If you’ve thrown off the restrictive yoke of linear pay-TV for the last time, but still want to ensure you can watch top cable channels that provide news, sports, and entertainment all on the same service, live TV streaming services should be your first stop. But there are several of these to choose from, and if you’re sorting through them for the first time, it can be difficult to know which to pick.

Below, we’ll offer readers a comparison of Fubo and DIRECTV. If you’re trying to decide between these streamers, we’ll lay out all the details in our easy-to-follow guide so you are equipped with 100% of the information you need to make the choice.

DIRECTV vs Fubo: What you need to know

The essentials

Plans

DIRECTV has two basic levels of packages available to streaming customers: Genre Packs and Signature Packages. Genre Packs are smaller-sized plans that focus only on a particular channel plan, and range in price from $20 per month for its MyKids package to $80 for the MySports & MyNews combo package. Some of DIRECTV’s Genre Packs come with Disney streaming services included at no extra cost, as well; the MyKids plan has Disney+, MySports offers ESPN Unlimited, and MyEntertainment includes Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max.

Its Signature packages are much more of an all-in-one offering, ranging from around 90 to 200 channels each. They range in price from $90 to $150 per month, not including taxees of fees.

Fubo offers just one genre-specific plan at the moment: its Fubo Sports service with sports and news channels for $56 per month. The streamer also has its Pro and Elite plans available, with entertainment, news, and sports networks included in both packages. The Pro and Elite plans also come with a non-optional regional sports network (RSN) fee of up to $17 per month.

All English-language Fubo packages come with ESPN Unlimited included.

Compare the prices of both services in the table below:

Overall channel count

Fubo wins in overall channel count, with more than 200 channels available in its Pro and Elite channel packages, but it has notable absences in these plans. First and foremost, an ongoing carriage dispute between NBCUniversal and Fubo has knocked NBC off all Fubo plans, and the streamer hasn’t carried TNT, TBS, or truTV for years. International soccer channels are found in plenty on Fubo, but sports fans in the U.S. may find NBC and TNT more essential.

DIRECTV, on the other hand, carries all the channels viewers could hope to find, even if there are a few holes in its ENTERTAINMENT package. Check out a more direct comparison of the availability of top cable channels in DIRECTV and Fubo plans in the chart below:

Top cable channels

Local channels

As noted above, Fubo does not currently offer NBC in any American markets. It carries ABC, CBS, and Fox in its Fubo Sports service, and includes The CW in most markets with Pro and Elite subscriptions.

DIRECTV carries ABC, CBS, The CW, NBC, and Fox in its MySports, MyNews, and Signature packages everywhere. It’s also the only one of the two streamers to carry PBS.

Sports channels

Pro sports

Fubo still has ESPN and Fox Sports channels available, as well as options like Golf Channel, NFL Network, and Tennis Channel. But NHL and NCAA Men’s Basketball fans will need to note the absence of Turner Sports channels with a Fubo subscription, and NFL and MLB fans will miss NBC.

DIRECTV’s packages include plenty of top sports channels on their own, and have fewer holes than Fubo’s currently. Its Sports Pack add-on for $15 per month extra will get you access to even more channels, and viewers can also opt to stream sports along with the MySports Genre Pack.

College sports channels

DIRECTV and Fubo both carry ACC Network, Big Ten Network, and CBS Sports Network, as well as ESPNU in some packages. But for ACC Network and ESPNU, viewers will need to purchase a Fubo Pro or Elite plan.

Check out the chart below to find out which college and pro sports channels are found in the plans of each service:

Regional sports networks

Fubo carries a large selection of regional sports networks; before the shutdown of FanDuel Sports Network channels, Fubo’s RSN coverage included 98% of American viewers. It still has a great selection for NBA, NHL, and MLB fans to watch with its Pro and Elite plans, but as mentioned, it has a non-optional RSN fee of up to $17 per month.

DIRECTV has a similar selection of RSNs, including Altitude, NESN, Marquee Sports Network, and YES Network. It offers RSNs in its Signature plans starting with the CHOICE package, with a fee equivalent to Fubo’s attached. Viewers can also add their local RSN to the MySports Genre Pack with the MyHome Team mini-pack, costing $20 per month on top of the base package price.

Included features

On-demand libraries

Both Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM let you watch TV shows and movies that you may have forgotten to DVR as on-demand selections, usually accompanied by the inconvenience of unskippable ads. DIRECTV also allows you to rent or buy movies, as you can with Prime Video; Fubo doesn’t.

DVR

Both Fubo and DIRECTV offer unlimited Cloud DVR storage that will keep your recordings for up to nine months. Each allows sports fans to track and automatically record their chosen favorite teams’ games, if desired.

Simultaneous streams and 4K

Fubo offers 4K events at no extra cost in its Elite package, but no 4K content is available in the Fubo Sports service or the Fubo Pro plan. DIRECTV provides viewers with 4K broadcasts (when available) at no extra cost on every plan.

DIRECTV provides viewers with unlimited simultaneous streams in the home, or three outside your home network. Fubo comes with 10 streams at home, but you can only watch from one location at a time.

Multiview

Fubo’s multiview allows viewers to watch up to four channels simultaneously. It’s fully customizable, but it’s only available to watch on Apple TV and select Roku players. It will also launch on select LG smart TVs by the 2026 football season.

DIRECTV offers a multiview option called Mix Channels, which offers combinations of four pre-selected channels. It’s available on more devices than Fubo’s multiview, but it’s not as customizable.

So, which is right for you?

Much of the time, comparing two live TV streaming services can be a little difficult. Many live TV services serve different audiences, so an apples-to-apples comparison to determine which is “better” can be hard. But DIRECTV and Fubo try to serve very similar audiences, so a direct juxtaposition is more possible.

As things stand currently, we recommend anyone who’s choosing between DIRECTV and Fubo to pick DIRECTV. It has more genre-specific packages to choose from for those who are most concerned about price, and its plans have fewer major holes in their programming guides.

International soccer fans will still want to opt for Fubo, which has plenty of these channels. But for the everyday American streaming viewer, DIRECTV’s mix of sports, news, and entertainment channels, combined with the enhanced value of many of its packages, makes it the current winner of this comparison.