How DirecTV Now’s Original ‘Go Big’ Compares To Plans In 2022

DirecTV Now launched back in 2016 and its ‘Go Big’ plan was one of the best deals in live TV streaming at the time. Priced at just $35 per month, the Go Big plan provided subscribers with access to more than 100 live TV channels. Fast-forward to 2022 and here’s a look at how the original DirecTV Now Go Big package compares to plans from DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV.

Technically, the $35 asking price for the Go Big plan was an introductory offer. The actual cost of the Go Big plan was $60 per month and the price did eventually increase to $60 in January 2017. In total, DirecTV Now offered four different plans with a choice between “Live A Little’ at $35 per month, Just Right at $50 per month, Go Big at $60 per month, and Gotta Have It at $70 per month. However, those that had already signed up at the discounted Go Big rate were locked in to that rate.

Of course, a lot has changed in the world of streaming since then. DirecTV Now’s plans have not only changed names, but so has the service itself, with the most recent rebranding resulting in DirecTV Stream. We previously compared the DirecTV Now Go Big plan to the other live TV streaming services in late 2019. Even though that’s not too long ago in the grand scheme of things, it is long enough to have seen some major changes to the channel lineups of the various services.

In fact, many have reached out to specifically ask for a newer comparison, so here is a more up to date look at how the original Go Big channel lineup compares to DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV.

As can be seen in the table above, no live TV streaming service in 2022 currently offers a like-for-like plan. Go Big really was one of the best deals around at the time. Opting for any of the other services in 2022 typically results in fewer channels and at a higher cost. Of course, some of the other services do actually include channels that Go Big didn’t. Whether that’s because the channels weren’t around at the time, or simply were unavailable through DirecTV Now, subscribers to DirecTV Stream fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV will find they have access to some channels that are not listed above. The purpose here was to simply see how many of the channels available with Go Big are available today with modern live TV packages.

Notes on the comparison

There are some things to note about the above comparison. For starters, only the Go Big channel lineup at launch was used in this comparison. As is the case with all live TV services, channel lineups evolve over time with some channels added and others removed. DirecTV Now was no different in this respect and did gain channels after launch, including A Wealth of Entertainment, CBS, CBS Sports Network, and Pop, among many others. For any grandfathered Go Big subscribers that have access now (or did before) to a channel that’s not listed above, it is likely the channel was added at some point after launch. Or, it is possible that we simply made a mistake and missed one or two.

When it comes to the other plans, it is very difficult to compare Go Big to all of the different plans currently available. Due to this, only the base/main plans were used. For example, DirecTV Stream’s Entertainment plan. DirecTV Stream actually offers four main plans and the most expensive Premier plan comes with more than 140 channels. However, at $149.99 per month, it is significantly more expensive than the Go Big plan ever was, making the value in a comparison less worthwhile.

Likewise, similar liberties were taken with some of the other plans in the comparison. For example, fuboTV offers more options than the Starter plan and consumers will find a more robust selection of channels available with the Elite plan. In contrast to DirecTV Stream and fuboTV, where the base plans were used for comparison, the opposite was true for Sling TV. Sling offers two main plans, Sling Orange and Sling Blue, but both are very light on channels, so the combined Sling Orange + Blue plan was used in the comparison. Essentially, we’ve tried to keep all of the plans somewhat in line with Go Big to make the comparison more worthwhile. For some services that involved using a cheaper plan, with for others the option was to use a more expensive plan to ensure enough channels can be compared.

Go Big comparison summary

In reality, none of the live TV plans compared stack up well against the original Go Big plan. Priced at just $35 per month, and even at the standard $60 per month, the Go Big plan was one of the best deals around with access to a wide selection of channels. The market has changed greatly since those early days and plans in general have been subject to multiple price increases. Due to this, a plan with all of the Go Big channels would actually cost significantly more today.

In fact, DirecTV Stream’s current Ultimate and Premier plans are far more similar to Go Big, and even exceed the overall number of channels. However, with even the cheaper Ultimate package costing a minimum of $104.99 per month through the DirecTV Stream website, they are both good examples of the price changes that have hit the market over the years. For what it’s worth, the comparison is not to highlight how bad any of the live TV plans of today are. It is just to highlight how much of a good deal the original DirecTV Now Go Big plan was back then.