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Change is the norm when it comes to live TV streaming services, but AT&T TV has had a particularly tumultuous history. It started life as DirecTV Now in 2016, and in the time since it has added and dropped channels, changed its name twice and hiked prices numerous times. The latest iteration no longer requires a contract or a set-top box — yay! — making it similar at first blush to competitors like YouTube TV and Hulu Plus Live TV. The downside is the high price: A monthly subscription starts at $70 and to get access to your local regional sports networks (RSNs) you’ll need to pay for the $85 package.
Like$85 plan has robust regional sports channels for NBA and MLB games.Fun channel-surfing capabilities.
Don’t LikeExpensive, especially with sports and DVR add-ons.$70 plan has fewer channels for more money than YouTube TV.Roku app doesn’t work as well as Apple TV’s or web.
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Those local channels, which carry the regular season games of NBA basketball and MLB baseball teams, are the best reason to subscribe to AT&T TV. No competitor has nearly as many RSNs, so for fans who want to catch all the action of their team live, paying $85 per month to AT&T TV is often the only streaming option. (As a bonus, that price also includes a year of HBO Max and NBA League Pass Premium.) A cable TV subscription, which typically also offers RSNs, is likely cheaper, however.
Read more: MLB 2021 streaming: How to watch the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and more baseball without cable
Using the AT&T app feels more cablelike than any of its competitors, with a unique swiping channel-change mechanic. The service is best appreciated on an Apple TV because even though Roku is our favorite streaming device, its app lacks the ability to pause live TV. If you crave a familiar interface and want access to its extensive sports coverage AT&T TV is worth a look, but if you don’t need those RSNs, then YouTube TV, which costs less and has more non-sports channels, is a better choice.
Optional contract, multiple channel packages
One of the benefits of choosing a live TV streaming service over cable is that you’re not tied to a contract. AT&T TV does offer an optional two-year contract, but it’s not a very good deal.
Off-contract, the basic package starts at $70 a month with 65-plus channels and a 20-hour DVR but it does miss channels such as MLB Network, NFL Network and Travel Channel. For cord-cutters who want to follow their local NBA or MLB team, AT&T TV’s $85 Choice package is a better option, with access to those regional sports networks. The Ultimate tier costs $95 with more channels including Starz and Encore, while the “whole enchilada” $140 Premier level adds even more channels with HBO (and HBO Max), Starz, Showtime and Cinemax.
The AT&T TV Stream set-top box is free if you get a contract, but you can also use devices like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Opting for the contract gives you an AT&T TV Stream set-top box, an unlimited cloud DVR (normally $10 per month extra) and a discount on the first year — with a steep price increase in year 2.
With a contract, the basic Entertainment package’s first-year price is $60 per month, which then jumps to $93 per month in the second. The Choice package drops from $85 per month to $65 per month for the first year of the two-year contract, but the second year would jack the price back up to $110 per month. Those with Choice on a two-year contract would also be on the hook for paying an additional $8.49 per month as a “regional sports fee” for two years. Month-to-month Choice subscribers don’t have to pay the regional sports fee.
Those second-year price hikes make the overall cost of both packages higher than simply going month-to-month for two years, so we don’t recommend getting a contract.
Premium live TV streaming services compared
Premium services
YouTube TV
AT&T TV
Hulu Plus Live TV
FuboTV
Base price
$65/month
$70/month
$65/month
$65/month
Total number of top 100 channels
75
61
62
65
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC channels
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Record shows for later (cloud DVR)
Yes (keep for 9 months)
Yes (20 hours, unlimited hours for $10/mo.)
Yes (50 hours, 200 hours plus commercial skip for $10/mo.)
Yes (30GB, 500GB for $10/mo.)
Step-up packages with more channels
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Simultaneous streams per account
3
20
2 ($10 option for unlimited)
2 ($6 option for 3)
AT&T recently upped the number of concurrent in-home streams to 20, which is good news to households with lots of people who want to watch at once. The out-of-home concurrent streaming limit is three, which should still be plenty.
What’s it like to use?
AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015, and that service’s history still informs the functionality of AT&T TV. Our favorite cablelike feature is the ability to swipe left or right to change channels, even if it’s not quite instantaneous. There’s about three to five seconds of loading time when changing channels.
AT&T TV comes with a program guide
Sarah Tew/CNET
When using AT&T TV with a remote, the controls center around the direction buttons and Enter/OK. This makes it relatively quick to pick up and use, and also means you don’t need a complicated remote control to make it work, making the minimalist Apple TV clicker a great companion. If you want the full “surfing” experience on a universal remote, you could even program left and right arrows into your Channel up/down buttons.
The service loads straight into the last channel watched — further enhancing its cable credentials — and pressing down brings up the interface with a choice of the 14-day guide, Watch Now, My Library recordings and a Discover option. Navigation is intuitive and quick, something that the painfully slow YouTube TV is not.
While Roku is very similar to Apple TV, there is one major difference: There’s still no live TV pause on Roku. This is also potentially frustrating to sports fans who need to pause the action momentarily. Instead, pressing pause freezes the screen while the program keeps playing in the background. Meanwhile Apple TV will allow two minutes until it cuts to the live feed and pauses again, and will keep skipping forward and pausing each minute or two until you press Play. In comparison, YouTube TV lets you pause indefinitely, just like a normal DVR.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Depending on the tier you choose, AT&T TV’s DVR offers between 20 and an unlimited number of hours, while YouTube TV offers unlimited storage by default. YouTube TV lets you keep recordings for up to 9 months, while you are limited to 30 days on AT&T TV. If you live in a small to medium-size household, the service offers three simultaneous streams without the need to pay extra.
Some programs do give you the option to restart, and pressing down on the Apple TV remote will bring up show info, a recording option and Restart (if available). Pressing the Select button will pause the program. In contrast, pressing the middle button on Roku brings up a different menu with similar functionality but no pause, but there is the ability to restart.
I briefly used a Fire TV and found the experience closer to Apple TV than Roku. If you don’t have an Apple TV, the Fire TV is my next choice for using the service. Using an iPhone (an iPhone 6 Plus on AT&T, to be specific) also offered a smooth experience with quick channel changes.
Is it worth your $70 (or $85) a month?
The cable experience is what AT&T TV is all about — the swipe left and right functionality is quite inspired. While the company has really bulked up on its content since we last looked in 2019 — when it had fewer than 50 of the most popular channels — the service still lags behind every other rival in terms of breadth. The real reason to get it is if you’re an avid sports fan — the $85 Choice package with its twin draws of HBO and RSNs is unmatched by the competition.
If you want to save money though? Stay clear — almost any other service offers a better value than this, and many cable packages are comparable. Even if you’re an Apple user, other services such as YouTube TV and Hulu Plus Live TV offer a superior and cheaper experience.
Channel comparison
Below you’ll find a chart that’s a smaller version of this massive channel comparison. It contains the top 100 channels from each service. Some notes:
Yes = The channel is available on the cheapest pricing tier.No = The channel isn’t available at all on that service. $ = The channel is available for an extra fee, either a la carte or as part of a more expensive package or add-on. Not every channel a service carries is listed, just the “top 100” as determined by CNET’s editors. Minor channels such as AXS TV, CNBC World, Discovery Life, GSN, POP and Universal Kids didn’t make the cut.Regional sports networks — channels devoted to showing regular-season games of particular pro baseball, basketball and hockey teams — are not listed.
Top 100 channels compared
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
Total channels:
38
65
75
62
61
ABC
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
CBS
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fox
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
NBC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
PBS
No
No
Yes
No
No
CW
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MyNetworkTV
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
A&E
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
ACC Network
No
$
Yes
Yes
$
AMC
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Animal Planet
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
BBC America
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
BBC World News
$
$
Yes
No
$
BET
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Big Ten Network
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Bloomberg TV
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Boomerang
$
No
No
Yes
Yes
Bravo
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
Cartoon Network
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
CBS Sports Network
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Cheddar
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Cinemax
No
No
$
$
$
CMT
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
CNBC
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
CNN
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Comedy Central
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Cooking Channel
$
$
No
$
$
Destination America
$
$
No
$
$
Discovery Channel
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Disney Channel
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Disney Junior
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Disney XD
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
DIY
$
$
No
$
$
E!
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
EPIX
$
No
$
No
$
ESPN
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ESPN 2
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ESPNEWS
No
$
Yes
Yes
$
ESPNU
No
$
Yes
Yes
$
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
Food Network
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fox Business
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fox News
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fox Sports 1
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fox Sports 2
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Freeform
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FX
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FX Movies
$
$
Yes
Yes
$
FXX
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FYI
$
Yes
No
Yes
$
Golf Channel
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Hallmark
$
Yes
No
No
Yes
HBO/HBO Max
No
No
$
$
$
HGTV
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
History
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
HLN
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
IFC
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Investigation Discovery
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Lifetime
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Lifetime Movie Network
$
Yes
No
Yes
$
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
MLB Network
$
$
Yes
No
$
Motor Trend
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MSNBC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MTV
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
MTV2
$
$
No
No
Yes
National Geographic
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Nat Geo Wild
$
$
Yes
Yes
$
NBA TV
$
$
Yes
No
$
NBC Sports Network
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Newsy
Yes
$
Yes
No
No
NFL Network
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
NFL Red Zone
$
$
$
No
No
NHL Network
$
$
No
No
$
Nickelodeon
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Nick Jr.
Yes
Yes
No
No
$
Nicktoons
$
$
No
No
$
OWN
No
Yes
Yes
No
$
Oxygen
$
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Paramount Network
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Channel
Sling Blue ($35)
Fubo TV ($60)
YouTube TV ($65)
Hulu with Live TV ($65)
AT&T TV ($70)
Science
$
$
No
$
$
SEC Network
No
$
Yes
Yes
$
Showtime
$
$
$
$
$
Smithsonian
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
Starz
$
No
$
$
$
Sundance TV
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Syfy
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Tastemade
$
Yes
Yes
No
$
TBS
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
TCM
$
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Telemundo
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Tennis Channel
$
$
No
No
$
TLC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
TNT
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Travel Channel
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
$
TruTV
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
TV Land
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
USA Network
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
VH1
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Vice
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Weather Channel
No
Yes
No
No
$
WE tv
$
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
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