well as the specialize Showtime channels like Showtime Family or Women.
fubo Sports
- Cost – $10.99/month
- Channels – 23 Sports channels
The sports package is an impressive add-on. It offers a wide variety of college and professional sports coverage.
My personal favorite is NFL Red Zone, where you switch from game to game as teams get close to scoring a touchdown.
Company History
fuboTV started as a service focused on streaming soccer matches, launching in January 2015.
They pushed then envelope in 2018 when they were the first service to offer live streaming in 4k for the 2018 World Cup.
The company continues to be competitive in adding more programming. This includes adding programming in the last 18 months from:
- Viacom
- Discovery
- FanDuel
- Comet
fuboTV launched its own sports network on June 27, 2019. The new network is available on most streaming players and Samsung smart TVs.
Alternatives
Hulu Live – Part of the Disney Bundle of streaming services, Hulu offers live and on-demand content through their increasingly large platform.
Youtube TV – With the full backing of Google, YouTube TV is one of the better streaming services and reasonably priced for what you get.
SlingTV – The most affordable of the paid live streaming services, SlingTV is a top option for those looking to get a smaller number of top channels.
Pros
- The largest number of channels available
- A wide variety of sports programming
- Well built mobile and web apps
- Functional DVR capabilities
- Include 4K Content
Cons
- More expensive than competitors
- No ESPN
- No Disney Programming
fuboTV Review Final Thoughts
While fuboTV is the most expensive live TV streaming service I have reviewed, it is also the most extensive when it comes to the number of channels.
Most people don’t know this, but content providers pay a fee per subscriber for each channel they carry. Since fuboTV carries 35+ channels more than its closest competitors, it makes sense they are slightly more expensive.
For me, the lack of ESPN and Disney channels hurts this service, but I can see where they would be great for people whose families are not interested in that content.
Also, if you want live-streamed international or regional sports programming, you aren’t going to find a better service at getting you that content.
Overall I see fuboTV as a reliable option for anyone that their large amount of content meets their viewing needs.
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