Guide 03 · Cost worksheet
What will live TV really cost?
Calculate a live TV streaming plan's known monthly and first-year costs while keeping tax, location fees, and other unresolved checkout charges visible.
Direct answer
The shortest useful version
Calculate two totals: the verified amount due during the introductory window and the verified recurring amount after it. For each, add only charges that the provider's current checkout or terms show for the selected plan and location, and keep unknown taxes or fees visibly unresolved.
Build the bill.
Start with a verified recurring base or enter your own. Blank fields stay unresolved; enter 0 only when you have confirmed there is no charge.
First-month known outlay not available, 5 unresolved. Full-price monthly known subtotal not available, 4 unresolved. Twelve-month known subtotal not available, 5 unresolved.
Known subtotal, unknowns intact.
First-month known outlay
No known amount yet+ 5 unresolved itemsat recurring baseFull-price monthly
No known amount yet+ 4 unresolved itemsone-time cost excluded- recurring base price
- required monthly fees
- monthly add-ons
- one-time setup or device cost
- 12 months of tax at checkout
Tax is never estimated. Unknown does not mean $0.
The number in a promotional card is not always the amount a household will pay over time. The useful comparison keeps the recurring plan, temporary discount, mandatory location-dependent charges, optional add-ons, tax, and one-time equipment costs on separate lines.
This guide supplies the arithmetic and evidence record. It does not publish a tax estimate, assume a fee applies nationally, or convert an annual payment into a monthly subscription without showing the original cadence.
- Compare
- Two timelines
- Introductory months and steady-state months answer different questions.
- Keep separate
- Required vs optional
- A chosen add-on should not look like a mandatory plan fee.
- Unknown means
- Needs checkout
- It never means zero dollars.
Decision path
Work from need to evidence.
Capture the recurring base
Use the provider's current source for the selected plan. Record the billing cadence, observation date, and whether the amount is location-personalized.
Place the promotion on a timeline
Record the discounted amount, eligible audience, start, duration, and automatic conversion. Do not average it into the recurring price.
Add required location or package charges
Use the selected service address and plan. If a regional or service-mode fee cannot be confirmed, keep it unknown and flag checkout verification.
Add only the extras the household chose
List sports packs, premium channels, expanded features, and any separate service one by one. Preserve each billing cadence.
Account for tax and one-time setup
Use the amount shown at checkout for tax. Put a purchased streaming device or antenna in a one-time column rather than disguising it as recurring service cost.
Recalculate after the offer ends
The steady-state total is the recurring base plus recurring required charges and selected recurring extras, using current evidence.
Working sheet
Two-timeline cost sheet
Use provider checkout for household-specific amounts. Never fill an unresolved line with zero.
| Line item | Introductory window | Steady state |
|---|---|---|
| Base plan | Eligible promotional amount and end date | Verified recurring amount and cadence |
| Required fee | Amount shown for plan/location, or unknown | Current amount shown for plan/location, or unknown |
| Chosen add-ons | Intro offer and duration for each | Recurring amount for each |
| Tax | Checkout amount or unknown | Expected to vary; verify on a current bill |
| Device or antenna | One-time purchase only | Zero recurring unless a separate service charge exists |
Use a formula that preserves uncertainty
For each billing period, total the verified recurring base, verified mandatory charges, and selected recurring add-ons, then add the location-specific tax shown by the provider. A temporary credit or introductory discount belongs only in the periods for which eligibility and duration are confirmed.
If a fee is known to be location-dependent but the selected checkout has not been run, write 'unknown location fee' instead of zero. This keeps an incomplete estimate from winning a comparison by accident.
Do not normalize away the billing terms
Monthly, annual, one-time, and short-duration pass amounts are not interchangeable. You may calculate a planning average, but preserve the actual charge timing and label the average as your own budget view rather than a provider's monthly price.
The same rule applies to devices. A one-time player or antenna purchase can matter to the first-month budget without becoming a recurring subscription charge.
Compare totals at useful checkpoints
A practical sheet shows the first bill, the last promotional bill, the first full recurring bill, and a chosen season or annual planning window. Those checkpoints expose conversion dates and make a short discount less likely to dominate the decision.
- Save the official source URL and observation date beside every amount.
- Separate required charges from optional household choices.
- Use checkout for tax and address-dependent fees.
- Refresh the sheet when a provider changes a plan, offer, or service mode.
Continue the decision
Use the next evidence layer.
Evidence ledger
Official sources and record dates
Dates below describe this site's evidence record, not a guarantee that an external page is unchanged today. Reopen the source before purchase.
- Sign up for YouTube TV
Plan, price, promotion, trial, and home-ZIP signals; exact offers remain account-dependent.
- Publisher
- YouTube TV Help
- Catalog registry approval
- Taxes on YouTube TV
Location-dependent tax treatment; the guide does not estimate a household's tax amount.
- Publisher
- YouTube TV Help
- Catalog research observation
- Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu Subscriber Agreement
Subscription and billing framework; current checkout terms still control a purchase.
- Publisher
- Hulu
- Catalog research observation
- Sling billing and payments
Recurring billing and pass cadence; checkout is the final source for an individual order.
- Publisher
- Sling TV Help
- Catalog research observation
- Fubo Regional Sports Fee
Location-dependent fee rules; this source is monitored but has no automatic publication authority.
- Publisher
- Fubo Help Center
- Catalog research observation
- DIRECTV fee guide
Potential fee types and applicability across service modes.
- Publisher
- DIRECTV Support
- Catalog research observation