Fubo Review | PCMag

Cutting the cord doesn’t mean you can’t watch live sports or prime-time shows, as a good video streaming service can replicate—and often improve on—the cable TV experience. Fubo (formerly FuboTV) offers many news and entertainment channels, easy-to-use DVR capabilities, and reliable performance. Its main strength is that it covers most major sports and leagues at the local, national, and international levels. Its biggest downside? Most live streams are capped at 720p, which doesn’t look great on a 4K TV. Still, Fubo is a well-rounded option if you’re a cord-cutter who wants to stream a wide variety of content.

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Sports Channels Galore

One of the top reasons to consider Fubo is its sports streaming lineup. The Starter plan offers national and local sports programming from broadcast affiliates (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC), domestic sports channels (BTN, CBS Sports Network, FS1, FS2, Fubo Sports Network, NBA TV, NBC Sports Network, NFL Network, and The Golf Channel), and international sports channels (beIN Sports, GOL TV, and TUDN).

A deal with Disney adds key sports channels to the lineup, including ACC Network, ESPN, ESPN2, and SEC Network. The more expensive plans include ESPNews and ESPN U. Fubo’s lack of ESPN channels was previously a glaring issue, but now you can watch all of that channel’s live sports, including Monday Night Football, and flagship sports shows. ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+, notably does not include the network’s best programming, such as SportsCenter, College GameDay, and prime-time live sports.

Depending on your location, you may have access to RSNs. These channels serve specific geographic regions with live sports coverage of teams in that area. Most RSNs are owned by either AT&T (SportsNet), Comcast (NBC Sports), or Sinclair (Bally Sports). Fubo also has Bally Sports RSNs (previously FOX Sports RSNs). This is great news for sports fans, since these channels are the only way to stream many MLB, NBA, and NHL teams in some markets. Fubo has all the NBC RSNs and several AT&T SportsNet channels, too.

Fubo is subject to the same blackouts and restrictions as cable and other live TV streaming services; individual sports leagues determine what teams are shown in each local market. That means you can’t watch games that are restricted to local networks outside of your own. National sports broadcasts are always available to watch regardless of your location though, and RSNs in your home network can be streamed even if you travel to a new location. Read Fubo’s guide on local coverage for the full details on what situations may cause blackouts.

Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV generally match Fubo’s sports lineup, though Fubo has international sports coverage. In addition, DirecTV Stream restricts MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and RSNs to various higher-priced tiers, and lacks the NFL Network across the board. Sling TV’s Orange and Blue plans split ESPN and popular national sports channels. Even with Sling’s combined plan, you must pay for the Sports Extras add-on to achieve parity with the other options.

For a full rundown of what sports channels you need, check out our roundups of the best NFL streaming services, the best MLB streaming services, the best NBA streaming services, and the best NHL streaming services. In the past, Fubo was one of the top options for streaming the Olympics, because it streamed many events in 4K.

News and Lifestyle Channels

Fubo includes all the affiliate broadcast networks you would expect, including ABC (thanks to the recent deal with Disney), CBS, FOX, and NBC, but it lacks PBS. It also has few CW affiliates. Check out Fubo’s guide to local channel coverage to see if your locals are available. The service’s news lineup is also solid, with channels such as ABC News Live, BBC America, CBSN, FOX News, MSNBC, and NBC. You get financial news from CNBC, Cheddar Business, and FOX Business.

Fubo bundles an impressive collection of entertainment and lifestyle programming. For example, it offers AMC, FX, SYFY, USA, and The Weather Channel. Available children’s programming includes Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., and Universal Kids.

You won’t find any Turner-owned channels, such as Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TCM, or TNT on the service anymore. If those cartoon channels are what you miss the most from that lineup, check out Max. You now need Max to watch any Warner Bros. Discovery content as Fubo has dropped those channels, in part due to an ongoing conflict with the company over a potential upcoming sports streaming competitor. The missing WBD channels include HGTV, Food Network, and TLC. Fubo dropped six A&E-owned channels too, including A&E, History Channel, Lifetime, FYI Channel, Lifetime Movie Network, and Vice TV.

How Much Does Fubo Cost?

Fubo no longer offers a $59.99-per-month plan. The cheapest plan is now called Pro and costs $79.99 per month. The Pro plan features approximately 188 total channels, depending on your location. It includes Cloud DVR (which lets you record unlimited hours of content to DVR storage) and Unlimited Screens (which lets you simultaneously stream to 10 devices at home and two away from home) add-ons.

Fubo’s Elite plan is $89.99 per month and expands on the Pro plan to 253 channels.

The Latino plan ($32.99 per month) includes roughly 50 channels, such as beIN Sports, Discovery en Espanol, ESPN Deportes, Familia, Fox Deportes, Univision, GOL TV Spanish, Nat Geo Mundo, and TUDN. Notably, this tier includes streaming rights to 70 Conmebol qualifying matches. It also comes with 250 hours of Cloud DVR and simultaneously streaming support for two screens.

You can supplement your Fubo plan with other add-ons, such as Adventure Plus ($4.99 per month), and Latino Plus ($19.99 per month). Portuguese Plus costs $14.99 per month, but only includes five channels: GOL TV Spanish, Benfica TV, RTP3, RTP Açores, and RTP Internacional. Showtime ($10.99 per month) and MGM+ ($5.99 per month) add-ons are also available.

The Sports Plus add-on with NFL Redzone is likely most relevant to sports fans. It costs $10.99 per month and includes ESPNews, ESPN U, NFL RedZone, NBA TV, NHL Network, MLB TV, Stadium, and the Tennis Channel.

For comparison, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV cost $76.99 per month and $72.99 per month, respectively. Sling TV‘s comparable Orange + Blue plan is $60 per month, but it’s limited to a more modest lineup. DirecTV Stream starts at $79.99 per month.

If you want to watch live TV, but don’t want to spend a ton of money, you have other options, albeit with some compromises. For example, ESPN+ costs $10.99 per month and offers a good selection of live college and international sports. Dazn is pricier at $24.99 per month, and its live coverage is mostly limited to live MMA, boxing, and soccer. Philo does not offer local channels or sports programming, but its trove of entertainment channels can be yours for $25 per month.

Fubo is available via the web, Android and iOS, and Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku media streaming devices. Game consoles are not natively supported. You can try the service with a free seven-day trial on any platform, but this option requires a credit card. We tested Fubo on a Windows PC and an Android device.

Fubo is available primarily in the US, but it has specific, limited plans for customers in Canada and Spain. You can view the list of available channels for both of those plans via Fubo’s help center.

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Web Interface

Fubo’s web interface is clean, compact, and snappy. It uses a mix of black, gray, and white with occasional orange accents for emphasis. The top menu is organized into six sections: Home, Sports, Shows, Movies, Guide, and Recordings. In the upper right corner, you can change account settings (such as billing details and the add-ons you subscribe to), manage the account profiles, and access the help center. It lacks settings related to video playback.

The Home section displays several horizontally scrolling lists of streaming content. Categories include Live TV, Live Sports, Top Leagues and Tournaments, News Live & Up Next, and Featured. The Sports tab shows a few featured events in a top-level slider, and lets you record them to DVR storage. All the different sports categories appear across the top, which you can filter further based on their associated leagues. Below that, Fubo displays a complete list of sports events for the day. From here, you can launch a live event or hit the DVR button to schedule a recording. Alternatively, you can navigate up to 72 hours backward from the day to view Lookback content (more on that later) or forward up to 10 days to schedule a future recording.

Fubo divides entertainment content into two top-level categories: Shows and Movies. You can browse content based on what is popular, currently broadcasting, or by genre. The availability of shows and movies depends on what’s streaming on the channels included in your plan, though there is some perpetually available on-demand content, too.

The guide section is a two-column affair, with channels listed down the left side and the programming details on the right. You use this tool to see what’s scheduled for up to six days in the future. Strangely, you can’t navigate backward from the current day to view Lookback content from the Guide section; you can only do this from the Sports section. From this screen, you can either click on one of the thumbnails to launch into a live stream or hit the Record button to add it to your DVR library. Fubo also has a header, Networks, that lets you select and view content from specific channels. For example, if you click CBS, the interface shows a brief summary of the network, a list of live and upcoming content, and any on-demand series it offers.

The Recordings section features large thumbnails and organizes content into a simple list structure. You can use a search bar to search by title, team, league, or channel, but we wish we could search by date. Fubo has since added different sections for your Sports, Shows, and Movie recordings, which is helpful.

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Android and iOS Apps

Downloading and signing in to the Android or iOS app is a pain-free experience, though you must permit it to access your location. The attractive app boasts a dark theme with white and orange highlights. We experienced a consistent bug with the Android app; it only displayed the Home button on the bottom and all the other sections were inaccessible. A representative explained that this was likely because of the VPN installed on the phone. We had to disable the VPN and relaunch the app several times before the issue resolved.

From the hidden left-hand menu, you switch profiles and view account details. However, there’s no way to manage your subscriptions or add-ons from the mobile app, let alone control preferences for closed captions or video streaming quality.

The main app view shows horizontally scrolling lists of various content categories. One includes all the available channels to watch, another lists live and upcoming sports, and others highlight top shows and on-demand content (such as Worth Binging, 4K On Demand, and Popular on Showtime). On the bottom, you can tap to switch between the Home, Sports, Entertainment, Guide, and Recordings.

The Recordings Section shows your recorded content, scheduled recordings, and the Continue Watching section, which shows live and on-demand programming that you’ve recently watched. This last section did not work reliably in testing; Fubo correctly added an on-demand movie to this area but did not do the same with any of the live sports programming we launched. The Guide mirrors the web version’s design and functions, and is well designed for the mobile platform.

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Streaming Quality

Fubo’s playback interface on the web looks great. Apart from the standard playback controls, you get 15-second rewind and fast-forward options; buttons for starting playback from the start (only available on select programming) and for resuming live playback; a button for starting a DVR recording; a closed caption toggle; and the ability to select the playback resolution. You can also add a channel to your favorites list, as well as switch to a mini-player. The mobile playback screen includes many of the same features, except for the favorite button and the mini-player option or a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.

Fubo’s live channel streams are mostly limited to 720p resolution, which is disappointing, but the picture quality was acceptable in testing. A representative confirmed that the service supports 720p/60fps streams. Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV offer channels in 1080p resolution on select platforms, while Philo and Sling TV are limited to 720p. Much of the on-demand content Fubo offers is available in 1080p. Fubo supports standard stereo audio for all its content, which falls short of Hulu + Live TV’s support for surround sound for some titles in its on-demand library.

However, Fubo is one of the few video streaming services to broadcast live streams in 4K. A new YouTube TV add-on brings 4K streaming functionality (plus enhanced DVR and simultaneous streaming features) to that service for an extra $19.99 per month. Amazon Prime Video experimented with upscaled 4K streams with Thursday Night Football, too.

To stream 4K content, your device must support that resolution and your internet speeds must be at least 25Mbps (download). The company’s list of compatible devices includes the Apple TV 4K, Chromecast Ultra, FireTV 4K, FireTV Cube, Roku (Premier, Premier+, Ultra), and select Android phones. Read Fubo’s 4K guide for the complete rundown of requirements. Note that you can’t currently record events that broadcast in 4K.

By default, Fubo supports simultaneous streams on three devices, which is about average, though, as mentioned, the Unlimited Screen add-on bumps that limit up to 10 concurrent streams on a home network. Sling TV’s Orange + Blue plan gives you four simultaneous streams per account.

Streaming performance of live, on-demand, and DVR content from the mobile app is reliable, provided you meet the bandwidth requirements. For 1080p streaming, you need a 10Mbps (download speed) connection for each device. In testing, streams ramped up to full quality after only a few seconds. We don’t recommend streaming over a cellular network, to avoid ridiculous data usage costs.

We tested the service by streaming a football game on a PC via an Ethernet connection (200Mbps download) and didn’t experience any video playback issues. That said, we could tell that it wasn’t a full HD picture. Audio sounded fine.

For more on streaming, check out five reasons you may want to ditch your video subscription and keep cable, read how streaming has ushered in a new trash TV golden age, and learn why companies must preserve their streaming catalogs. Finally, check out our recommended streaming video guides if you don’t know what to watch.

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Recording and Rewinding

Fubo’s DVR functions are easy to use and the service stores recordings for as long as you maintain a subscription. Subscribers can now record unlimited hours of content to storage by default. The service conveniently records the entirety of an event on some channels regardless of when you start recording, which not all competitors do.

For comparison, YouTube TV’s DVR storage is unlimited, and it keeps recordings for up to nine months. Hulu + Live TV lets you keep up to 200 hours of recordings for as long as you’d like. DirecTV Stream offers unlimited recordings for up to nine months. Sling TV includes 50 hours of storage by default.

Other cool features of Fubo are Lookback and Startover. With Lookback, you can go back up to 72 hours in the past to view any sports events that you missed. All you have to do is click on the calendar icon (in the Sports section) and navigate back to the original airdate. Then, you can hit the Watch Now button next to whatever event you want to watch. Unfortunately, you can’t record Lookback content to DVR storage. Note that not all of Fubo’s included channels support Lookback. A representative noted that 136 total channels support this feature.

The Startover feature lets you restart live broadcasts from the beginning no matter when you tune in. For example, if you are in the middle of cooking or cleaning when a game or program is set to start, you don’t have to rush; just launch the stream whenever and drag the progress bar back as far as you want. A Fubo contact noted that this feature was available on 102 total channels. DirecTV Stream includes similar capabilities to both Lookback and Startover.

Accessibility and Parental Controls

Fubo supports closed captions, but you can’t customize their appearance. Other video streaming services, including YouTube TV, let you customize properties, such as the font, text color, and caption size. None of Fubo’s on-demand content supports Audio Descriptions, an accessibility feature that provides an audible narration of on-screen events and character interactions that are not discernible through dialog alone. Apple TV+, Netflix, and Prime Video all offer Audio Descriptions for select programming.

Fubo lacks parental control options, which is disappointing since a lot of on-demand content could be inappropriate for some audiences. Sling TV and DirecTV Stream are among the few live TV streaming services with this capability. On-demand services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, and Disney+ let you set restrictions for TVs and Movies.

Fubo now allows you to create up to six user profiles, which is helpful for organizations. For instance, each user can customize the guide with their favorites and only see those DVR recordings that belong to them. We would like to see Fubo add parental control options on a per-profile basis.

Can You Watch Fubo With a VPN?

Although we recommend you use a virtual private network (VPN) at all times, some video streaming services, such as Fubo, may not work if you are connected to one due to geographic restrictions and broadcasting rights. To test whether Fubo works with a VPN enabled, we connected a desktop and phone to a US-based Mullvad server. Fubo detected the VPN and did not allow us to stream any content.

Even if a VPN works with everything one day, it might not the next, as most streaming services do their best to block access via VPN. You can always disable the VPN temporarily, or enable split-tunneling (if your VPN supports that feature), to get access if you encounter connection issues. We recommend choosing a VPN based on security and privacy instead.

Video Streaming Services: What You Should Know

Verdict: Fubo Is More Than Sports

Fubo offers an impressive starting lineup of more than 150 sports, news, and entertainment channels, support for popular platforms, and dead-simple DVR functionality. That said, it lacks A&E, Turner, and WBD channels, and most of its live streams top out at 720p. Fubo is easy to recommend to sports fans, but our Editors’ Choice winners for general audiences looking to replace cable are Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV. Hulu is a great value because it combines live TV coverage with on-demand streaming. YouTube TV’s apps are top-notch, and its channel coverage is impressive.