Best Of

We refreshed our Best Of picks this quarter after two shifts worth flagging. First, U.S. households now subscribe to an average of 4.1 paid streaming services, up from 3.7 a year ago, according to Nielsen's Gauge report for April 2026. That pushed average monthly streaming spend past $61, which finally crossed the median cable bundle for the first time in three consecutive months. We retested every service on this list against that new price floor and dropped two picks that raised rates above $20 without adding 4K HDR.

Second, the FCC's revised broadband baseline of 100/20 Mbps is now the working assumption for our streaming-quality tests, per the FCC's 2024 definition. Coming this summer: the NBA's new media-rights deal with Amazon and NBC takes effect in October, and we expect at least three services to restructure their sports tiers between June and August. We'll retest the live-TV picks in July once those bundles are announced, and we'll note any price changes inline rather than republishing the whole guide.