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Best Live Streaming Services: Top Picks for Cord-Cutters

Looking to ditch your cable package and watch shows and movies from live streaming services? You’re in the right place! Here we list the best live streaming services in 2024 according channels, price, features and so on.

By Bertha Miller to Live Streaming Sverices｜Last updated on Mar 25, 2019

Nowadays, all the cool guys are cutting the cord and satellite subscriptions and replacing them with an online live streaming service. But what kind of live streaming service should you choose? Netflix and Hulu will definitely come to your mind at first. However, cord cutters have more choices than just Netflix and Hulu. In this article, we find the best video streaming services in 2024 for your money, not matter you’re looking to completely replace cable or watch the latest original content on-demand. But at the initial, we’d like to talk about the criteria make you think it’s a good or bad live streaming service.

Requirements of A Great Live Streaming Service

At the initial, we’d like to talk about the criteria make you think it’s a good or bad live streaming service.

1. A good live streaming service should be rich in contents, not only the on-demand TV shows, movies, sports or news, but also the local live channels.

2. It’s inevitable that online streaming sites have ads. But a live streaming service of less ads or pops-ups is preferred.

3. It’s best that the live streaming app is free of charge. If there is a charge, it should not be too high.

Top 10 Best Live Streaming Services for Watching Videos without Cable

1. Netflix

Cost: Starts at $8.99 monthly for the SD plan. There’s also a $13-per-month HD plan and $16-per-month Ultra HD 4K plan.

Features: Original Netflix content and TV shows and movies on demand.

At the mention of streaming videos, movies, TV shows from online, the first thing that comes to mind is Netflix. It hosts an impressive selection of contents of all time, with new titles exchanged for older ones monthly. In addition, there is a constantly growing library of original contents on Netflix, such as the 2022 Oscars awarded Roma and many other excellent movies and TV series. So you’ll never worry about contents issue when watching videos on Netflix . Still, Netflix offers the most high-quality movies, for example, 4K movies on Netflix of any live TV streaming services.

2. YouTube TV

Cost: Starts at $40 monthly.

Features: Over 60 live and on-demand channels, live and local sports, local news, add-on channels, cloud DVR, and separate logins.

YouTube TV offers live TV from major broadcast networks, cable networks, and premium networks. You can watch YouTube TV contents from live sports, top networks like ABC, AMC, CBS, CNN, ESPN, FX, and NBC etc. As the best live streaming service, it covers over 98% of household in US. Lastly, the unlimited cloud DVR feature makes one YouTube TV membership supporting up to six accounts for sharing with family and friends. By the way, you can only stream from three accounts simultaneously.

Also See:How to Fix YouTube Live Stream Not Working >>

3. Hulu

Cost: Starts at $5.99 for ad-supported Hulu and $44.99 for ad-supported Hulu + Live TV (with no extra features).

Features: Original Hulu content, popular network TV shows and movies on demand, add-on channels, Live TV package, and cloud DVR.

If you want to keep current with the latest TV shows but don’t feel like investing in a cable subscription or an HD antenna, Hulu is the best solution. It offers more than 60 channels of news, sports, and entertainment programming, as well as quality original programming, a surprising amount of classic shows, and a good selection of offbeat anime series and movies. But Hulu is not an ideal 4K sites to stream videos owing to its limited HD and 4K selections.

4. Sling TV

Cost: $25 per month for Sling Orange or Blue, $40 monthly for Sling Orange + Sling Blue

Features: Nearly 60 live and on-demand channels, some local stations, add-on packages including sports, and cloud DVR storage.

Sling TV could give you an experience as close as the traditional TV online, since it runs a lot like a traditional cable service. Pay a monthly subscription free in exchange for about 30 real-time channels. However, it’s much cheaper than a cable subscription. Better yet, Sling TV is a sports streaming app especially handy for sports fans to watch streaming matches or highlights, as it offers a variety of ESPN channels. Other popular networks like NBC, BBC America, CNN, Cartoon Network, TBS and more are also available on Sling TV.

5. Amazon Video

Cost: Included in Prime membership ($99 annual or $8.99 monthly)

Features: Original Amazon content, some free TV shows and movies on demand, rental or purchase options, and add-on channels.

Amazon offers access to its video content in two ways: a standalone Amazon Video subscription which only includes access to Amazon’s streaming video library and an Amazon Prime subscription with Amazon’s own originals content and a huge library of content from major studios and networks at no extra cost. Meanwhile, Prime subscription also lets you rent or purchase any TV show and movie made available to stream in your membership.

6. Apple TV+

Cost: unknown

Feature: Original Apple content and TV shows and movies, channels on demand.

Apple TV+ streaming service is an upcoming service built with 1 billion cost for original TV shows and movies by Apple.Inc. According to the latest news, Apple is working a on list of exclusive TV content, such as Carpool Karaoke: The Series, Amazing Stories, Are You Sleeping, Little America etc. Meanwhile, it also offer some contents that’s currently exclusive to other live streaming services like Netflix, Hulu. Thus we have reason to believe that Apple Streaming Service has the potential to be a Netflix alternative in the near future.

Learn More: How to Watch Apple Streaming Service >>

7. HBO Now

Cost: $14.99/month

Feature: Original HBO content and TV shows and movies on demand.

If you have cut your cord since you don’t want to give up the contents of HBO channel, subscribing to HBO Now could make you have no worries. It’s available on a range of devices and provides access to all of HBO’s original series, surely including Game of Thrones, movies, documentaries, specials, and so on. But HBO Now does not feature any 4K or HDR content, nor does it let subscribers watch shows offline.

8. DirecTV Now

Cost: Starts at $50 monthly for Plus, $70 for Max monthly.

Features: Over 125 live and on-demand channels, TV shows and movies on demand, add-on channels, and limited cloud DVR.

DirectTV is a more traditional live streaming service with 2 main base packages. One is Plus, which includes more than 40 live and on-demand channels and premium networks like HBO, CNN, CBS, Disney etc. The other is Max, which has over 50 live and on-demand channels including Cinemax and sports coverage through ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews and more.

9. PlayStation Vue

Cost: $44.99 monthly

Features:

PlayStation Vue offers an access of local news, live sports and TV channels. The basic Access subscribtion allows for essential networks like AMC, ESPN, NBC, HGTV and more. And there are also Core, Elite, Ultra plans, giving you more extraordinary streaming experience in live TV with more premium channels. If you’re looking for a cable-like experience with local news, live sports, and TV channels, this is one of the best options available.

10.CBS All Access

Cost: $5.99 per month

Features: Huge catalog of current and classic CBS shows. Live CBS news and NFL games.

With a subscription to CBS All Access, you can watch a wide variety of shows from extensive CBS catalog, no matter the classic programming or the current ones. But if you’re a film fan, CBS All Access may not be the best choice as a movie streaming service since there are only 10-15 films available under Movies section.

Any Alternative Ways to Watch Live Steam Contents?

Surely you can get a decent experience on watching content on live streaming services. But almost all of them are for a fee. And there must be some moments that you want to watch TV shows or movies across several live TV streaming services. For example, you’d like to watch Game of Thrones on HBO Now, as well as enjoying Roma on Netflix. It will be a waste to purchase several live streaming services with similar contents simultaneously. And though a cable box or satellite dish isn’t required to stream TV, you still need something to get started with any of live streaming services, namely high-speed internet service, compatible streaming devices, and digital antenna. Given that, is there any alternative way to watch live stream contents?

Option 1: If you precisely want to watch an exclusive TV series or movies in a streaming service, but you have subscribed another one, you can rent or purchase the content alone. For that, you’re recommend to rent or purchase a DVD disc and make a digital copy of the movie or TV series by youself with a DVD ripper.

Option 2: Forget live streaming services, watch or download your desired content from online sites like YouTube, Dailymotion etc. But if you want to watch some exclusive TV shows or movies of other streaming services on YouTube, you need rent or purchase it on YouTube. By the way, MacX YouTube Downloader allows you to save TV shows, movies, videos up to 4K UHD offline for watching.

Still have any problem on what is the best live streaming service in 2024 or how to stream TV shows, movies, sports etc. without cable, just email us >>

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Discover Leading No-Subscription Streaming Services of 2022 Ideal for Cord-Cutter Enthusiasts