Amber Neely
Google is hiking the price of cord-cutting option YouTube TV, and is blaming it on the rising price of content.
In an email sent to subscribers, Google announced that it will hike YouTube TV prices, up from $64.99 per month to $72.99 per month. The price hike is set to take place when customers are billed in April.
YouTube TV last underwent a price hike in mid-2020, when subscribers saw a 30% increase as the price climbed from $49.99 to $64.99.
YouTube TV is a cable replacement service that gives subscribers access to live and on-demand content. It features content from over a hundred channels, including major networks like CBS, FOX, and NBC.
Seperately, I=un October,the company did the same thing with the YouTube Premium Family Plan. That service saw a price hike from $17.99 to $22.99 — and anyone who subscribed from the App Store saw their subscription increase to $29.99 a month.
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22 Comments
I have been a subscriber since Youtube TV started at $35 and it was an amazing value proposition, with my use case being for live sports. As they continue to add more channels I don't care about and increase prices, I am looking seriously at alternatives. Its getting to the point that compared to a cable bundle its no longer saving me money, it actually costs more than traditional cable tv/internet. They seriously need to bring different service tiers as its no longer worth the price they are charging.
I presume Youtube TV is like Paramount+ TV, whereby about 50% of their programming is cut off here at the Canadian border, due to international distribution rules, and yet we Canadians are expected to pay full price for it. (And Paramount+ doesn't even have a web page telling us what's missing; we all have to figure it out for ourselves.)
I think I was one of those who suspected that cord cutting would wind up biting the consumer in the ass someday as the costs of individual streaming services would soon catch up with basic cable bundles.
Pass. We cut the cord for a reason. Let me pay for streaming channels à la carte, and we'll talk.
I turn the bigger services off after football season anyways. Folks like me "fairweather viewers" are probably an underlaying cause of price hikes. I've got an itchy cancel finger