Article not really relevant outside US.
UK gets a version of YouTube TV (I think), or NowTV/SkyStore (all part of same service from Comcast). No cable replacement capability..some content only available on free or paid for satellite, or cable (most people in the UK don't need cable or paid for satellite to get reception of a good package).
All the big OTA broadcasters have competent channel apps on Roku, although some minor free OTA channels not available on any streaming platform (some have web, some don't).
I don't see why people keep putting overpriced cable comparables on "best" lists. If you are thinking about spending $65 for 85+ channels from YouTube TV, you might as well consider adding an additional $5 to get America's Top 120 from Dish.
Is spending nearly as much for streaming live TV really cord cutting, or are you just replacing one cord with another. IMO, it's more the latter over the former.
@AeroSpaceTech wrote:https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-live-tv-streaming-gonzos-quest
I can not agree with this opinion, the broadcast is often interrupted
@demsd wrote:If you are thinking about spending $65 for 85+ channels from YouTube TV, you might as well consider adding an additional $5 to get America's Top 120 from Dish.
With streaming you're at the mercy of your Internet connection. If it's robust, then you're fine. With satellite, you're at the mercy of weather and sunspot activity. While the latter doesn't happen with regularity, weather most certainly could be an issue depending on your location.
I had Dish Network for years, in fact I was one of their early subscribers, before they had their first million. But it reached the point I realized I was paying over $200 per month for close to 400 channels, and we watched about five of them. And we realized life wouldn't stop if we no longer had those channels.
I concur that the cost for YouTube TV, Fubo TV or Sling TV is too high, since both satellite and cable have lowered prices to compete with streaming. What I used to get from Dish for $200 per month is now around $100, so competition is good. Hopefully the streaming providers will recognize this and make some adjustments.
I acknowledge that we get very good over the air TV reception. But still, we watch almost nothing OTA. I have a computer set up to record from OTA, mostly to catch some of the old, corny movies that never appear on DVD. We subscribe to Amazon Prime for the shipping, so the streaming is a freebee for us. But our primary viewing is all our purchased DVDs and Blu Rays, which I have ripped to a media server and can play on any TV in our home. Between movies and TV shows, we have 5000 titles to choose from, so even if the Internet fails we have plenty of things we actually care to watch.
Philo. Best if you don't need sports or news.
Thank you 🙂
If you only need local TV channels to be live, then a Tablo DVR pays for itself.
Of the services CNET compared, Sling TV Orange plan is the cheapest and comes to a total of $420 per year.
Tablo quad tuner is selling for $210. Assuming you already have a wifi access point, Roku and smartphone then the only other things you need is a 2.5" hard drive, TV antenna and Tablo guide data subscription.
A 2TB laptop hard drive runs around $70 (and can hold about 500 hours of full HD), a good TV antenna is about $50 and a year of guide data is another $50.
In total, first year of Tablo runs around $380. The second year of using Tablo is $50 for the guide data while Sling TV Orange is going to be another $420 for the second year.
Playback through Roku from the Tablo has been working great for me.
For my own use, I haven't found much content outside of local channels that needed to be live.