New members will see this new price today, while existing members will see this pricing change beginning 4/18. Additionally, we are lowering the price of our 4K Plus add-on from $19.99/mo to $9.99/mo.
We are committed to offering a premium way for you to stream TV, but understand this new price may not work for you. We do hope YouTube TV continues to be your service of choice, but we want to give you the flexibility to cancel at any time.
As the streaming services get more expensive, perhaps cable’s death knell isn’t as close as thought.
I’m lucky enough to live in an area where I can pick up terrestrial broadcasts on an antenna. Like 60-70 channels (of which I watch about 5) and far less compression hit on quality than any streaming. So YouTube TV doesn’t really offer me much and I’ve never had any reason to look at the “live TV” services.
I pay for it. It’s cheaper than cable here especially when box rentals for multiple tvs are factored in. I typically cancel in summer and resub in late fall. (OTA options are limited where I live.)
I like that I can turn it off and back on whenever I want. I basically only have it on for the NFL season (Aug to Feb), so pay 6 or 7 months out of 12.
I pay for it too. Since I pay for the 4K package too I think my overall price is actually dropping slightly now? Still much cheaper than cable and generally more convenient. It’s nice that watching away from home is as easy as watching at home, and unlimited “DVR” too.
Not Live TV, but I just got a notice that our subscription for YouTube Premium Family w/ YouTube Music is jumping from $15 to $23 per month in April. Yikes.
At $15 it’s the same as a Spotify family or Apple Music (which costs $17/month for Family) but the big extra benefit is no ads in YouTube.
With the price hike, I’m essentially paying $7/month extra just for no-ads.
We watch a lot of live sports, and even after this hike YouTubeTV will remain the least bad option of the streaming choices we’re aware of (Sling and DirecTV streaming), and still a slightly better value than going back to cable for our television (which is either a more expensive option if we don’t bundle with cable as our ISP, or a crappy option if we drop fiber internet for cable internet).
For actual tv shows we could pretty easily get by with some combination of the other streaming services, but if you’ve gotta have live sports, you’re going to be stuck with one of these. They’re always raising prices and dropping channels or networks (sometimes temporarily, sometimes not); it’s frustrating but we’ve exhausted the alternatives we’re aware of.
Yeah, the ability to record every NCAA basketball tournament game with a simple press of a button to record all NCAA men’s basketball is something no other services has, cable or otherwise. Don’t want the price hike, but I’m not going anywhere.
This is killing me. Especially now that the French Open and Wimbledon happen farther apart from one another. So if I want to watch both, I’ll have to get Youtube TV for one month for the French Open, and then for another month for Wimbledon, and another month for the U.S. Open.
Probably not worth it. I wish broadcast TV showed more tennis matches than they do.
For tennis or the NBA playoffs, which are typically on ESPN, I’ll sign up for a month of SlingTV as it’s still one of the cheaper options. Sometimes I’ll go as far as creating a new email to get the $20 deal.
What irks me most is baseball. You have this wonderful, high quality streaming service with MLB.tv, but due to contracts with cable TV, all the local games are blacked out, making it utterly useless for watching live games. So dumb.
Yeah and if you have YouTubeTV you have the double whammy that local games, if they are on one of the Fox Sports Networks (forget what they are called these days), aren’t available to watch. This is one and probably only one advantage for DirecTV streaming.
Yeah, that’s really annoying. Their pricing model is frustrating. (1) We never use YouTube music, so we’re really only signed up to get rid of YT ads, and (2) my son and I are the only users, so the 5-person “family” thing is overkill. They need pricing for couples and families of divorce. :) According to the Wikipedia entry, they did pilot a no-ads-only “Premium Lite” in Europe in 2021, but still no full rollout.
The pricing is high enough to make one want to move to Argentina, where it’s much cheaper. (cough cough hint hint)
Sports is what really pisses me off. I don’t watch sports-- ever. Of any kind. In my entire life. Yes, including the Olympics. So why should I pay over thirty-five dollars per month for sports? It pisses me off, honestly, and that is why I’d never pay for YTTV.
I do have access through my parents’ account, though. Google tries to stop me from watching it because we live thousands of miles away, so I just spoof my location with a chrome addon.
Just curious, if you don’t watch sports, why do you need YTTV in the first place. Don’t you have access to all the other entertainment options through either an antenna for broadcast TV and streaming services like Netflix or HBO Max or Hulu or Disney +, etc.? I thought Sports was the only hole YTTV filled for people.
Everything else on TV that isn’t a broadcast network, of course. Cable news, E! (does E! still exist?), comedy central, USA, etc. I really don’t use it much, honestly, but it’s an excellent service if you care about that content. Also some people just like to leave the TV on in the background.
Personally, I only use it for breaking news coverage.
I think, for me, the main utility of YTTV is the ability to record, well everything and every season. Sports makes that an incredible benefit, but if you watch specific shows, you can record whatever the heck you want and it is there for like six months. If any service would replicate that ability, I’d seriously consider switching, but nothing does. However, I sadly remember paying only $35 for all of this goodness, so this is quite a price inflation.
Also - Apple TV’s MLS deal is what a sports package should be. All games, any time, no blackouts.
Yes it has an excellent DVR. Really it’s a great service, if you need/want cable-type TV and either watch sports or can get over paying $35/month for something you don’t use.
I just got Directv stream when they installed fiber in our house, and it costs basically the same. (80 a month, I think)
I have it for local sports, because to watch MLB and NBA games, you need a cable subscription to the local bally sports or fox sports affiliate. Youtube TV was never an option for me, because they lack the sports channels I need.
It has a cloud DVR I use to record F1 and Indycar races, and TV shows I like.
It is 99% for sports and other live events though.
Yeah, I tried it out during the last YTTV price hike. Was a nonstarter because no CW channels in my area and my kids and grandkids would revolt. My solution was to subscribe to MLB.tv with its limitations, but I do miss NBA games (wasn’t willing to sign up for another league pass).
