This week Sony started to roll out a $10 price hike on most of its PlayStation Vue subscribers. (In the past only a hand full of cities like From my understanding only a few markets like New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia had to pay the higher prices now everyone will.) If you are a current subscriber you have three months before you will start to see the new bill, but everyone will get the price hike this year.
So if you are looking around for new options, we took some time to examine what the best replacement is for PlayStation Vue. Now we are going to look at the basic plans that used to cost $29.99 but now costs $39.99 a month.
Note: If you want to see what channels all the services offer, you can find a full side-by-side breakdown with all the packages HERE. (We are not looking at locals; they vary by location.)
One Last Thing: All of these services offer a free trial. I highly suggest you try them out before you make a decision.
DIRECTV NOW
As with all things in life, there will be a compromise here. DIRECTV NOW’s basic package costs $35 a month, so it is still a slight price hike.
You will find the following channels missing on the basic $35 a month DIRECTV NOW package that PlayStation Vue has such as the following:
- Destination America
- Discovery Family
- OWN
- Oxygen
- Science
You will find DIRECTV NOW has many channels that PlayStation Vue does not have such as the following:
- A&E
- Viacom Channels like MTV, Spike, Comedy Central, and more
- Hallmark
- & More
The main drawback is the lack of DVR. While a DVR and improved 72-hour rewind options are in the works, there is no DVR today.
DIRECTV NOW has also improved its support for app logins, and you will be able to get full access to DIRECTV NOW on the road. I recently took my Roku with me on vacation and watched DIRECTV NOW on the other side of the country.
Hulu’s Live TV Beta
Hulu costs $39.99 a month, but you also get a subscription to Hulu’s limited-commercial on-demand service. So the live TV part costs about $32 a month new if you already have Hulu.
The following are the channels Hulu does not offer that PlayStation Vue does:
- AMC
- Animal Planet
- BBC America
- Destination America
- OWN
- TLC
- We TV
The following are the channels that Hulu offers that PlayStation Vue does not:
- FXM
- A&E
- CBS Sports
- & More
The main selling point of Hulu over PlayStation Vue is the access to on-demand content. Hulu has the largest catalog of on-demand content.
Sling TV
Sling TV is a tougher one to do a side-by-side comparison on. For many, you will find Sling TV to be one of the least expensive options but you will need to build your own bundle. Starting at $20 a month you will be able to add on $5 add-ons or get a bundle of four of them for $10. Price per channel, Sling TV is one of the cheapest ways to go.
Sling TV is the only other service right now with the NFL Network and NFL Redzone. You will also find Sling offers channels others do not, such as the Pac-12 Network if you are a Pac-12 Fan.
Yet you will find three important channels missing: Fox News, Big Ten Network, and MLB Network. So if you want one of these three, you will need to go to other services.
With Sling TV you can build your own package rather than finding one pre-made for you.
Other Options
Right now there is one other main option for cord cutters. fuboTV is available worldwide; however, you will find Disney-owned channels such as ESPN and the Disney Channel missing.
There are some regional options too, such as YouTube TV and Charter or CenturyLink, but for Charter, you need to have Charter Internet to get the service.
I hope this post helped you find what you want. If you are a current subscriber to PlayStation Vue you have some time to try out other services to see if they are a good fit for you before the price hike takes effect.
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