Leaving Spectrum in Austin: What It Costs and What You Keep

What Spectrum TV costs in Austin

Spectrum's Austin TV menu has four plans, and the plan alone costs $40 to $145 a month in the first year. We took these from spectrum.com on October 17, 2026, with no address entered. Your street can get a different offer.

Plan	Year-one price	What Spectrum lists
TV Lite	$40 a month	85+ channels in the Spectrum TV App
Stream TV Signature	$100 a month	Live TV plus top streaming apps
Stream TV Pro	$110 a month	Signature plus the regional sports channels (Rangers Sports Network here) and the ESPN Unlimited, Disney+ and FOX One apps
Stream TV VIP	$145 a month	Sports View, Entertainment Pack and STARZ on top

Internet is priced separately: $50 a month for 500 Mbps with WiFi in year one. Ask about the price lock, which Spectrum advertises for up to 3 years, and about Spectrum Internet Assist, from $15 a month, if your household qualifies on income.

The Longhorns, the Rangers and Stream TV Pro

For most Austin sports fans, Stream TV Pro's extra $10 a month buys less than it seems. Pro's main addition is regional sports networks, and the team Austin watches most does not live on one.

• Texas Longhorns: as an SEC school, Texas plays on ABC 24, on ESPN's national channels (ESPN, ESPN2 and SEC Network) and on ESPN+. No regional network is involved, so any service with ESPN's channels shows the games. Our guide to watching the Longhorns in the SEC prices every way to see a full season.
• Texas Rangers: Spectrum customers around Austin and Waco find Rangers Sports Network on channel 305. Over the air, the team's Austin partner is KBVO 14, whose call letters stand for Bevo, per the Rangers' where-to-watch page.
• Austin FC: every MLS match is included with an Apple TV subscription in 2026, $14.99 a month, so a cable plan adds little there.

Our finding: Over a year, Pro costs $120 more than Signature. For an Austin household, that money mainly buys Rangers Sports Network. If you follow the Longhorns and Austin FC rather than the Rangers, the upgrade adds little, because the Longhorns sit on national ESPN networks and Austin FC streams on Apple TV.

The lines under the plan price

A Spectrum TV bill grows after the headline price. Four things usually get added:

1. Broadcast TV Surcharge. Spectrum passes on what Austin stations such as FOX 7 and KVUE charge to be carried, as a line of its own. Estimates for 2026 range from about $21 to $26 a month: The Senior List shows $25.75, while Budget Seniors estimates around $21. It is Spectrum's own fee, not a tax.
2. A monthly equipment charge for each receiver or Xumo Stream Box.
3. Taxes and local fees.
4. The regular rate from month 13, unless you lock a price or negotiate a new one.

Put together, Stream TV Signature at $100 with a $25.75 surcharge is already $125.75 a month before a single box or tax. The surcharge alone adds roughly $309 over a year.

Year one with and without Spectrum TV

Keeping Spectrum internet and switching the TV to IPTVZ costs $674.99 in year one. The same internet with Stream TV Signature costs $1,800 before fees. Austin has one more setup worth pricing: dropping Spectrum completely for gFiber.

Setup, year one	Internet	TV	Total
Spectrum internet + Stream TV Pro	$600	$1,320	$1,920 + fees
Spectrum internet + Stream TV Signature	$600	$1,200	$1,800 + fees
Spectrum internet + YouTube TV	$600	$995.88	$1,595.88
Spectrum internet + TV Lite	$600	$480	$1,080 + fees
gFiber 1 Gig + IPTVZ	$840	$74.99	$914.99
Spectrum internet + IPTVZ	$600	$74.99	$674.99

Where the numbers come from: spectrum.com for Spectrum, YouTube TV's regular $82.99 a month, and gFiber's Austin page for Core 1 Gig at $70, all checked October 17 and 19, 2026. For IPTVZ we used the 12-month plan. It has no surcharge or box fee, since it plays on a Firestick or Smart TV you already own, and our Firestick setup guide takes one sitting.

The gFiber row costs more than Spectrum internet in year one, but look at year two. Spectrum's $50 is a first-year price, while gFiber says it has no promotional prices or annual rate hikes. If you are tired of renegotiating every twelve months, that predictability is the point. Our guide to IPTV in Austin covers speed and devices.

FOX 7, KVUE and Spectrum News after you cancel

Cancelling Spectrum TV does not cost you the Austin locals. You can get them three ways:

• With an antenna, free after you buy one. Austin's catch is FOX 7, the only big local network still on VHF, which UHF-only antennas miss. Our Austin TV stations guide explains the fix: a VHF and UHF antenna aimed northwest toward the towers near Loop 360.
• With a live-TV streaming service such as YouTube TV, $82.99 a month.
• With IPTVZ, which carries FOX 7, Austin PBS, ABC 24, NBC 36, CBS 42, CW Austin, Univision Austin, UniMás and Telemundo Austin. Our Austin channel numbers page lists every subchannel too.

The channel Austin viewers most often ask about is Spectrum News Austin, Spectrum's own round-the-clock local news. It shows up in our panel catalogue of October 16, 2026, so leaving the Spectrum TV plan does not mean losing it.

Leaving Spectrum internet too

Austin makes it easier than most cities to leave Spectrum altogether. Several fiber networks compete here, and you only need about 15 Mbps per HD screen for IPTV, so any of them is plenty:

• gFiber is the current name for Google Fiber. It lists Core 1 Gig at $70, Home 3 Gig at $100 and Edge 8 Gig at $150 a month in Austin, with no data caps and, in its words, no promotional prices or annual rate hikes.
• AT&T Fiber and Astound, formerly Grande, sell internet in many Austin neighborhoods too.

Availability changes from street to street, so enter your address on the FCC National Broadband Map to see who actually serves it. If you switch, set up the new internet first and cancel Spectrum after it works, so you are never without a connection.

Spanish-language TV after Spectrum

A bilingual Austin home on Spectrum usually ends up on one of two Latino plans: TV Latino at $25 a month, which requires Spectrum Internet, or Stream TV Latino Más at $75 for the first year. The bigger one bundles more than 170 English and Spanish channels with ViX Premium (with ads) and Paramount+ Essential.

IPTVZ puts Univision Austin, UniMás, Telemundo Austin and Galavisión in the same $74.99 yearly plan as the English channels, along with FOX Deportes, ESPN Deportes, TUDN and channels from Mexico. For a bilingual Austin home, that replaces two packages with one. Our guide to Spanish-language TV in San Antonio compares the paid Spanish options in more detail, and the prices are the same in Austin.

Reasons to keep Spectrum TV

Spectrum TV still makes sense for some Austin homes. Stay if:

• Rangers baseball is non-negotiable in your house, and channel 305 is how you want to watch it.
• One company for everything matters to you, with a truck that shows up when a box dies.
• You'd subscribe to Disney+, Peacock and ESPN regardless. Signature and Pro roll those apps into the TV price, so part of the bill pays for itself.
• Your internet cuts out. Streaming of any kind, IPTV included, is only as dependable as the connection underneath it.

Dropping Spectrum TV, step by step

1. Test on a game night. Run the free IPTVZ trial during a Longhorns game or a busy evening, on the TVs you really watch.
2. Open your Spectrum account first and note any price lock, bundle discount or the date your promotion ends.
3. Ask Spectrum to cancel the TV service only, by phone or chat, and keep the internet and mobile lines unless fiber is replacing them.
4. Send back the TV boxes and keep the return receipt.
5. Read the next bill to confirm the TV plan, the surcharge and the box fees are gone.

If a channel stalls during the trial, start with the IPTV troubleshooting guide. The Wi-Fi is the usual suspect.

Spectrum Austin FAQ

How much is Spectrum TV in Austin?

Year-one prices run from $40 a month for TV Lite to $145 for Stream TV VIP, with Stream TV Signature at $100 (spectrum.com, October 17, 2026). Your address can change the offer, and the Broadcast TV Surcharge, boxes and taxes come on top.

What channel are the Rangers on Spectrum in Austin?

Channel 305 carries Rangers Sports Network for Spectrum customers around Austin and Waco. Over the air, the Rangers' Austin partner is KBVO 14.

Can I watch the Longhorns without Spectrum?

Yes. Longhorns games air on ABC 24, ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network and ESPN+, which are available on streaming services and on IPTVZ, and ABC games come free with an antenna.

Can I keep Spectrum internet and cancel TV?

Yes, internet-only is a standard Spectrum plan. 500 Mbps with WiFi is $50 a month in the first year. Ask for the TV service to be removed and hand back the receivers.

Will I lose FOX 7 if I cancel Spectrum TV?

No. FOX 7 stays free over the air and is carried by live-TV streaming services and IPTVZ. If you use an antenna, it has to handle VHF, since FOX 7 transmits on VHF 7 from Mount Larson.

Can I still watch Spectrum News Austin?

Yes. Our panel lineup includes Spectrum News Austin, so Spectrum's local news channel stays available even with no Spectrum TV plan.

Is gFiber cheaper than Spectrum in Austin?

In year one, Spectrum's 500 Mbps at $50 is cheaper than gFiber's 1 Gig at $70. After year one, Spectrum's price can rise, while gFiber says it has no promotional prices or annual rate hikes.

The short version

• Expect $40 to $145 a month for Spectrum TV in year one, and more once the surcharge and boxes are added.
• The Longhorns are on national ESPN networks, so Stream TV Pro mostly adds Rangers Sports Network.
• Spectrum internet plus IPTVZ costs $674.99 for year one; gFiber plus IPTVZ costs $914.99.
• Spectrum News Austin and the Austin locals stay with you on IPTVZ.

Before you pick up the phone to Spectrum, give the free trial a day on your own TV. Weighing other providers too? Our guide to what cable TV costs in Texas sets Spectrum against Xfinity, Optimum and DIRECTV, city by city.