Which entertainment-only TV package is the best?
Which entertainment-only TV package is the best?
We compared DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan with Philo and Sling TV to see which came out on top, and we landed on a clear winner.
The pay-TV world isn’t like it used to be. In days past, viewers had relatively few choices; sure, there were plenty of pay-TV companies in operation, but most of them offered slight variations of the same standard channel packages — packed with networks that some customers would never watch, leaving viewers no way to pay less to weed out the channels they didn’t like. These packages grew to $70, $80, $90, or even $100 per month, and there was essentially no way to avoid paying that much unless one simply canceled their subscription altogether.
Things have changed in a big way, however. Services like DIRECTV, Philo, and Sling TV offer ways for viewers to pay less to watch top cable entertainment channels, but without a long list of networks that necessarily make these plans more expensive, such as premier sports channels.
DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment Genre Pack was launched in 2025, and we thought it would be helpful to readers to compare it with a couple of similar TV products in the Philo Core package and the various offerings of Sling TV. We’ll break down the features of all of these plans, and give our thoughts as to which of them is the best choice for viewers who are looking to move on from their expensive, all-in-one pay-TV plans and focus on entertainment networks.
Which do we choose: DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment, Philo, or Sling TV?
What is DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan?
DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan is a newer offering from the service. It comes with a total of 55+ channels, with major cable entertainment networks including A&E, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, BET, Bravo, CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, Fox News, FX, The History Channel, Lifetime, MS NOW, MTV, Paramount Network, TLC, and VH1. It also recently announced the additions of Hallmark Channel and AMC Networks.
The package also comes with on-demand access to several streaming services at no additional cost. MyEntertainment comes with ad-supported plans of Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and starting in 2026, AMC+ as well. All of these service,s plus the cable channel package that comes included in the MyEntertainment plan, cost just $35 per month after a five-day free trial.
As the name suggests, the MyEntertainment plan does not come with top sports networks like ESPN or FS1, and it also skips the local broadcast network category of channels, so you won’t get ABC, CBS, Fox, or NBC with a subscription. But an over-the-air antenna will deliver these channels if you’re missing them, and DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment is a great pick overall. It comes with unlimited Cloud DVR and unlimited streams inside the home.
DIRECTV
DIRECTV is one of The Streamable’s top choices for the best live TV streaming service overall in 2026, especially for users who want the most channels or want to watch the most live sports. With an unbeatable lineup of local, news, sports, and entertainment channels, three main signature packages, an unlimited DVR, and 20 simultaneous streams at home, DIRECTV remains a premier choice for any cord-cutter.
What is Philo’s Core package?
The Philo Core package has some key similarities to the DIRECTV MyEntertainment plan. It comes with 70+ total channels, though fewer marquee cable channels are available. Philo offers A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, BET, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, Paramount Network, and VH1, though it doesn’t carry offerings like CNN, FX, Fox News, and MSNBC that are available in the MyEntertainment package.
Philo also carries on-demand streaming services with its Core package. Its inventory includes AMC+, discovery+, and HBO Max, providing a slightly different mix of on-demand content than DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment package does. It’s still a good mix if viewers are looking to get away from the bigger-name franchises on Disney+ and Hulu.
Philo’s Core package costs $33 per month and comes with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. It also includes unlimited Cloud DVR, and viewers can create up to 10 profiles per account.
Philo
Philo is a live TV streaming service designed for entertainment lovers, offering flexible ways to watch without the high price of traditional TV bundles. The service now features two paid plans — Essential and Bundle+ — alongside its existing free streaming offering, giving customers a range of options depending on how much live and premium content they want.
What is Sling TV?
Sling TV has been offering a more limited channel package offering for many years, and its Blue package is the most directly comparable to DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan, as well as the Philo Core plan. Its channel package comes with a mix of channels, including some not carried by MyEntertainment or Philo like FS1,NFL Network, TBS, and TNT. It has a more varied inventory, and obviously doesn’t avoid sports channels like the other two plans on this list. ABC, Fox, and NBC are also available in some markets with Sling Blue, another difference between it and the other competition on this list.
Sling Blue costs $46 per month, but viewers can get a smaller selection of the channels in the Blue plan — including FS1, FX, NFL Network, Nat Geo, and local channels in applicable markets in the Sling Select plan for $20 per month. This package has fewer than 20 channels total, but it’s a good alternative to the full Sling Blue experience.
One area where Sling TV lags behind Philo and DIRECTV is that it does not have any on-demand streaming services included in its price. Customers can pay to add on streamers like Paramount+ and others with Sling TV, but these options are not tacked onto the base cost of Sling; you’ll have to shell out a little extra for them. Sling’s DVR is also not unlimited; it has 50 hours of Cloud DVR standard, and viewers can pay an extra $5 per month to upgrade to unlimited. Sling Blue can be watched on up to three screens simultaneously.
Sling TV
Sling TV is The Streamable’s choice for cord-cutters on a budget. Sling is a live TV streaming service with multiple channel packages. The $45.99/month Sling Orange plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $45.99/month Sling Blue plan offers about 40 channels, including ABC, Fox, and NBC in major markets.
You can combine Orange+Blue for a total of $60.99 / month. Sling also offers many channel add-on packages starting at $6/month.
Which plan is best?
There are certainly arguments to be made for each service as being the best choice for the average consumer who is looking to transition to an entertainment-focused channel package that cuts their monthly TV bill. Each of them offers a similar channel lineup, but with key variations that could give each of them an advantage.
If you want to still mix a few sports channels in with your channel package, Sling Blue or Sling Select could be perfect for you. These services offer FS1 and NFL Network, and you can still get most of the entertainment channels you can watch with the other two services.
Philo stands out with its discovery+ on-demand content, and it is also the cheapest of these three services. If saving money is your top goal while preserving access to most of the most popular cable entertainment networks on TV, Philo’s Core package is a great choice.
Still, when examining all of these options, we think the DIRECTV MyEntertainment package is the winner. For only $2 per month more than Philo, you get FX and top cable news networks, as well as streaming access to Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and AMC+ starting next year. Combined, those streamers would cost $27 per month by themselves, which means the value of DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan outstrips the competition when factoring in its channel package of 55+ networks.
While there’s not necessarily a wrong choice for cord-cutters here, DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment plan is our top pick for a streaming service that allows viewers to stream popular cable entertainment networks. The value that customers get with a MyEntertainment subscription, thanks to the inclusion of a huge amount of on-demand content, makes it the winner of this showdown of slimmed-down entertainment channel packages.
| Service | Monthly price | Channel count | DVR space | On-demand streamers included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIRECTV MyEntertainment | $35 | 55+ | Unlimited | Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, AMC+ (Starting in 2026) |
| Philo Core | $33 | 70+ | Unlimited | AMC+, HBO Max, discovery+ |
| Sling TV | $46 (Sling Blue) $20 (Sling Select) |
~40 (Sling Blue) 10+ (Sling Select |
50 hours | N/A |
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DIRECTV
DIRECTV is one of The Streamable’s top choices for the best live TV streaming service overall in 2026, especially for users who want the most channels or want to watch the most live sports. With an unbeatable lineup of local, news, sports, and entertainment channels, three main signature packages, an unlimited DVR, and 20 simultaneous streams at home, DIRECTV remains a premier choice for any cord-cutter.
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Philo
Philo is a live TV streaming service designed for entertainment lovers, offering flexible ways to watch without the high price of traditional TV bundles. The service now features two paid plans — Essential and Bundle+ — alongside its existing free streaming offering, giving customers a range of options depending on how much live and premium content they want.
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Sling TV
Sling TV is The Streamable’s choice for cord-cutters on a budget. Sling is a live TV streaming service with multiple channel packages. The $45.99/month Sling Orange plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $45.99/month Sling Blue plan offers about 40 channels, including ABC, Fox, and NBC in major markets.
You can combine Orange+Blue for a total of $60.99 / month. Sling also offers many channel add-on packages starting at $6/month.