YouTube TV has announced that they will significantly increasing their subscription price from $50 to $65 per month. The service launched 3 years ago at a reasonable price of $35, but increased to $40 about a year later. Last year, the service fee increased once again to $50, and now it will be $65 for both new and existing subscribers.
Each time YouTube TV has increased its price, it tried to justify the additional cost by adding additional channels, and this time is no different. In conjunction with the price increase, YouTube TV is adding 8 Viacom channels, including BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land, and VH1. They have also said that BET Her, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., NickToons, and TeenNick will also be added at a later date. The price increase in 2018 added Turner network channels including TBS, TNT, CNN, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies. The price increase in 2019 added Discovery network channels including Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend.
If you’re looking for a less expensive alternative, Philo TV at just $20/month for 60 channels is a great option. Philo comes with the perk of being fully integrated into the Fire TV’s built-in channel guide. Sling TV is $30/month for 30+ or 50+ channels, depending on if you want sports channels or not, and you have the flixibility to add various extra channel packages for $5-$10 each. If you want more channels than that, Hulu Live at $55/month and Fubo TV at $55/month (with a massive 106+ channel lineup) are both now less expensive than YouTube TV.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
From a technical standpoint, Philo is rock solid. My only complaint is their resistance to upgrading their service to work with voice commands via Fire TV hardware. Sling’s DVR feature is inconsistently bizarre in its behavior. I don’t think I’ll ever figure it out. If Philo had HLN and Oxygen, I’d drop Sling in a heartbeat.
I originally had Hulu Live for about 9 months but was attracted to YTTV for it’s “unlimited” DVR. It works because they use the cloud as storage. I was also impressed with their Live channel UI and ability to personalize it on your PC. But…there isn’t much to watch and with Netflix and Amazon the upgrade for channels that you won’t watch is bogus. They are acting like std cable guys packaging unwanted stuff. So, I’m cancelling and going to try either Sling or Fubo. By UTTV.
Crazy, but you could see this coming, as all the services are methodically jacking up their prices. If you want TV, plan on paying up. I’ll stick to a couple streaming services, and you know…..Argh.
Cancelled within minutes of learning of the $15 increase for more unwanted garbage channels…
Not surprised, my brother is a subscriber and all I ever hear from him are complaints.
As for me, I have three TV’s all connected OTA (free) I get Amazon Prime through my mobile provider for (free) and I get Disney+ through my ISP for, you guessed it (free) I found a legal loophole to get new customer pricing from my ISP, slightly complicated to do but worth it, my internet costs went from $99 to $39.99/mo
for the next 2 years so my total home entertainment cost is $39.99 (Remember current Federal law prohibits all taxes and fees on internet only plans, including those pesky regional sports fees!)
Please tell me how to get new internet pricing .
Hi TechyChris,
I am seriously considering ditching cable. But I like Fios Internet. Would you mind sharing your experience to get the pricing from 99 to 39?
This pricing is laughable these marketers are off their Covid rockers. Is it interns running the show I can get dinosaur cable cheaper.
Made it easier to go back to FUBO. Thanks Google.
That’s getting closer and closer to regular cable or SAT. No thanks but no way.
I’m sure market research weighed the number of people who will cancel vs the profit from those who stay, and concluded enough people will stay to get a net profit increase. I wouldn’t even pay $40, their content just doesn’t interest me that much…each to their own.
We’re doing just fine with Netflix+AmazonPrime+Hulu(base plan)+OTA for *much* less.
And don’t forget IMDB, Crackel, Pluto, etc. I also, use reelgood.com to tell me where I can find specific shows or movies.
We are slowly leaving the Wild West of cable cutting. It was awesome to cut cable when there was so much content available with so few services. Now we are seeing networks take back their content and sell it directly or in bundles. We are seeing the networks/cable stations embrace streaming and find their power and revenue back. That is why you see Amazon and Netflix and others increase original content to plan for the future of losing network/cable content.
So even if you do not watch those channels you have to eat up the price increase anyway..no, thanks.
YTTV lost me after the 2018 price hike. All the channels they added after that round were pretty much meaningless/valueless to me.
I never wanted YTTV to become the streaming version of Spectrum or Charter or the like. If they’re going to do that, I might as well re-subscribe to cable TV. Yikes!!!
I am a longtime Sling customer and my ears perked up when they increased their prices for essentially the first time by $5/month recently. Sling being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, streaming TV players in the market, I knew others would be following suit. I had no idea YTTV would be following with such a dramatic price increase.
This all smacks of PS Vue, for anyone who remembers the prices increases. At least these services are offering more channels for the increase, but, this comes back to the fundamental reason of why we all began to cord cut in the first place.
For many, it was price, but coupled with that, the high price for channels we essentially did not want. Yes, there may be a niche market for the Xtreme Basket Weaving channel, but I do not want a price increase justified by graciously “giving” me this channel. A la carte was never fully achieved in the streaming realm, but in the beginning we at least had some semblance of it. Now, not so much.
I know some of these companies think they have attained a high enough captive audience for their products, but without the nonsense contracts of old, just watch how many people flock away from their products. When you are starting to reach traditional cable prices, your jig is up.