Cowboy+

Review by eFreeware

Rodeo fans have a coverage problem. The season runs across dozens of venues and dates, and a single broadcast feed can only carry so much of it. Following the PRCA circuit properly means knowing which events are airing, when, and on what, which is a lot of work for something that ought to be simple.

Cowboy+ is built to close that gap. It comes from TR TCC, LLC DBA The Cowboy Channel, and the free download carries more than 100,000 installs. The idea is straightforward: one app where live rodeo, the channel feed and a backlog of past events sit together instead of scattered across schedules and listings.

What the app actually carries

Cowboy+ streams the top PRCA rodeos live, and the app is built around following several rodeos on the same weekend.

Alongside the live events, the app carries the Cowboy Channel broadcast stream itself. For anyone who already watches the channel, that is the familiar programming in a form you can open rather than a television. The developer also mentions special events that sit outside the regular schedule, the kind of one-off coverage that usually gets announced late and is easy to miss.

The other half of the app is its archive. The app also offers hours of past PRCA events and other major rodeos, so it is not only about what is happening now. If you missed a final, or you want to go back over a ride you only half saw, that material is meant to be there for you.

The part the archive plays

An archive is easy to underestimate until you think about how rodeo seasons work. Events pile up through the year, and the ones that matter most to you may not line up with when you are free to watch. Having past coverage in the same app as the live feed means the value does not collapse the moment an event ends.

It also changes what the subscription is worth over time. A live-only service is thin in the off weeks; one with a backlog keeps giving you something to watch between events. That is the case the developer is making with the archive, and it is the more interesting half of the pitch for anyone who follows the circuit closely.

I would treat the archive as the reason to keep a subscription going rather than the reason to start one. The live rodeos are what pull people in, and the past events are what keep the app open in the quieter stretches of the calendar.

Signing up and what it costs

This is where the app asks something of you. Sign-up happens on the developer's website, cowboychannelplus.com, so the first step is a browser rather than the download itself. That is a small friction point, but it is worth knowing before you install and expect to start watching immediately.

There are two plans. The monthly option runs $9.99, and the yearly plan costs $119.99. The developer describes the yearly tier as including the NFR, and notes that the monthly subscription does not cover the NFR finals. That distinction is the single most important thing to understand before choosing a plan, because the NFR is the event most people come for.

The terms are worth reading before you commit. You will not get your money back for the period you are in, and canceling only stops the next charge. In practice that means deciding on the yearly plan is a real commitment rather than something you can reverse a week later.

What the ratings suggest

Cowboy+ has a 2.1 average across 403 ratings, which is low for an app with this many installs. I read that as a signal worth weighing rather than a verdict. Streaming apps tend to collect unhappy reviews for reasons that have as much to do with billing and expectations as with the streams themselves.

The developer's most recent update note mentions improvements and bug fixes, which suggests the app is still being worked on rather than left alone. The app dates back to April 2020, so it has had years to settle.

What the rating does tell you is that this is not an app people install casually and forget. It is tied to a paid service, and the experience of paying for something shapes how harshly people judge it. Go in with the subscription terms clear in your head and the number is less alarming than it looks.

Who this fits

Cowboy+ is for people who already follow PRCA rodeo and want the season in one place. If you watch the major events, care about the NFR, and would rather open an app than chase listings across a season, the combination of live streams, the channel feed and the archive is exactly the shape of what you need.

It also suits the viewer who wants to catch up rather than watch live. The backlog of past events means the app has something to offer on a Sunday afternoon when nothing is on, which is more than a live-only service can say.

The yearly plan is the one I would think hardest about, since it is the tier that includes the NFR finals. If the finals are the main reason you are here, the monthly option leaves that out, and the decision is effectively made for you.

A subscription worth weighing against your calendar

Cowboy+ does one job and does it for a specific audience. It gathers live PRCA rodeo streams, The Cowboy Channel broadcast and a library of past events into a single app, and it charges $9.99 a month or $119.99 a year for the privilege. The purchase is the subscription.

The trade-offs are clear from the developer's own terms. You sign up on the website rather than in the app, the monthly plan excludes the NFR finals, there are no refunds for the current period, and canceling runs to the end of that period. None of that is unusual for a streaming service, but all of it is worth reading before you pay.

If you follow the PRCA circuit and want the NFR included, the yearly plan is the one that matches how you watch. If you are curious about rodeo but not committed to a season, the monthly option is the lower-risk way in, with the understanding that the finals sit outside it.

For everyone else, this is a specialist app for a specialist interest, and it makes no attempt to be anything more. That narrowness is the point. Judge it on whether the rodeo season is something you actually follow, and the rest follows from there.

What's new in version 2.8.7

App Improvements and Bug Fixes