I Just Signed Up for Fubo, Here Are My First Impressions
If you’re curious whether or not Fubo is right for you, my first try of the service could be a big help in deciding.
October is the official start of Spooky Season, but sports fans also think of it as the apex of the sports calendar. The MLB postseason has just started, NFL and college football are about a month into their seasons, and the NBA and NHL regular seasons are about to begin. One streaming service that carries all of these sports sounds like a dream, but Fubo mostly fits the bill in this regard. But how easy does the streamer make it to watch your favorite teams, and is it really worth the extra expense? I recently signed up for the sports-focused streamer, so here are my thoughts on the highs and lows of the service.
Everything I Learned When I Signed Up for Fubo:
Unbeatable Sports Channel Selection, But…
The first thing that jumps out about Fubo is the number of channels available, especially sports networks. I chose the “Elite with Sports Plus” package so I could try out Fubo’s 4K offerings, and the package comes with popular national sports channels such as ESPN, FS1, Big Ten Network, SEC Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and many others, as well as the regional sports channels in my area.
It’s not just sports channels you’ll find on Fubo either. Local channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC are available as well, which means you’ll never miss an in-market NFL game with a subscription, but you’ll also get the local news that matters most to you. Popular cable news and entertainment channels like Bravo, Fox News, FX, Hallmark Channel, MSNBC, Nickelodeon, and the USA Network are also available with Fubo.
However, the big drawback with a Fubo subscription is that the service doesn’t carry Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channels. That means no NBA on TNT, no NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games on TBS, and no live news from CNN, no baking shows on Food Network, and no home renovations on HGTV, among other absences. Depending on your preferences, this may not matter to all, especially since sports on Turner Networks — as well as most of the other original programming — can be found on Max, but it bears noting nonetheless.
Tricky Free Trial
One of the most annoying things about Fubo is its lack of a standardized free trial length. All new customers get a free trial, but how long it is depends on what time of the month you sign up, what’s going on in the sporting world, your previous experience with the series, and more. I got the seven-day trial, which is the longest length a customer can get. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know when your trial will end until you hit the payment screen.
Fubo does promise to send you an email the day before your trial ends reminding you that your paid subscription is about to start. Still, it would be nice if the service was a little more direct about telling customers how long their trial would be.
Intuitive Channel Guide
One of the immediate strengths of Fubo’s user interface is its channel guide. The guide puts local broadcast networks from your area at the top, followed closely by the sports networks that the streamer assumes you’ve come to watch. It’s a decent bet on the service’s part, considering its reputation as a leader in sports streaming.
National channels like ESPN and regional sports networks are right at the top, along with the 4K channels that Fubo customers above the Pro level get access to. Then as you scroll, news and entertainment networks become more prevalent. Viewers can also filter the channel guide by genre, showing only Entertainment, News, Lifestyle, etc. if they wish.
The guide also makes it easy to favorite channels for even faster browsing, with a small star icon on the tile for every channel. Viewers can record shows directly from the guide to find them later in their DVR storage. I love how intuitive and easy-to-use the guide is; it puts the channels I’m most likely to want to watch first, and doesn’t include a pop-out video preview of a highlighted channel unless I ask it to.
Once I click on a channel, the controls are exactly what I expected to find. The ability to go full screen or use the pop-out mini player, volume and closed caption options, a rewind button, and record and watchlist selections are available at a glance.
How Focused is Fubo on Sports?
In a word, very. It’s hard to escape sports when exploring the Fubo interface, which is exactly how the streamer wants it. “Football” and “Sports” are two of the tabs prominently placed in the overhead menu; clicking “Football” will bring up a page full of NFL highlights and shows from ESPN, NFL Network, and other top channels discussing the biggest football news of the day. Scrolling down will bring viewers college football options, and let them pick what to watch from the top football-providing channels.
The “Sports” tab offers more of the same, with content from every sport under the sun. Top events are front-and-center, of course, and events that are specific to your area aren’t far down the page. Here you can browse important games from the biggest college and professional sports organizations, and see all the live options available to switch to at any given moment.
I especially appreciate how easy Fubo makes it to see sports events I particularly would be interested in. The streamer automatically puts Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets (my local NBA and NHL teams) near the top of the screen, right at the front of the “Popular in your area” row, so I can get to them without a long scroll.
Is Entertainment an Afterthought?
The emphasis on sports for Fubo can leave entertainment lovers feeling a bit left behind. The interface has “Shows” and “Movies” tabs blending live and on-demand content, but these feel more like Fubo felt it had to include them, and they don’t seem as intuitive or well put together as its sports pages.
Perhaps these tabs improve as a customer uses them more. But to start with, they feel like a desultory mixture of popular yet generic titles cobbled together in content rows centered on incredibly basic genres like “Suspense” or “Sitcoms.”
At no point during the sign-up process does Fubo ask for your viewing preferences, and I think that’s a weakness that really shows up here. Its entertainment offerings are simply not well curated for new customers who are just starting out with the service.
Speaking of annoyances, I do wish Fubo wouldn’t put a huge, screen-sprawling ad directly in the middle of the home page when I first log in. I get advertising has to be a thing, but it seems ever more intrusive in areas that used to be ad-free like menus.
Is Fubo’s DVR Easy to Use?
Fubo offers unlimited Cloud DVR, and unlike some other DVR services, it will record an entire episode of a given show, even if you start recording in the middle. Seemingly every show tile in every part of Fubo’s interface gives you the option to record the title in question, so you don’t have to stumble around in drop-down menus to tape a show, movie, or sports event.
The “My Stuff” tab in the overhead row takes you to your recordings instantly and lets you sort by sports, TV shows, and movies to help declutter the look a bit. Items you’ve put on your watchlist or scheduled recordings are also found here.
How Good of a Value is Fubo?
This question is more difficult to answer than it appears at face value. To someone who doesn’t have as much experience with pay TV in general, it may seem pretty over-the-top to pay $100 per month or more just to watch live sports.
But to fans who know how hard it can be to track down each team’s games and watch them all, especially for college football, the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball. Regional sports networks aren’t as available on live TV streaming services as they are on cable and satellite providers, and getting access to them can be worth the $15 monthly fee for diehard fans.
It’s worth noting that customers have the option to pay quarterly with Fubo. Not only does this extend any discount you might have signed up to get for your first three months of service, but it will also get you access to free bonus channels — though these fall into the category of free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels that viewers can find elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a sports fan who feels underserved by streamers like Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV, Fubo is absolutely perfect for you. It still balances out its channel offerings with some entertainment networks, but the streamer doesn’t send any mixed messages about its commitment to live sports. They’re available everywhere you turn on Fubo.
With entertainment, the streamer is more of a mixed bag, but in fairness, Fubo doesn’t try to hide what it wants to provide its users. If live, local sports with a huge selection of national channels is what you’re looking for, Fubo might be a great choice.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 19 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $94.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”