Less than a month after publishing the following post, Cut the Cord Please, a number of paid over-the-top content providers[1] flooded the market. This gave the consumer (me) more options to weigh; Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Now, Amazon Prime Video, Playstation Vue, fuboTV, Philo, Acron TV. During Super Bowl LII, this YouTube TV Super Bowl Kickoff Ad played about 100x in front of my eyes. The $35 price point and stunning UI made me re-evaluate my current plan seen below.
My self-survey came back as sports, sports, and a lot of HBO. That’s why I went with Sling TV Orange/Blue + Cloud DVR & Sports Extra.
Starting a YTTV free 7-day trial made me immediately realize after logging in I was not getting the most for my money and using a far inferior product. Then when I did a simple comparison by dollars, I was roughly paying $15 more for just the NHL Network. But it wasn't just that, it was the YTTV core features that made it elite:
- Local Affiliate Channels[2]
- 1200x720@60fps Channels
- Excellent Latency on Google Fiber
- Unlimited Cloud DVR Storage (9 months)
- Hi-Res Guide Display
- tvOS Integration
I cut the cord again with YouTube TV and haven't looked back.
Comparison #
| Google Fiber | Sling TV | YouTube TV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV Service | $60 | $45 | $35 |
| Extra Box/DVR | $5 | $5 | $0 |
| Sports Plus | $10 | $10 | $0 |
| HBO | $20 | $15 | $15 |
| March Hike | $20 | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $115 | $75 | $50 |
"Over-the-top media services". Retrieved June 7, 2018. ↩︎
"YouTube TV Help - Available locations". Retrieved June 22, 2018. ↩︎
