IPTV vs cable: both halves of the answer
The price difference is enormous and obvious. The interesting part is what you give up, which most pages selling this will not tell you. There are four things, and they are listed here in the same size type as everything else.
| What | Cable or satellite | Northstar TV |
|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | $83 to $140 | $6.67 on the 12 month plan |
| Contract | Often 12 or 24 months | None. You pay once for a term |
| Equipment | Rented box, often $10 a month | Use what you already own |
| Installation | Engineer visit, sometimes a fee | Ten minutes, on your own |
| Channel count | 150 to 400 on most plans | 20,600+, of which 4,700+ are US |
| Sport | Often a paid add-on tier | 1,400+ US sports channels, included |
| On demand library | Limited, often rental | 197,000+ films and series |
| Simultaneous screens | Usually 2 to 6 | One per subscription |
| Catch-up and recording | Cloud DVR included | No catch-up. Recording on some players |
| Reliability | Very high, own infrastructure | Depends on your internet |
| Program guide | Full, weeks ahead | No guide archive |
| Customer support | Phone queue, call center | WhatsApp, a person, usually minutes |
Cable figures are typical US pay-television pricing. Four rows go to cable, and they are the four worth thinking hardest about.
What a year actually costs
Published monthly rates for the US services people weigh us against, multiplied out. October 2026.
YouTube TV
$996
a year, at $82.99 a month
fubo
$780
a year, at $64.99 a month
Sling TV
$240
a year, at $19.99 a month
Frndly TV
$108
a year, at $8.99 a month
Northstar TV
$79.99
a year, paid once, nothing renews
Those prices belong to those companies and are quoted so you can compare. We are not affiliated with any of them, and they are licensed services offering things we do not.
What cable genuinely does better
More than one screen
This is the big one and it catches people out. A cable package serves the whole house. Our subscription is one connection, so one screen plays at a time. A household where two people watch different things at once needs two subscriptions, which at $79.99 a year each is still a fraction of a cable bill, but it is two payments rather than one and you should know that before you buy.
Catch-up and the DVR
Cable and YouTube TV both let you watch something three days after it aired, or record it to a cloud DVR. We do not offer catch-up. If you miss a live broadcast it is gone, unless it turns up in the on-demand library, which most films and series do and most live sport does not. Some players, TiviMate among them, can record to a USB drive, which covers part of the gap.
The program guide
A cable guide shows you two weeks ahead and lets you set reminders. We do not carry a guide archive. You see what is on now. For anyone who plans their week around a schedule, that is a real loss and worth weighing properly.
Guaranteed reliability
A cable company owns the wire into your house and the picture is extremely reliable as a result. We depend on your internet connection, your router and whatever sits between the router and the television. On a good connection the difference is invisible. On a bad one it is not, and the fix is usually an Ethernet cable rather than anything we can do at our end.
And what cable does worse
Everything else. The price is not close: $140 a month against $6.67. Sport that cable puts behind an add-on tier is simply in the line-up. There is no contract, no rented box, no engineer visit and nothing to return. There is no phone queue, because support is a WhatsApp thread with a person on the other end.
And there is no price rise in month thirteen, because we hold no card and nothing renews on its own. The quiet annual increase is the thing cable customers complain about most, and it is structurally impossible here.
How to decide without guessing
Keep your cable and run us alongside it for one month, on the same television. It costs $14.99. At the end of the month you will know, from your own viewing rather than from a comparison table, whether anything you actually watch is missing. That is a far better test than any page like this one, including this one.
If it works, cancel the television package and keep the broadband. If it does not, you have spent less than one month of Sling to find out. Either way you have an answer. Here is how to start.
About switching
Is IPTV really cheaper than cable?
Yes, and not marginally. The average American pay-television bill is around $140 a month. Our twelve month plan is $79.99 once, which is $6.67 a month. Even against the cheapest streaming bundles, Sling at $19.99 or Frndly at $8.99, the annual plan costs less and carries far more.
What do I actually lose by switching?
Four things, and we would rather list them than hide them. Simultaneous screens: one subscription is one stream. Catch-up: miss a live broadcast and it is gone. The program guide archive. And guaranteed reliability, because the picture now depends on your own internet connection rather than a dedicated cable.
How does it compare with YouTube TV or fubo?
Those are licensed services with proper guides, cloud DVR and multiple streams, and they are reliable. They are also $82.99 and $64.99 a month, carry a fraction of the channels, and still put some sport behind extra tiers. The trade is reliability and features against price and breadth.
Will my internet handle it?
Almost certainly. You need about 25 Mbps for 4K and 15 for Full HD, per stream, which is below the American average. The thing that actually matters is the connection between your router and your television, which is why we keep telling people to use an Ethernet cable.
Can I keep internet from my cable company?
Yes, and most of our customers do. Cancelling the television package and keeping the broadband is normal, and it is usually the single biggest cut you can make to the bill. The internet side is unaffected by what you watch on it.
Should I run both for a month?
That is exactly what the one month plan is for. Keep cable, run us alongside for a month on the same television, and see whether anything you actually watch is missing. It costs $14.99 to find out, which is less than a month of almost anything else.
Run both for a month
Keep cable, add us for $14.99, and decide from your own viewing rather than from a table on a website.
One payment. No auto-renewal. No card kept on file.