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When you think of live TV streaming services, the first shows that come to mind may be the most subscribed options, such as YouTube TV and Hulu Plus Live TV. However, the signs are with Wide variety of channels They are two of the most expensive choices for wire cutters. Depending on which channels are essential to you, an entertainment-focused and affordable live TV service may be a better alternative.
When it comes to low- and mid-budget live TV services that cover entertainment channels, there are three similarly priced packages you need to know about. The first is MyEntertainment, which costs $35 per month Flow package Launched by DirecTV this year. The other two are more established: there Filowhich costs $33 per month, and Sling Blue, which ranges from $46 to $51 per month. To learn more about what each service offers, here’s an in-depth guide and channel comparison.
MyEntertainment is one of DirecTV’s five genre packages that offer genre-specific channel listings. Other packages are MyKids, MiEspanol, MyNews and MySports. For $35 a month, DirecTV MyEntertainment allows you to stream channels like Bravo, CNN, and Food Network. You can also access ad-supported versions of HBO Max, the Disney Plus bundle, and Hulu.
Sling Blue is one of Sling’s core services. You can also choose Orange or Orange and Blue, but Blue’s price and channels make it most comparable to Philo and MyEntertainment. The live channels you get with Blue include Fox Sports 1, NFL Network, and Discovery. You can also get local FOX, ABC, and NBC channels with Sling Blue, depending on where you live.
Philo is another option that could appeal to streamers on a budget who want to browse a selection of live channels like Hallmark, A&E, and Nickelodeon. The streaming service has a channel guide, where you have the option to “save” shows and movies to record, and also offers on-demand titles with ads. Philo recently raised its price Add access at once To ad-supported HBO Max and Discovery Plus. However, it remains the most affordable option of the three, costing $33 per month.
DirecTV MyEntertainment vs. Philo vs. Sling Blue
| Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling | |
| price | $35 per month | $33 per month | Between $46 and $51 per month, depending on where you live |
| Screens | Unlimited at home and 3 away from home | 3 | 3 |
| Personal files | 5 | 10 | 4 |
| Unlimited digital video recorder | Yes | Yes | No, 50 hours of storage |
| DVR-ed titles have been kept | 9 months | 1 year | 9 months |
| Free streaming services | Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max | AMC Plus, HBO Max, Discovery Plus | unavailable |
| Locals | no | no | Maybe, but it depends on where you live |
What channels do you get with Sling Blue, Philo, and MyEntertainment?
A comparison of live TV services wouldn’t be complete without channel details. Note: The following focuses on the channels included with your paid subscription, although you’ll probably notice that Free channels (aka Fast channels) is also available when using the manual. This does not include channels which you can add for an additional cost. Sling offers add-ons, which are small channel packages, and DirecTV has small packages that you can add to the basic packages.
Let’s start with some of the joint offerings between Philo, Sling Blue, and DirecTV MyEntertainment. They all offer heavy hitters A&E, AMC, BET, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, History, Discovery Investigation, Lifetime, and TLC.
He owns both Philo and MyEntertainment Distinctive featurebut you won’t get the channel with Sling Blue unless you pay extra for a small bundle of channels called Lifestyle Extra. Bravo comes with Sling Blue and MyEntertainment, but the channel is not on Philo’s lineup.
A new Hallmark movie from 2025 on the Philo home screen.
MyEntertainment and Sling Blue are the strongest of the three in the news space, offering CNN, Fox News Channel, and MS Now (formerly MSNBC). You can also watch CNBC and Fox Business Network with MyEntertainment.
For kids, Nickelodeon’s Philo and Nick Jr. Discovery Family and MeTV Toons, while Sling Blue offers Nick Jr. and Cartoon Network (via Cartoon Network & Adult Swim). Kids channels aren’t MyEntertainment’s strength, but you do get a variety of channels with other channels Type Package DirecTV, MyKids.
One of the biggest attractions of Sling Blue is its local channels. You can get ABC, NBC, or FOX locally, depending Where do you live ?but your blue color may also be expensive Another $5 More than others, these channels are only offered in select US cities.
Sling Blue’s exclusive offers could be a reason for sports fans to swing by for its pricier service (reminder — you spend $13-$18 more per month on Blue than on Philo). Fox Sports 1, NFL Network, TBS, TNT, TruTV, and USA Network all come with the basic Sling plan — no add-ons needed.
DirecTV MyEntertainment vs. Philo vs. Sling Blue: Shared channels
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
|---|---|---|---|
| A&E | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Adult swimming | Yes | Yes | |
| Your mother | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| American Heroes Channel | Yes | Yes | |
| Animal planet | Yes | Yes | |
| Aspire | Yes | Yes | |
| Access TV | Yes | Yes | |
| BBC America | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| bet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| TV bounce | Yes | Yes | |
| Bravo | Yes | Yes | |
| Clio TV | Yes | Yes | |
| CMT | Yes | Yes | |
| CNN | Yes | Yes | |
| Comedy Central | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cooking channel | Yes | Yes | |
| Destination America | Yes | Yes | |
| discovery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| A life of discovery | Yes | Yes | |
| E! | Yes | Yes | |
| EarthX | Yes | Yes | |
| FETV | Yes | Yes | |
| Food Network | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fox News Channel | Yes | Yes | |
| Forex | Yes | Yes | |
| For your information | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Game Show Network | Yes | Yes | |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| It happens | Yes | Yes | |
| Hallmark channel | Yes | Yes | |
| Heroes and icons | Yes | Yes | |
| HGTV | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| date | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HLN | Yes | Yes | |
| International Finance Corporation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Discovery investigation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| life | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| Magnolia Network | Yes | Yes | |
| MeTV | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) | Yes | Yes | |
| MTV | Yes | Yes | |
| MTV 2 | Yes | Yes | |
| National Geographic | Yes | Yes | |
| Nick Jr. | Yes | Yes | |
| king | Yes | Yes | |
| Paramount Network | Yes | Yes | |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| Pop TV | Yes | Yes | |
| Science Channel | Yes | Yes | |
| Sundance TV | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| My sword | Yes | Yes | |
| TLC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Travel channel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TV country | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UBTV | Yes | Yes | |
| VH1 | Yes | Yes | |
| channel | Entertaining | Filo | Blue sling |
| Deputy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| We are TV | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Channels you will find in only one place
Philo, Sling Blue, and DirecTV MyEntertainment all have a lot of channel overlap, but they also offer some content that their competitors don’t. Here’s a look at some of the channels you can get with one streaming device in the trio, but not the other two.
DirecTV MyEntertainment vs. Philo vs. Sling Blue: Select exclusive offers
| Filo | Blue sling | Entertaining |
|---|---|---|
| Hallmark puzzle | cartoon network | CNBC |
| Hallmark family | NFL Network | Free form |
| Nickelodeon | Fox Sports 1 | FXX |
| LMN | TNT | Nat Geo Wild |
| Great American family | TruTV | TV queues |
| INSP | USA Network | applause |
| Motor Trend | Cost! | The real oxygen crime |
| Start the TV | TBS | |
| One TV |
No-cost HBO Max and other streaming services
Sling Blue’s mix of entertainment and locals could mean it’s currently your front runner. But there’s another key factor to consider: free access to more streaming services.
Yes, it may seem surprising, but you can get HBO Max, Hulu, Disney Plus, and AMC Plus with a live TV subscription if you so choose. DirecTV MyEntertainment includes access to ad-supported HBO Max, as well as the ad-based Hulu and Disney Plus bundle. Meanwhile, Filo offers Ad-supported HBO Max, Discovery Plus, and AMC Plus.
HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney Plus with DirecTV MyEntertainment: HBO Max offers HBO shows like The Chair Company and Warner Bros. movies. Like weapons. The Disney/Hulu bundle includes titles like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and High Potential.
HBO Max, Discovery Plus, and AMC Plus with Philo: The AMC Plus library includes Dark Winds, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, and the Shudder horror film Good Boy. Discovery Plus lets you stream content from brands like HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, and Discovery Channel. You can watch AMC Plus content within the Philo app, and Philo plans to offer Discovery Plus and select HBO content in its app early next year.
Currently, you’re limited to ad-supported versions of every streaming service except AMC Plus, which can be ad-free if you pay an extra $4 per month. However, both DirecTV and Filo Let’s assume there are ad-free upgrades in the plans.
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DVR, interface and other notable differences
I checked out the Sling TV, DirecTV, and Philo apps on a TV with a Roku device and found that they were all painless to use. Sling TV and DirecTV had selections like “Home” and “Guide” on the left side of the screen, and Philo had options at the top.
The guide is in the DirecTV app.
If you want a budget live TV service that lets you browse the channel guide, watch on-demand content, and record shows and movies to watch later, Sling Blue, MyEntertainment, and Philo all check that essential box. If the guide is where you’ll be spending the most time, I’d recommend Sling TV or DirecTV — with Philo, I couldn’t find a way to sort the channels beyond favorites and drawing them to the top.
Sling TV has a nifty interactive tool called “Channel Surfing,” which is a great way to browse channels outside the guide. All three streaming programs showed pause ads by default, but Sling TV had the option to turn them off in settings. One aspect of DirecTV confused me. When I play a channel and press left or right on the remote—an action I normally associate with fast forwarding or rewinding—it changes the channel instead.
Philo and MyEntertainment are the only services that have an unlimited DVR, which might make a difference if you want to record and skip commercials. Sling Blue comes with 50 hours of DVR storage, and you can upgrade to unlimited storage for an additional $5 per month. MyEntertainment and Sling Blue save recordings for 9 months, and Philo keeps them for a year.
All three streaming services offer three simultaneous streams, although MyEntertainment offers unlimited in-home streams. When it comes to profiles, Philo comes out on top with 10, followed by MyEntertainment with five, and Sling Blue with four. MyEntertainment is the only streaming software with a free trial, but you don’t have to pay to watch Philo, Sling Blue, or free MyEntertainment channels.
Which live TV software should you choose?
If you want to stream live TV for entertainment and news, there are live TV services that may fit your budget and preferences better than the $90 Hulu Plus Live TV or the $83 YouTube TV.
Sling Blue’s higher price compared to Philo and MyEntertainment may take it out of the competition for you, or its sports channels and locals may put it on edge. Although it lacks dedicated kids’ channels in its lineup, MyEntertainment is the only streamer that offers access to Disney Plus and Hulu’s ad-based package, which can also suit kids.
Given its price and offerings (and free trial) as of this writing, MyEntertainment is hard to resist. However, it’s worth revisiting the free channels and streaming benefits offered by Sling Blue, Philo, and MyEntertainment, and thinking about what you’d rather spend time watching.