'Cable cutters'

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-live-tv-streaming-services-for-cord-cutters/

Pendlebury, T. and Katzmaier, D. (2019). Best live TV streaming services for cord-cutters. [online] CNET. Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/best-live-tv-streaming-services-for-cord-cutters/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

(Pendlebury and Katzmaier, 2019)

Cable TV can seem a lot like a landline phone these days: an unnecessary expense that is shackled to outdated hardware. All the cool kids and a lot of the cool grownups are cutting the cable TV cord.

If you want to join them but don't want to ditch live TV completely, you've come to the right place. Live TV streaming services like Sling TV and YouTube TV let you watch most if not all of your favorite TV channels -- from ABC to CBS to CNN to ESPN to Fox News to Nickelodeon -- streamed live over the internet. And they probably cost far less than you're paying the cable company for TV.

Prices start at $15 per month with no extra fees or contracts. In place of a cable box, and the monthly fee to rent it, you'll use an app on your smart TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. And you can watch at home or on the go via a phone or tablet, or even a PC browser.

These services have plenty of benefits -- no more cable fees, no more contracts, yay! -- but the savings can be outweighed by other downsides such as internet fees, DVR restrictions, buffering and a lack of things to watch, especially live sports. And just like cable TV, the costs of these services just keep going up.

Each contender for your cord-cutting dollar offers different channel lineups, features, menu systems, and features. They have a lot in common as well as some key differences. 

How to shop for cord-cutting live TV services

In ascending order of monthly price, the major multichannel live TV streaming services available today are:

• AT&T Watch TV ($15 a month or free with certain AT&T wireless plans)
• Philo ($20 a month)
• Sling TV ($25 a month)
• Hulu With Live TV ($45 a month)
• PlayStation Vue ($50 a month)
• AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now) ($50 a month)
• YouTube TV ($50 a month)
• Fubo TV ($55 a month)
• 
  
  The services can be broken down into two main groups: budget, with prices starting at $15 but lacking local channels; and premium, with prices from $45 which include locals as well as other extras like exclusive skinny bundles and an unlimited cloud DVR. Yes, most of the services (bar AT&T Watch TV) allow you to record and playback shows, just like a traditional cable or satellite DVR, but they often come with restrictions. 
  Then there's the multistream issue. If you want to watch more than one program at the same time -- for example, on your living room TV and on a bedroom TV, or the main TV and a tablet -- you'll want to make sure the service you're watching has enough simultaneous streams. Some of the least expensive services only allow one stream at a time, and if you try to watch a second, it's blocked.
• keep in mind that, especially if you do have more than one person watching at once, you need to make sure you have a fast, reliable broadband internet. A 100Mbps download service will cost around $50 to $60 a month, and here's where the savings of cutting cable can get swallowed up. 
  Here's a live TV streaming shopping list to consider: 
• Does the service offer your "must-have" channels? See CNET's comparison of the top 100 channels here.
• Does it offer local channels in your area? See CNET's comparison of local channel access here.
• How good is the cloud DVR?
• Does the interface make it easy to browse for shows?
• Are there enough simultaneous streams for you and your family?
• Streaming TV services are great, but there are some things they can't do compared to a traditional cable box. 
  First, it's worth looking at the channels that you can't get with any of these services. A big one has been PBS, as the broadcaster reportedly hadn't acquired the streaming rights to all of the shows that it airs. However, the good news is that YouTube TV will be the first to include PBS "later this year".
  
  
• And fans of live sports beware: every live TV service's video streaming is a few seconds to a minute or more behind the "live" stream you'll get from your local cable or satellite provider. That means you could get a preview of scores or big plays from Twitter, phone alerts or phone calls from friends slightly before you see the action on-screen.

While AT&T TV Now offers HBO as part of its base subscription, most other services either sell it as an add-on or require you to sign up separately for HBO Now. In addition, NFL Red Zone and NHL Network are either not available or only as part of a package. 

If you're used to the 5.1 surrounds offered by cable or even OTA, then you'll probably be disappointed that all of the services only include stereo sound on live broadcasts. AT&T TV Now and PlayStation Vue do include 5.1 audio on some on-demand material, though.

CBS All Access stands out from all of the other services as it offers live (in some cities) and on-demand from just one channel. In addition to broadcast video-on-demand it offers exclusive online content such as Star Trek: Discovery. The on-demand stuff has ads, but you can get an ad-free option for $10 a month.

Netflix: One of the first streaming TV services and it's so popular that it's become a catch-all term in the same way as "Magic Marker" or "Coke" in the South. Plans start at $13 a month, and it covers thousands of TV shows and movies, including original content like Daredevil and Orange Is the New Black.

Amazon Prime Video: The "other" major streaming service, which is included as part of a $99 annual Prime Membership or $9 a month. The interface isn't as user-friendly as Netflix, but the service also offers shows not on its rival, including original content like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Amazon Prime also has the ability to add premium channels (HBO and Showtime and more), making it a potential one-stop shop.

If you have a TV in your house -- that is, a screen that incorporates a tuner -- you're part-way to cutting the cord already. An affordable indoor antenna hooked up to your TV will let you watch free TV over the air from any channel you receive in your local broadcast area. Antennas cost as little as $10. 

A solid, lower-cost alternative to live TV streaming services is the combination of an antenna for live local channels and an on-demand service such as Netflix or Hulu (which is now only $5.99 a month). That way you'll still be able to watch live programming and also have a choice of on-demand content.   

Streaming live TV services are still in their infancy, and the industry is still in flux. Since launch, every service has increased prices by at least $5 a month, channel selections and cities with local channel access are changing all the time, and reports persist about some services losing money. While streaming is undoubtedly the future, it will be some time before both prices and the services offered settle in.