Im trying to figure out what is best for me. Doing some trials, looking ntonsee if a mag box would be a wise investment. Upon my research I see that there are quite a few redditors that are using multiple providers. I'm curious as to why that is? Is it incase one provider has a stream down or is buffering you have a back up ? Or is it one offers something that the other doesn't? I'd also be curious as to what two providers they are.
Definitely a mix of both. My main provider offers all of their channels in HD, has a large number of 24/7 channels and has the best sports offering I've come across but they only offer English channels (not a deal breaker to me but a lot of my clientele want an international selection) and their VOD sucks if you're looking to watch new movies. So I have a backup provider. Most of their channels are in SD but they offer channels from all over the world in all kinds of different languages and their VOD selection gets updated daily with new movies and the latest episodes of TV series.
Personally, I have at least two providers running at the same time. This is harder to do if you are running m3u playlists through kodi or another app like Perfect Player, but on a box like a MAG or a Dreamlink, its very easy to switch between the providers.
Currently I have Vader, Epic and Express.
Why? Hmm...good question. Not really sure. I tell myself its for back up in case Vader (my primary service) has issues. Realistically, its hardly the reason because Vader rarely has any serious issues.
I think the main reason I have multiple services is that I like to experiment and its a cheap hobby. I can pay $10-15 for a month of service and it provides me with something to play with for a while. I like to see what kind of quality other services have. What channels they might have that my main service doesn't. What extra features they have, like VOD and 24/7 channels. How stable are they? That kind of thing.
Its just fun, I guess.
Mix of both, i.e I have 1 provider who is focused on UK/USA so english part taken care of, and have other who provide many countries with a good mix, and sure if one is down, other works, so a backup.
2 Services is nice for one of the reasons you stated if you're watching something and it goes down. Second reason is in my case one or the other provider may have better quality and higher bitrate for a channel I'm watching.