YouTube TV price increase to $64.99

Submitted by UMProud on June 30th, 2020 at 5:21 PM

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/30/21308449/youtube-tv-price-increase-64-99-viacom-hbo-new-channels

YouTube TV has announced a new price of $64.99 per month due to a new licensing agreement with CBS and they are adding a few new channels making it the most expensive alternative to cable in the marketplace.

Why is it when these cable alternatives announce price increases they give hardly any advance notice?  I'm considering Philo @ $20/month (no sports though).  For Michigan games not on local TV I may just go to a friend's house or catch the YouTube replay.

Anyone else want off the cable subscription hamster wheel?

UM85

June 30th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^

Looks like Sling TV - Orange ($30/month) may require investigation. Then add the sports extra package ($10/month).  Total cost = $40 / month. Gets all the sports channels I need (I pull the networks off the HD antenna.) 

Note, Sling said last year they were adding BTN before start of this year's football season but I don't see that in their TV lineup yet.  If they don't get it, it's dead to me.

boliver46

June 30th, 2020 at 5:26 PM ^

These streaming services were supposed to "save us" from the corrupt, greedy cable companies.

Now these saviors are the corrupt, greedy streaming services.

gobluenyc

June 30th, 2020 at 8:29 PM ^

I'm in lock step with you here. PS Vue had a much much much better interface and control system (we use a Fire TV). A DVR is the one thing that makes cable pricier than streaming services. 

Now we are reconsidering what to do, pay the extra, switch to Hulu or find another means to watch live tv, which we rarely do.

Maceo24

June 30th, 2020 at 8:23 PM ^

So we dropped “live” tv all together.  Use the cable company for internet.  Have Netflix, Hulu, and Prime.  

HD antenna for network live sports.

The wife uses Hulu to watch her network shows one day after they air.  The ones not on Hulu are usually available for a few weeks on the airing network app.  

and a loophole that I’m probably gonna get turned off for myself by sharing. If I log in to the ESPN or fox sports app with my cable ID they are accepted and let me stream.  Doesn’t appear that they can tell that I am an internet only subscriber. 

TCW

July 1st, 2020 at 9:24 PM ^

Well, sure, but cable prices have gone up substantially as well, partly *because* so many people have cut the cord.  (Admittedly, "substantially" is probably less than 30%).  The costs to air their channels has to be spread over a smaller and shrinking customer base.  But when they raise prices, they try to do a lot of it with the garbage add-on fees instead of the base price.  Like a hotel that advertises one price and imposes a mandatory resort / destination fee.  Anyway, I was a DirecTV customer.  When I switched to YouTube TV, I was saving just over $1,000 per year.  That's a lot.  Now if I don't cancel or switch from YTTV, I'll be down to $800+, and for a product I consider to be superior.    

kurpit

June 30th, 2020 at 5:35 PM ^

Oh boy, CBS content! And they're adding BET Her, MTV2, Nick Jr., NickToons, TeenNick, and MTV Classic soon! 

*Wet fart noise

Vote_Crisler_1937

July 1st, 2020 at 7:17 AM ^

I used to really enjoy South Park but since 2016 a decent episode of South Park has been hard to find. Maybe I’ve changed or maybe they are just out of ideas but I am not entertained lately. 
 

I would probably rather watch Drunk History on Comedy Central now. DH doesn’t compare to my favorite SP episodes but it’s certainly better than ‘Tegriddy Farms”. 

Special Agent Utah

June 30th, 2020 at 5:38 PM ^

Yeah I just saw that shit. 
 

5 years ago “YouTube TV: Save money with the channels you want without all the crap you don’t!”

Today: “We‘re adding some of the crap you left cable for in the first place and raising our prices by 30%!”

LeCheezus

July 1st, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^

Well, the main issue I had with Cable/Fiber/DirecTV was the extra charges for renting boxes/DVR/etc.  That and the price packages got worse if you aren't adding phone, cable + internet, etc.

I'm on the share plan right now - we share Netflix account with family and they share cable login.  Call it illegal if you want, all I use it for is live sports and I'm forced to watch commercials so I'm struggling to find the victim here.

ppudge

July 1st, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^

Best advice I was given came from a guy at Comcast - I told him I was cutting the cord because of the $10 charge each month for the extra boxes.  We have 6 TVs hooked up, so that was costing me $50 per month.  The guy told me that the Comcast/Xfinity app was available on the Roku.  So I returned 5 boxes (just keeping the main box in our living room), bought Rokus (there was obviously up front cost doing this), and put those on all the other TVs.  Now I save $50 every month not having to pay for those extra boxes.  The only downside is that the Roku remote doesn’t have numbers, so you can’t just switch to a particular channel when on the Comcast app, you have to scroll, but that’s a minor inconvenience for the savings.

Naked Bootlegger

June 30th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^

Seriously?   I *just* canceled Directv after 15 years of continuous service.   I was counting on the $50 per month plan.   I'll still save significant dollars compared to Directv, but that's a pretty steep price hike.   

BlueMan80

June 30th, 2020 at 11:58 PM ^

I’ve been with DirecTV for 16 years and plan to pull the plug in Aug when my contract expires.  I’ve been using Comcast for Internet service for years, so I guess it’s time for the Internet and TV bundle.  DirecTV is too damn expensive now and AT&T’s IP TV service isn’t a good deal.

Solecismic

June 30th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^

Yeah, that's going to do it for us. They give you eight additional weeks (without live content) to watch anything you've stored in your library, which is nice. But they've hit a price point that makes going back to cable a relative bargain, not that we will.