| Service | Price/mo | Has The CW? |
|---|---|---|
| Philo | $25.00 | No |
| Sling Blue | $45.99 | No |
| Sling Orange | $45.99 | No |
| DirecTV Stream | $82.99 | Yes |
| YouTube TV | $82.99 | Yes |
| Fubo | $89.00 | Yes |
| Hulu + Live TV | $89.99 | Yes |
Prices and lineups as of 2026-07-19. Verify on the provider's own page before you sign up; carriage and pricing change often and can vary by zip code.
Unlike a cable channel, this table is a typical-market answer, not a guarantee. The CW is a broadcast network with local affiliate stations, and each streaming service negotiates retransmission deals station by station. Confirm your own ZIP code on the provider's own channel finder before you sign up.
Every other channel on this site is a national cable network: ESPN looks the same on YouTube TV whether you live in Seattle or Tampa. The CW doesn't work that way. It's a broadcast network built from more than 100 individually owned local affiliate stations, each one licensed to one city or region. A streaming service can carry the CW affiliate in a major metro area and simply not have struck a deal with the smaller-market affiliate an hour away.
Coverage skews toward larger markets. The CW's own affiliate footprint is strongest in and near the country's roughly 100 biggest cities; rural viewers outside those areas are more likely to come up empty on both a streaming local-channel lineup and an antenna search. That's true of every broadcast network, not something specific to The CW, but it matters more here because The CW doesn't have as dense a small-market affiliate footprint as ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX.
YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and DirecTV Stream all build local channels, including CW affiliates, into every plan tier, no separate add-on required. Fubo also carries The CW, but its local-channel footprint runs narrower than the other three; expect it to cover The CW in most, not all, of the markets where the other three do. All four use the same method to confirm coverage: enter your ZIP code on the provider's own site before you buy.
None of the four splits The CW behind a paid add-on the way some of them handle a channel like Golf Channel or ESPN+. If your ZIP code has a CW affiliate that a given service carries at all, it's included in that service's standard plan.
This one isn't ZIP-code dependent. Sling dropped local channels from its lineup entirely years ago, on both the Orange and Blue tiers, to keep its base price down. Philo was built the same way from day one: no locals, no broadcast affiliates, on any plan, in any market. Neither gap is specific to The CW. Both services skip every broadcast network the same way, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS.
This is the one channel on this site where the antenna answer is a real yes for most households, not a hard no. The CW broadcasts over the same public airwaves as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS, and a basic indoor or attic antenna can pick up a strong local signal at zero monthly cost, forever, once you've bought the antenna itself. Reception depends on your distance from the broadcast tower and what's physically between you and it: hills, dense trees, or a lot of other buildings can weaken or block the signal even inside a market that technically has CW coverage.
Check the FCC's own signal-strength map for your address before buying anything, and seehow antennas actually work for the indoor, attic, and roof mounting distinctions. If an antenna doesn't pick up a clean signal at your address, that's the point where a streaming plan with local channels becomes the better option, not before.
The CW has built out a real sports slate on top of its scripted and reality programming: close to 700 hours a year as of the network's own 2026 sports announcements. That includes the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (the rebranded Xfinity Series), a weekly WWE NXT broadcast, and roughly 140 hours of ACC, Pac-12, and Mountain West college football and basketball. None of that changes the carriage answer above; it's the same local-affiliate signal either way, sports programming included.
An antenna is the cheapest option by far if your address gets a clean CW signal: a one-time purchase instead of a monthly bill, for The CW plus every other broadcast network in your market. Check the full monthly cost comparison to see how much an antenna-first setup can save over any streaming plan.
If your household also wants cable channels alongside The CW, or your address doesn't get a reliable antenna signal, YouTube TV at $82.99/mo is the cheapest of the four carrying services and bundles in the widest channel lineup. Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, and DirecTV Stream are the other three options, each worth checking against your own ZIP code first. Sling and Philo are off the table for this one, on any plan. Check the rest of your household's must-have channels against our channel finder before deciding.