Staff rating

3.0

Customer rating

0.0

(0)

Plans starting at $9.99

n/a channels

Go to provider

See all reviews

Staff rating

2.7

Customer rating

0.0

(0)

Plans starting at $20.00

170+ channels

Go to provider

See all reviews

Staff rating

4.5

Customer rating

4.4

(32)

Plans starting at $49.99

425+ channels

Go to provider

See all reviews

Check availability

See what providers service your area.

Staff rating

3.0

ESPN+ has extra sports at an extra cost

We loved how much extra sports content ESPN+ served up, but we couldn’t get around pay-per-view fees or regional blackouts. ESPN+ won’t replace our other live streaming services or help us cut the cord, but it makes for a great add-on for fans.

What we like

National and international sports
Live game stats
Sports content variety

What we dislike

Bad for cord-cutters
Frequent price hikes
No free trial/version

See full review

Savings tip: ESPN+ often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Staff rating

2.7

Hargray TV offers some interesting features, but faces stiff competition

Hargray offers solid TV features and fast internet, but it’s expensive for what you get. On top of that, it competes against Xfinity and DIRECTV, both of which offer outstanding service. This makes Hargray a tough sell—unless you just don’t have any other options.

What we like

Channel selection covers most of the top channels
No contract
Solid equipment and features

What we dislike

Expensive for what you get
Lacks niche channels, especially for sports
Somewhat limited coverage area

See full review

Savings tip: Hargray often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Staff rating

4.5

Excellent value and customizable options

Verizon Fios TV offers an excellent value TV service. The customizable Your Fios plan is particularly attractive, but all tiers offer a lot of TV for the money. Add in outstanding internet, and it’s hard to go wrong with Verizon.

What we like

No contracts
Personalized channel lineup
Excellent fiber internet bundles

What we dislike

Pricey DVR storage
For TV-only customers, a Verizon router is still required

See full review

Savings tip: Verizon Fios often has

sign-up promotions

for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Content

4.0

Something for every sports fan—but it won’t solve your blackout woes

ESPN+ has tons of live (and replay) sports to stream, including NFL, UFC, multiple international soccer leagues, the US Open, PGA, X games, NHL, and a multitude of college sports, to name just a few. Some games even come with live stats and analysis when you watch them with the ESPN app. This service even helped us discover the rising Indian sport kabaddi, which is like watching adults on the playground at recess. It’s just delightful.

You’ll also get a metric ton of documentaries like the 30 for 30 and E60 series, which cover everything from Payton Manning’s life story to the history of boxing. There’s even an entire series following the Savannah Bananas, a team putting an entertaining spin on baseball (seriously, check out Banana Ball). An ESPN+ subscription also gives you access to multiple daily articles so you can read about last night’s game even if you missed it.

Unfortunately, if you’re hoping to get around regional sports fees or blackouts to watch your favorite local teams, ESPN+ won’t help you there. You have to share your location to watch certain games. And depending on the rules in your area, there’s a good chance you’ll still need to add your login credentials from a cable TV provider or another live TV streaming service like Fubo or Sling to catch the big game.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

ESPN+ channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Content

3.5

Hargray offers a solid sports and news selection but lacks other top channels

Hargray’s strengths are its news and sports channels, but it also has decent local channels, family-friendly channels, and entertainment channels. However, its Spanish-language options are lacking, so if you have a Spanish-speaker in your family, consider a different provider instead.

Local: 3/5
While the number of locals can vary from area to area, Hargray offers almost all of the English-language locals, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. But if you’re looking for Spanish-language local channels, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Sports: 3.5/5
While Hargray has only about half of the most popular sports channels, it makes up for that somewhat by going above and beyond with its breadth of ESPN channels, outdoor channels, and regional sports networks.

Family and education: 3/5
Hargray has about half of the most popular family and educational channels, including both Nat Geos, Discovery and Investigation Discovery, and Disney and Disney Junior. But it’s lacking Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TV Land, and some others.

News and politics: 4/5
Hargray has nearly all of the most popular news and political channels. However, if you’re looking for extras—like financial or international news—this might not be the provider for you.

Entertainment and lifestyle: 3/5
Hargray has more than half of the most popular entertainment and lifestyle channels, including HGTV, the Hallmark channels, TLC, and TNT. But it’s missing Bravo, BET, CMT, MTV, and Comedy Central.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Hargray channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Content

5.0

Hundreds of channels and easy customization

Great prices meet high channel counts and easy ways to pay for just what you want to watch with Verizon Fios TV. If you live in a coverage area, you’ll benefit from some of the best pay TV on the market.

Local: 5/5
Verizon has you covered when it comes to channels, with all the standard options in both English and Spanish. The exact selection and channel number varies based on where you live, but there’s a good chance you can get broadcast favorites in HD quality. You also get a variety of local public access stations and less-common but still-popular options like Comet, Bounce TV, Antenna TV, and StartTV. (1)

Sports: 5/5
Verizon TV’s premium package has a lot to offer for anyone who loves sports. In addition to your local channels, you can watch pro golf, baseball, football, and basketball, plus a variety of college games. The only downside is no Showtime (unless you buy an add-on).

Family and education: 4/5
When it comes to content for kids and families with Verizon Fios TV, there’s a lot to love. With The Most Fios TV package, you get Nick Toons, Disney XD, Disney Junior, and Boomerang plus Discovery, Nat Geo Wild, Science, Game Show Network, and much more. However, you’ll miss out on Family Entertainment TV (FETV), Me TV, UP, and Cartoon Network.

News and politics: 5/5
Whether you want political talk, international news and analysis, business news, or even sports and local news, Verizon Fios is a great option. It offers every single one of the top 100 channels in the US that offers news, including CNN, Fox News, Newsmax, CNBC, C-SPAN, and even the Weather Channel and Accuweather.

Entertainment and lifestyle: 4.5/5
You can watch all kinds of movies, reality TV favorites, and true crime documentaries with Verizon Fios TV’s premier package. To get HBO and Showtime, though, you’ll have to pay add-on prices. Unfortunately, you can’t get Grit, Ion Mystery, USA Network, Cartoon Network, or Laff with Verizon.

Local news, sports, and entertainment channels vary based on your location. Check out

Verizon Fios channel offerings

in your area.

View plans

Value

2.5

ESPN’s monopoly on tons of sports content gives it free rein for hidden costs

ESPN+ is one of the cheapest streaming apps we reviewed at just $10 per month or $100 per year. You can even bundle it with Hulu and Disney+, which helps you save more than $10 per month—making ESPN+ a sort of free add-on. You could spend just $13 for all three ($20 for commercial-free Hulu), then add an inexpensive live streaming service like fubo or YouTubeTV to cover all your bases.

Unfortunately, ESPN has a history of making it expensive to be a sports fan, and ESPN+ carries on the tradition. Since its launch in 2018, the monthly price has doubled from $5 to $10, and it comes with a ton of hidden costs that many fans don’t see coming. For starters, you won’t get any actual ESPN channels, so you’ll be disappointed if you sign up hoping to get ESPN1, 2, or 3, or other channels like ESPN U, Longhorn, SEC, or ACC. Technically, you can watch these channels from ESPN+, but you’ll still have to log in with credentials from a cable TV or other streaming provider that has these channels. Cord cutters take note: you’ll still have to pay for live TV if you want that.

Speaking of needing more credentials, you won’t get around regional sports fees or blackouts—nor will you get a discount on pay-per-view events, like numbered UFC matches. Although the ESPN+ website touts “unrivaled UFC access,” you’ll still have to cough up a whopping $75 for each pay-per-view Fight Night game on top of your ESPN+ subscription. That’s a jab to the faces of MMA fans if we ever saw one.

If you’re hoping ESPN+ will save you money on sports entertainment, you’re in for a rude awakening—especially since ESPN+ doesn’t have a free trial.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep or check your address at

ESPN+'s website.

Check address

Value

2.0

Hargray falls short in the value department, especially compared to competitors

Hargray service falls a bit short in the value department. Packages start low, at around $30 per month, but this is just for basic cable. To get a decent channel count, you’ll need to pay more than $100 per month—and even then, the channel selection is mediocre. You’ll get the basics covered, along with more than half of the more popular channels, like ESPN, Fox Sports, and the Disney Channel, but we wish there was more for the money here.

The bundle situation is a little better, but not much. There’s just no way around it—if you want a decent channel count and respectable internet speed, you’ll have to pay a premium with Hargray.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-877-427-4729 or check your address at

Hargray's website.

Check address

Value

5.0

Excellent value, especially with the customizable channel lineup

Verizon isn't the cheapest option for traditional TV—you can get TV service for less elsewhere. It’s also not the best in terms of channels per dollar—although it holds its own. However, the ability to personalize the Your Fios plan means you can get more of the channels you actually want without having to pony up for a more expensive plan. It's a fantastic feature, and relatively uncommon in the cable TV space.

Of course, if you do want all the channels, you can get that, too: the top-tier Most Fios plan comes with well over 400, which is one of the highest channel counts in the business.

Get the best value by speaking directly with a sales rep at 1-833-970-0848 or check your address at

Verizon Fios's website.

Check address

Usability and features

3.0

Some cool sports features, but not enough streaming features

In addition to adding exclusive content to the regular ESPN app and browser experience, ESPN+ adds some extra features like joining a fantasy league and live stats and scores for some events. But beyond that, ESPN+ doesn’t have as many features as other live streaming services—and that made it hard to use at times.

Ability to watch: Great
ESPN+ builds on the features of the regular (free) ESPN experience. So if you’ve already had the ESPN app, ESPN+ simply adds another tab for its exclusive content. The browser experience is a similar tacking-on of ESPN+ content. That meant we got all the regular ESPN features we were used to, but it was also frustrating to use compared to dedicated streaming apps.

In some formats (like our Chromecast and Samsung smart TVs), getting properly logged into the ESPN+ experience was confusing, because it wasn’t obvious which experience we were logging into: ESPN+ or regular ol’ ESPN. But after a few false starts, we got it working.

On the app, we liked that some events provided game stats and other graphics before the video when our devices were in portrait mode. It helped longtime fans get a fast glimpse of the game while multitasking, and helped the non-fans among us learn about a new sport.

Ability to record: Bad
ESPN+ lets you download some content to watch offline, but there’s no DVR capability. We were able to download some of the documentary content to watch offline, but no actual events. It was useful for calming our sports cravings on the go, but it wouldn’t satisfy us on an hours-long road trip or flight. But if we missed a live game and ESPN removed the replay, it was just gone.

Ability to find: Fine
Finding shows on ESPN+ is easier in a browser than with the app, but neither is stellar. We logged in to see the familiar ESPN website with an added ESPN+ bar at the top with all our premium content. The tabs helped us find featured content, documentaries, and live and replay events, or we could hit the Browse tab to choose a specific sport or league.

However, the Tools tab left us confused. It took us to an ad for fantasy leagues, then prompted us to sign up for ESPN+... which we clearly already had. It tried to push us into an annual subscription, and when we selected “Skip and get started,” it just took us back to the ESPN+ home screen. We were able to get onto a fantasy league using the Fantasy tab in the top (regular ESPN) navigation bar, which made the Tools tab seem completely pointless.

On the app, it got tough to find the events and shows we wanted. There’s no Live/Replay section to find currently or recently playing events. To find the kabaddi game we were looking for (a sport which is rarely in the Featured section), we had to dig around in the Browse tab for the correct league (Pro Vivo Kabaddi) to find it. There’s also no “Continue watching” section (though the browser version has it), so we had a hard time picking up where we left off. And switching between the app and the browser was annoying because ESPN+ didn’t remember our progress across platforms. It started up back at the beginning, and we’d spend several minutes trying to find our place again. Ugh.

Finally, there are no parental controls with ESPN+. While this streaming service was specific enough to quiet some of our concerns—we knew we wouldn’t log our kids in to watch cartoons and come back to find them watching a horror flick—we wanted more control over screen time and the kinds of sports content they watch. The lack of parental controls made us wary of sharing login credentials, which meant more active monitoring on our part.

Ability to share: Fine
ESPN+ doesn’t seem to be designed for sharing. It doesn’t have multiple user profiles and many events prompt you to input your location before they’ll play. The good news? ESPN+ says you get up to three simultaneous streams—but we were able to get five going at once without anyone getting kicked off. Looks like ESPN accidentally left some hidden value on the table, and we’ll take what we can get.

Equipment and features

2.5

Hargray offers some decent features for a small provider, but its DVR falls short

Watching TV with Hargray is a decent experience. Its greatest downfall is its disappointing DVR features, but we'd also like to see Hargray offer a voice remote to make it easy to find shows if you don't have Google Home or Alexa.

Ability to watch: Great
Hargray’s equipment is surprisingly solid for a regional provider. TV boxes are inexpensive at just $8, but your first one isn’t free like with a lot of other providers. Hargray also has an app you can use to watch shows on the go.

Ability to record: Bad
There’s a steep monthly DVR charge, and you get just 50 hours of DVR storage (less if you record in HD). The good news is, if you try to catch a show within 24 hours of it airing, you can watch it without recording it. When you do record, you can capture up to six shows simultaneously.

Ability to find: Good
Hargray doesn’t provide a voice-control remote, but if you have Google Home or Alexa, you can use them to find shows and channels. Hargray's parental controls are also decent. You can block content by channel and rating, but you’ll have to do so on each device your kids use. And the only way to block previews and descriptions in the channel guide is to block entire channels—you can’t block them based on rating level.

Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit

Hargray's website

or call 1-877-427-4729 for more information.

Equipment and features

4.0

A highly rated mobile app lets you save on set-top box rental

The day-to-day experience with Verizon Fios TV is better than with most cable TV competitors, but the company puts less focus on its DVR setup than its competitors in the satellite TV arena.

Ability to watch: Great
Verizon TV comes with your fist set-top box included, and it’s not bad. The signal is delivered over very fast internet, so picture quality is good and reliable. Almost all channels are available in HD. The service also offers a free mobile app for paying customers, so you only really need the one box. If you want more, however, you can lease them for $12 each per month.

Ability to record: Good
Verizon Fios TV comes with all the features you’d expect from a fiber company. On higher packages, it offers multi-room DVR with 100 hours of storage at the base price, and you can record 6 shows at once. For an additional $10 per month, you can double the storage and record up to 12 shows at once. You can record via the remote, the smartphone app, or using a streaming device you already own (like an Apple TV or Fios TV). If you opt for the lowest tier, you’ll have to pay $12 per month for DVR capability and will be limited to just 50 hours of recording space. However, you could also just skip DVR altogether and won’t incur charges.

Ability to find: Excellent
Verizon offers voice remote functionality, easy ways to get to your favorites, and simple parental controls. It also has a mobile app that enables on-the-go streaming of your favorite channels—and it is surprisingly well-rated. (2, 3)

Features and equipment may vary based on package. Visit

Verizon Fios's website

or call 1-833-970-0848 for more information.

Customer experience

2.5

Lack of transparency and cancelation challenges, but mostly helpful service representatives

The ESPN+ website is overall very usable, but we’d like to see clearer pricing right away. You have to click the tiny print for terms or scroll down to the bottom and open an accordion to find out how much a subscription costs. If you miss these clues, you’ll have to give ESPN+ your email address before you know how much the service even costs.

Getting help is easy—at least, after you scroll to the bottom of the ESPN+ website homepage again. There, you’ll find step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting tips, videos, and contact options—including a live chat option. There’s even an entire section for troubleshooting UFC PPV events—though our biggest takeaway here was to purchase an event on the app at least 30 minutes before the event, or it may not go through the Apple Store or Google Play before the event starts.

Generally, people seem to like ESPN+ customer service representatives. However, many users seem to have trouble canceling their subscriptions, especially if they purchased it through a third party like Apple or Verizon. Some went as far as freezing or canceling a credit card to make the monthly fees stop, but most customers were able to cancel in a few minutes if they used live chat to talk to a representative. As for us, we purchased our subscription through a browser directly on the ESPN+ website and could easily cancel the same way.

Visit ESPN+'s website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer experience

3.0

Hargray’s customer service is decent, but installation will cost you

Hargray provides a decent customer experience with 24/7 phone support and live chat, but self-help troubleshooting content on its website is hard to search. First-hand customer reviews about Hargray’s TV service are hard to find, but internet customers seem to have a great experience overall.

Installation is less exciting. The provider charges a flat installation fee of $50, which isn’t terrible. However, there’s also a $99 activation fee, and the two together make the installation one of the most expensive we’ve seen.

Visit Hargray's website

or call 1-877-427-4729 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer experience

4.0

Installation is a little pricey (unless you order online)

The Verizon Fios TV professional installation fee is $99, and there’s no self-install option. However, online ordering and promotions often waive this fee, so you can save some money on your first TV bill. Apart from that, the other major setup costs are the router and the DVR. You'll need the $18-per-month router if you don't already have Verizon Fios internet, and the company recommends against using your own equipment.

Once installation is handled, most customers are happy with the service. Some wish they could pay less, but complaints about the mobile app and channel lineup are relatively rare.

Visit Verizon Fios's website

or call 1-833-970-0848 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Made up your mind?

Find out what providers are available near you.

ESPN+

0.0

(0)

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Hargray

0.0

(0)

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Verizon Fios

4.4

(32)

5 Star

50%

4 Star

41%

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Jacobfrom Marshall , IL

Verizon Fios Customer for 4+ years

Reviewed on: 8/16/2022

Love it great service

Enricofrom East Lansing, MI

Verizon Fios Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 7/17/2022

i love the deals that verizon has given me through promotion, i've had to switch from xfinity to verizon and they go hand in hand with my phone plan and i pay less than before

Richard from Fairfax , VA

Verizon Fios Customer for 8+ years

Reviewed on: 6/25/2022

Selection is good. Prices are too high. Should have different packages to choose from.

Edwardfrom Joppa, MD

Verizon Fios Customer for 8+ years

Reviewed on: 6/23/2022

I get NO extra channels just basics and my bill is still to high. $123.88

Providers near you

See all options in your area within seconds.

Endnotes and sources

(1) "Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2022’s Winners and Losers," Variety. Accessed 4 April 2023.(2) "Fios TV Mobile," App Store. Accessed 17 October 2022.(3) "Fios TV Mobile," Google Play. Accessed 17 October 2022.