Ditching your cable provider is easier than ever thanks to the growing number of video streaming services that focus on live TV, such as DirecTV Stream (formerly known as AT&T TV). This cable-replacement service performs well and offers a ton of channel options, but its plans are more expensive than competitors’, and the default DVR functionality is too limited.
How Much Does DirecTV Stream Cost?
DirecTV Stream’s package lineup is simpler now that the two-year contract option is gone. Now, like every other live TV streaming service we’ve reviewed, DirecTV Stream operates on a month-to-month basis. DirecTV Stream lets you cancel your subscription within the first 14 days of service for a full refund, but you must contact DirecTV to do so; you can’t cancel your account on your own.
DirecTV Stream offers four monthly plans: Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate, and Premier. The only difference between plans is the number of channels you get. We prefer services such as YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV that offer straightforward single-package lineups. FuboTV and Sling TV also annoyingly segment their plans into several different tiers.
The 65-channel Entertainment Package is the cheapest option at $69.99 per month. This plan includes all the local broadcast affiliates from ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, plus news channels such as CNBC, CNN, CNN International, C-SPAN, FOX Business, FOX News, and MSNBC. Entertainment and lifestyle channels include Animal Planet, Discovery, Disney Channel, Food Network, FX, HGTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, SYFY, TBS, and USA. You also get sports channels, such as FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NBC Sports Network, and TNT. You do not get regional sports networks (RSNs) at this tier.
The $84.99-per-month Choice plan increases the total number of channels to around 90. You get the vast majority of the channels from the Entertainment Package (except for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Ovation, and Revolt) as well as Cheddar, CNBC World, Cooking Channel, Fuse, Game Show Network, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, OWN, Science, Tastemade, The Weather Channel, and Travel Channel. You also get additional sports networks such as ACC, ESPNews, ESPNU, MLB Network, NBA TV, and Tennis Channel.
The biggest advantage of the Choice plan (and every higher-price tier) over the Entertainment plan is that you get RSNs. RSNs are important for sports fans who want to watch local MLB, NBA, and NHL games that air on RSNs owned by one of three media networks: AT&T (SportsNet), Comcast (NBC Sports), or Sinclair (Bally Sports). Check out each RSN’s page to see which one carries your local team’s games. DirecTV Stream is notably the only live TV service I’ve reviewed that includes RSNs from all three networks, although it is missing a few NBC Sports RSNs. Most other streaming services, including fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube have dropped the Sinclair-owned RSNs and do not offer AT&T-owned ones.
The $94.99-per-month Ultimate plan expands the lineup to 130 channels. You get all of the Choice’s plans channels along with American Heroes Channel, Aspire, BBC World News, CBS Sports Network, Discovery Family, Discovery Life, DIY, FS2, FX Movie Channel, Golf Channel, Logo, MTV Classic, Nat Geo Wild, NHL Center Ice, Olympic Channel, Oxygen, several Starz Encore channels, Smithsonian Channel, and Universal Kids.
To get even more channels, you can spring for the $139.99-per-month Premier lineup, which includes 140 channels. The most significant additions in that lineup are HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and Starz.
As with most other services, DirecTV Stream lets you subscribe to add-on packages. For instance, you can add Premium Channels such as HBO Max ($14.99 per month), Cinemax ($11 per month), Epix ($6 per month), Showtime ($11 per month), and Starz ($11 per month). There are also Brazilian ($30 per month for two channels), Korean ($30 per month for 11 channels), and Vietnamese ($20 per month for nine channels) package options. The $15-per-month Espanol add-on includes 15 channels such as CNN en Español, Discovery en Español, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Telemundo, TUDN, and Univision. The $5-per-month Deportes option includes a sports-focused subset of the Espanol add-on (ESPN Deportes, FOX Deportes, TyC Sports, and Univision Deportes). Note that some add-ons may be unavailable since they are already included in your streaming package.
Can You Watch Sports on DirecTV Stream?
DirecTV Stream’s main advantage for sports fans is that it is the only live TV streaming service I’ve reviewed that offers RSNs from AT&T, Comcast, and Sinclair. It also has all the local broadcast affiliates (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) you could want and many of the popular sports channels. One problem is that you need to pay quite a bit more than other services to get all those channels. For instance, you don’t get access to RSNs until the $84.99-per-month Choice tier, and Golf Channel and NHL Center Ice are restricted to the $94.99-per-month Ultimate plan.
One drawback for NFL fans is that none of DirecTV Stream’s packages include NFL Network, something FuboTV, Hulu, Sling TV, and YouTube TV do. Those same four services also offer add-ons with the NFL RedZone channel, which DirecTV Stream also doesn’t offer. We also have roundups for the best MLB, NBA, and NHL streaming services.
How Do DirecTV Stream’s Prices Compare?
All of DirecTV Stream’s plans are expensive. For instance, Sling TV’s Orange and Sling Blue plans cost just $35 per month each, while the combined Sling Orange & Blue plan costs $50 per month. FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV all start at $64.99 per month and offer more channels than DirecTV Stream’s base plan. Philo’s $25-per-month, 63-channel plan offers a comparable number of channels to DirecTV Stream’s Entertainment package at a fraction of the cost, though its lineup lacks news, sports, and local broadcast channels.
If you need help deciding which streaming service to purchase, consult our guide to the best video streaming service for your budget.
In addition to streaming DirecTV Stream on the web, you can download apps on media streaming devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku) and mobile devices (iOS and Android). Notably missing from this lineup are Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV support both those gaming consoles.
(Editors’ Note: The following interface and streaming experience sections describe the service at the time of last testing and before the name change to DirecTV Stream.)
Watching DirecTV Stream on the Web
DirecTV Stream’s web interface is less splashy than what competitors offer, with a lot of white space and uniform-looking lists. It is easy to navigate, however, and I did not encounter any stuttering pages or crashes during testing. I would like to see a dark mode option, though, since the bright, light color scheme can be somewhat uncomfortable to look at in low light.
The top navigation menu breaks down into four options: Watch Now, My Library, Discover, and Guide. In the top right, there’s a search bar and a gear icon for your account settings. The search function is basic, but it works fine for finding movies, networks, and TV shows. One helpful thing is that you can filter results by content type. For example, when I searched for soccer, I could filter results by TV shows and Sports. YouTube TV’s search is still more advanced, as it allows you to combine multiple terms in a search, such as a genre and a year. In the Account Settings section, you can manage subscription settings, turn on parental controls, and switch the captioning display option. Oddly, one option, Play Live TV on Launch, cannot be turned off on the web.
The main Watch Now screen highlights some of the top content available to watch on the service, organized in horizontally scrolling lists, such as Action Movies, Featured TV, New This Month, Just for Kids, and Trending. The top section is dedicated to playing whatever channel you last launched but it persistently—and annoyingly—overhangs from the top of the screen when you scroll down and effectively blocks part of the interface. The Discover tab is similar. In that section, you can browse for shows, movies, and networks, or by any of the premade collections. The Guide section works as expected; you can navigate through the programming list by channel or select a content type, such as movies, sports, or kids, to see what is currently playing. The My Library section is where your DVR recordings and bookmarks of favorite channels live.
To watch a live TV program, just click on the thumbnail to start the stream. Selecting a thumbnail for on-demand content brings up a dedicated page with more details, including what episodes and seasons of that show are available to watch.
Mobile Apps
DirecTV Stream offers both Android apps and iOS apps. I tested the DirecTV Stream app on an Android 11 device and had no issues signing into my account. The mobile app looks consistent with the desktop experience, but it’s not particularly impressive. One annoyance is that you can’t disable the Picture-in-Picture view in the app, which just ends up covering part of the interface.
You navigate the app via the three menu items at the bottom of the screen: Watch Now, My Library, and Discover, or you can use the Guide, which is accessible via an icon in the top left. You can’t update your subscription settings from within the app, but you can change closed-captioning settings, set streaming quality preferences (Good, Better, and Best), and enable parental control restrictions.
Streaming Experience and DVR
DirecTV Stream’s web player looks clean and offers all the expected playback features. In addition to the standard playback controls, you get 15-second rewind and fast-forward buttons (on select channels), a DVR record button, a Restart button (on select channels), basic channel information, arrows for moving to the next or previous live channel in your lineup, and closed captioning options.
DirecTV Stream says it now supports up to 20 simultaneous streams per account on the same home network and up to three away from it. YouTube TV supports three concurrent streams by default, but an add-on lets you stream on an unlimited number of devices on your home network. FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV respectively allow for three and two simultaneous streams by default, but both offer add-ons that expand those limits considerably.
The top live TV streaming services we’ve reviewed, such as Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV, support 1080p/60fps live channels on select platforms. A representative from DirecTV Stream stated that the service uses an adaptive bitrate and that it maxes out at HD. I could not confirm the exact resolution of DirecTV Stream’s HD channels, but, to my eye, they didn’t appear to reach 1080p and the framerate seemed to be locked at 30fps on the devices I tested. FuboTV is the only live TV streaming service we tested that supports 4K streaming without any add-ons. YouTube TV recently launched a 4K Plus add-on which unlocks 4K streaming on select channels, the ability to download DVR recordings for offline viewing, and an unlimited number of simultaneous streams on a home network.
DirecTV Stream’s default DVR storage features still don’t compare well with competitors’. The service lets you record up to 20 hours of content and keeps those recordings for up to 90 days. You can get rid of DVR storage limits entirely for an extra $10 per month, however. For the 20-hour plan, you can record up to 10 episodes from the same series. For the unlimited storage plan, that limit increase to 30 episodes.
YouTube TV imposes no storage limits on your recordings and keeps them for nine months. Hulu + Live TV and fuboTV respectively keep up to 50 and 250 hours’ worth of content by default for as long as you subscribe. Sling TV allows you to save 50 hours’ worth of content by default for as long as you subscribe. FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and Sling TV, all let you upgrade DVR storage capacities.
DirecTV Stream offers two standout streaming features: Lookback and Restart. The Lookback feature lets you watch select programming from up to three days in the past. This would be particularly useful for sports fans who may have missed a match from the previous day or so, but few sports channels appear to support it. You can find the full list of channels that are compatible with Lookback by searching for that term on DirecTV Stream’s support site.
The Restart feature, on the other hand, enables you to play back a live program from the beginning. Many more channels, including A&E, Bloomberg, CNN, Food Network, FOX Sports, Travel Channel, and UniMas seem to support this feature, but again, this is dependent upon the individual program. You can find the full list of channels that are compatible with Restart by searching for that term on the support site, too. One drawback is that, once you restart a program, you cannot record it from the beginning, which seems like a missed opportunity. Philo can also restart streams of programs, while fuboTV offers similar Lookback and Start Over features.
For streaming live TV, DirecTV Stream recommends internet speeds of at least 8Mbps per stream. I tested DirecTV Stream over my home Ethernet network (200Mbps) and, as expected, did not encounter any streaming difficulties. When I watched a Divisional Round NFL playoff game when I last tested the service, the stream quickly ramped up to full quality and the audio remained in sync with the video. I didn’t notice any significant stutters. Both the Lookback and Restart features worked fine in testing.
Accessibility and Parental Control
DirecTV Stream offers closed captioning options directly on the playback screen on the web and includes lots of customization options. You get white text on black background and black text on white background options, and you can also customize the font, text size, text color, and background color, too. In testing, the captions were accurate, although they ran several seconds behind live broadcasts.
DirecTV Stream does not offer anything similar to Netflix’s and Prime Video‘s audio descriptions feature for its on-demand content, though a representative from the company confirmed that it is on the roadmap. Audio descriptions are audible narrations of on-screen events that cannot be picked up from the dialog alone.
DirecTV Stream is one of the few live TV streaming services that offer parental control features. In the Settings section, you can block movies and TV shows by rating, as well as restrict access to everything that doesn’t have a rating. Restrictions apply to both live and on-demand content.
Much like Sling TV’s implementation, the utility of this feature is limited since you cannot link these restrictions to individual profiles. Different members of the household would presumably not be bound by the same viewing restrictions, so it may become annoying to have to provide a four-digit PIN every time you switch channels or want to watch a movie.
DirecTV Stream and VPN
You should use a virtual private network, or VPN, to secure your network activity, even though many video streaming services, such as DirecTV Stream, may prevent you from using one with their service. Sometimes video streaming services block VPN traffic to enforce regional broadcasting restrictions. DirecTV Stream, for example, is only available for US residents.
For testing, I connected my desktop PC and a mobile phone to both Sweden- and US-based Mullvad VPN servers. On my desktop and mobile device, I had no trouble streaming over the connection to the US-based VPN server on either device, but the service stopped working when I switched to the VPN server in Sweden.
Even if your VPN and video streaming service work without issue for now, that’s no indication that they will continue to do so. Many video streaming services are continually finding new ways to detect and block VPN traffic. You can always just disable your VPN temporarily, so we recommend that you pick a VPN based on their privacy and security credentials, rather than whether they work with all your video streaming services.
Should DirecTV Stream Be Your Live TV Provider?
DirecTV Stream is a reliable live TV streaming in testing, and we like its Lookback and Restart features. It’s also notably the only live TV service we’ve reviewed that offers RSNs from all three of the major providers. However, DirecTV’s plans are pricier than competitors’ and its default DVR capabilities are underwhelming.
Netflix is our top pick for on-demand streaming because of its impressive library of TV shows and movies. Hulu is versatile and an excellent value given its combination of live and on-demand content. YouTube TV sports a top-notch interface and a balanced channel lineup. All three are Editors’ Choice winners.
