How we test

One method, applied to every plan each provider sells — not the one they advertise.

Most comparison pages publish a provider's headline monthly rate and rank on it. That figure describes one of the five plans on sale and is usually the worst value of them. This site prices the whole ladder and divides.

What we buy

Every term a provider sells, at full retail, on an ordinary consumer account. Where a plan is only visible after starting checkout, we start checkout. Nothing here is a press rate, a reseller login, or a figure taken from a marketing page.

What the console divides

The up-front total, by the number of months committed. A twelve-month plan at $77.99 is $6.50 per month; a rolling month at $13.99 is $13.99. That is the only pair of numbers that can be compared honestly, and it is the figure the table sorts on.

Where a provider does not sell a term, the row says not sold rather than hiding. A missing two-year option is information about the provider.

Renewal, recorded separately

The rate that matters is the second one. We hold each subscription through at least one renewal and record what was actually charged against what the checkout page promised. Where the two differ, the review says so in its opening paragraph.

What the ranking weighs that the console does not

Channels and on-demand depth — measured, not counted from the provider's own claim.
Reliability at peak — every service is watched on weekday evenings and during live events.
Support — a real question sent through the real channel, and how long the answer took.
Renewal behaviour — whether the second term bills at the first term's rate.

This is why the cheapest service in the console is fourth in the ranking. The console prices a subscription; it does not grade one.

Independence

Some outbound links earn a commission. It funds the subscriptions and nothing else, and it has never moved a figure or a position. The affiliate disclosure sets out the arrangement in full.

Who runs it

Idris Halvorsen, Editor. Idris spent nine years pricing telecoms contracts before turning the same spreadsheet on IPTV. He buys every plan a provider sells rather than the one they advertise, and keeps a running record of what each renewal actually charged versus what the checkout page promised.

Corrections

If a price here is wrong, it gets re-checked before anything else in the queue. hello@thebestiptvsubscription.com, or the contact page.