YouTube TV PRICE HIKE - Is it still worth it?

[FACE PALM] YouTube TV just hiked their monthly price. And not just a little, either. The monthly price for YouTube TV has gone from $50 to $65 a month. True, they added a bunch of great Viacom channels, giving them one of the most rounded channel lineups out there now. But still, $65/mo is a lot of money in these days of cord cutting and on-demand TV. So is it worth the new cost? We'll get into that today.

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The full write-up on YouTube TV:

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In this video:
0:00 - The price hike
1:57 - The additional channels
3:00 - Comparing to the competition
5:52 - My semi-bold prediction

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[MichaelGreco]

OG YouTube TV have been bait and switched big time. I started at $35 per month. I hardly watch cable, I really only have it for the news and a few other channels. This is the straw that broke it for me, 100%. What's the point of cutting the cord if you just go another version of the same thing - cable. I'm switching this month to sling. Not even about the money, just the principle. Google just told us what's good for us, instead of giving options and different packages which was the whole original spirit of cutting the cord to start with.

[darkshadows]

These live tv streaming services need to add a plan where you get to pick what channels you want and the price you pay is based on the number of channels you select. Don't need them throwing in channels I don't want and charging more

[JoshuaDoc]

I dropped as soon as that email hit my in box. That is too much money for the amount of T.V. I watch. I was hoping others to would cancel their youtubetv as well.

[frankputman]

"This is the end of live TV as we know it."
My OTA antenna is laughing at you, sir.

[kingarthurj]

Going up to $65 was the last straw for me. The ONLY reason why I have tv streaming services was to watch sports. With Sling I'm going to end up paying like $40 for the Orange and sports package together. When YoutubeTV was like $50 I could pony up the extra 10 for DVR and on demand movies. Now that they've gone up that high..I can't justify it.

[Ken-ehoy]

Things are subjective depending on needs, and for my family’s house YouTube TV still ends up being the best value. To meet the DVR and screen requirements, Hulu Live zooms past it in cost in a heartbeat.

[michalstoklosa]

Reviews.org introduced me to cord cutting a year ago. I started off with Sling and gave up on it due to so many problems and jumped to YTTV immediately because it was the best live service at the time and even at $50 bucks it was still great and worth it especially with the DVR. But, with the increasing price hikes happening very frequently it just seems like Cable 2.0 and the $65 price hike when added up with my internet and other services is basically like cable all over again. I’ll miss a lot of things about YTTV but I’ve signed up for Philo and I’ve been loving it a lot. It has most of the channels I generally watch so that makes me happy plus I have Netflix, Hulu, and Prime to keep me satisfied. As for news I just downloaded a bunch of free apps on my Roku and sometime this year I’ll try to look into getting an HD antenna and a Tablo DVR. Lastly, of course #CraigisAlwaysRight

[pamcrosby]

I cut the cord 3 months ago with YouTubeTV. My cable bill with HBO and Showtime was $242 per month. I was upset with YouTubeTV raising the price so much. But with that said I’m still paying about $100 less per month. We like the sports channels and the unlimited DVR. It is very easy to use and finding my shows to record is so simple. I don’t need Hallmark or Lifetime. We do like getting the local channels and probably always will. I’m 62 so watching local news is something I like. Even though it can be depressing. I’m happy they added the Paramount Network. We like Yellowstone and look forward to the new Michael Chiklis show Coyote.

[maglen]

30% price increase in the middle of the pandemic, when people are struggling and there's next to zero sports on?

Stuff it YTTV.

You were supposed to be better than cable, you've become worse than it.

[acleahcim]

I agree with many others where I wish they'd allow us to build bundles and packages and remove channels we don't watch. It's quite annoying.

[myothercarisadelorean]

Ive been asking this for a long time. If they continue to jack the costs, then whats the point of cord cutting?

[ede]

Yes for us it's still worth it, we are still saving money over what we paid cable, and we love the DVR!

[DMS-pq]

Over the air TV is now more popular then at anytime since the rise of cable so I dont see live TV going completely away but I could see the big networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox becoming completely subscription based in a few years like HBO

[KinglyValence]

It's still crazy to me that networks want this much money to watch their networks AND there are ads in the shows. I must be too young because everything else I know like YouTube or Twitch is free with ads then there's a paid for no ad version. But live TV $65/month AND ads!? If I calculated all the time I've spent watching ads in my life I'd probably never watch TV again lol.

[andygraning]

Craig, your “bold” prediction is 100% on the money. My kids 5 & 9 don’t understand the idea of a programming schedule. Besides sports, local/live news is keeping live TV a float. Look at the national ratings. The evening news on ABC/NBC/CBS is regularly out drawing prime-time programming on those same networks.

However, it will take longer than you think to kill Live TV, that’s where the $$$ still is.

[rylaneigsti]

$65 and they still don't have NFL Network 🤷🏽‍♂️ not worth it to me.

[elliotttrevino]

Thanks to your reviews we went Sling Blue in December. This week i found the AirTV v1 on sale $40 Amazon. So with the price lock at Sling went with Total Package $20 we have it all now. No kids no sports fans here but the Total Package is the best deal over all 125 channels $50, Locals a one time fee $40, $10 antenna oh yeah ordered a external Hard drive to make it a DVR for OTA. Sling really is the best if your willing to go all in, i think people dont know the HD antenna tv quality thats out there free.

[rustolamite]

What most people seem to forget is that with YouTubeTV when using addons like Showtime or Epix or Starz is that you can click on those channels and have access to their complete content right then. While still having the DVR to record live shows.

[thedudeabides]

This is why I don't subscribe to live bundles regardless of whether it's over the internet or cable. They will always be forced to raise prices since they're just the middleman. They have no control over individual channels demanding more money. I literally only subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime. That's it. Saves me a bundle on monthly fees.

[GeneSavage]

YouTube TV is worth it to me. I just dumped DirecTV and love the unlimited DVR and being able to watch on the TV, the phone, and my PC... technically do-able with DirecTV, but not with the flexibility of YouTube TV and I certainly can't access my DVR outside of my television with DirecTV.
RE: live TV going away. I think it stays not just for sports but for breaking news (HATE pre-recorded news; it's like reading a newspaper, it's always already out of date), weather (I live in Oklahoma and need to dodge tornadoes), and for competition shows like The Masked Singer (the #1 entertainment series among adults aged 18 to 49 every season) and ESPECIALLY shows where the audience can vote on competitors. Not only that, but many people like just turning on a channel and leaving it on... something you can do with binge watching but Netflix as one example keeps asking, "are you there?" My wife turns on Ion television and has Criminal Minds on while she does other things all. day.
Just like there are people who love Spotify because they can pick every song and other people who love radio and Pandora because they can turn it on and let somebody else pick, I think on-demand TV and live TV will continue to co-exist for quite some time. #ICouldBeWrong
My question is: why doesn't YouTube TV make it easy to jump back and forth between YouTube videos and YouTube TV? I have to re-launch each page each time I want to change, and that seems dumb since the company now pretty much owns my screen time right now. Just put a button to each in a corner so I can easily switch back and forth...