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YouTube TV Raises Prices From $50/Month to $65/Month
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That’s fine. But In that case also with the increase in fee from YTTV I’d rather just go back to doing something else with my time. I’d rather wait a couple years for a show to drop in Netflix and binge them with out commercials.
Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV or both way overpriced. You might as well get cable at that price. DirecTV Now has been renamed and since it is owned by AT&T it is too pricey and too risky. Who knows which direction AT&T will take next. Sling sounds good, but to get a decent set of channels you need both the Orange and Blue options, plus some of the extra add-ons, which makes it one of the most expensive options. Some TV streamers have gone belly up, like Sony Playstation TV. Some cable companies are offering streaming options like Spectrum does, but it is pricey and not feature rich. Most streaming services have "gotchas" attached, such as having to pay extra for cloud DVR or HD or 4K.
The best option I’ve found to date is Philo which offers a good number of the cable type of channels for only $20/month + tax. It is no frills, but cloud DVR is included free. There are no major news channels except BBC World News, no sports channels, and no local TV channels, and that is why they can offer it at such a low price. If you live close to a major city, and most people in the USA do, then get a TV antenna to pick up local OTA TV channels. I miss news channels, but I don’t care much for sports, so it has been a good deal for me. I can pickup 70+ local channels including all the major networks from an antenna, and I have an OTA DVR so I can record those as well. I supplement Philo with streaming services like Netflix, Hulu (not Live TV though), MotorTrend, BritBox, Amazon Prime, Curiosity, etc. I don’t get all of them at any one time though, I get a few of them and after a few months when I’ve exhausted their shows I switch to other services for a few months.
Another source of TV is free services like Pluto, Tubi, the Roku channel, etc. These usually don’t have much to offer, mostly long ended series, but you can still find a lot to watch including older movies.
However, the big issue is internet service. That is expensive. I'm paying around $80/month for 200 Mbps. That is the cheapest I can find in my location as we are limited by very few providers. I pay almost twice as much for internet service as I do for all my TV and other streaming services combined. I’m still paying way less than I did when I bundled cable and internet together though!
The best option I’ve found to date is Philo which offers a good number of the cable type of channels for only $20/month + tax. It is no frills, but cloud DVR is included free. There are no major news channels except BBC World News, no sports channels, and no local TV channels, and that is why they can offer it at such a low price. If you live close to a major city, and most people in the USA do, then get a TV antenna to pick up local OTA TV channels. I miss news channels, but I don’t care much for sports, so it has been a good deal for me. I can pickup 70+ local channels including all the major networks from an antenna, and I have an OTA DVR so I can record those as well. I supplement Philo with streaming services like Netflix, Hulu (not Live TV though), MotorTrend, BritBox, Amazon Prime, Curiosity, etc. I don’t get all of them at any one time though, I get a few of them and after a few months when I’ve exhausted their shows I switch to other services for a few months.
Another source of TV is free services like Pluto, Tubi, the Roku channel, etc. These usually don’t have much to offer, mostly long ended series, but you can still find a lot to watch including older movies.
However, the big issue is internet service. That is expensive. I'm paying around $80/month for 200 Mbps. That is the cheapest I can find in my location as we are limited by very few providers. I pay almost twice as much for internet service as I do for all my TV and other streaming services combined. I’m still paying way less than I did when I bundled cable and internet together though!
So what are you doing in your free Time?
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Maybe one day a I do review on YT
Cheaper? Before I canceled they were charging me about $60 month for equipment, bs surcharges and fees. Then they want to raise bill 10+ a year too. Also their facilities getting bad. Putting more channels on Switched Digital Video and can’t even watch because access is full. Was having to reset equipment more and more to work.
I pay €102,- down here in Amsterdam The Netherlands... that includes taxes.
But that includes:
640 mbit download internet speed connection
55 mbit upload internet speed connection
business phone-number for my office
more then 125 TV Channels (including BBC 1,2,3,4) and lot's of others
Ziggo Sport (so I can watch Barcelona football matches)
The ability to watch programs back (weeks)
The ability to record everything
Static IP adress
I think when YouTube would come up with some extra's this would be ok-ish...
There is no way in God's green earth I would pay $50/mo. for that crap, let alone $65. Frankly, I think it stinks that these people are so greedy I can't even listen to the Apollo capcom - capsule recordings on Youtube anymore as I try to fall asleep (yes, insomnia here) without keeping the phone alive and lit up or otherwise, the Youtube app shuts down. I'm not giving those people a dime. If they charged a reasonable price like Netflix for all their content - I'd probably be on it.
I am basically in agreement with you. BUT nothing is stopping them from annual increases, say $5-10 next year etc. They don't have contracts so you can cancel and sign up anytime which is a better system than cable.
Still next year we may be complaining it's $70/month.
The people at Spectrum and other cable companies will be sleeping a little better tonight now that a major alternative option for cord-cutters is no longer that. Other streamers will probably raise their prices later this year. It may not be the best timing with the pandemic still in full swing, but executives, stock holders and others still want their money (and a lot of it).
You still need Internet on top of that $65 a month.
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I don't include internet service in the calculations, because I would have internet service regardless. It's like water, electric, cell phone service, etc. Most people would not need to add internet service to "cut the cord." Perhaps you could argue that the cable bundle provided a discount to internet service, but I've never seen much of a discount. I get gigabit internet (up and down) for the same price I was paying with cable's 100 mbps down-6 mbps up.
It just doesn't pay to include the price of internet when comparing streaming and cable.
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I don't include internet service in the calculations, because I would have internet service regardless. It's like water, electric, cell phone service, etc. Most people would not need to add internet service to "cut the cord." Perhaps you could argue that the cable bundle provided a discount to internet service, but I've never seen much of a discount. I get gigabit internet (up and down) for the same price I was paying with cable's 100 mbps down-6 mbps up.
It just doesn't pay to include the price of internet when comparing streaming and cable.
And just like that, summer 2020, Youtube TV became more expensive than the equivalent cable package.
They just replicating everything cable did wrong... charge too much for channels nobody wants.
At least, it saved me money for 2 years.
They just replicating everything cable did wrong... charge too much for channels nobody wants.
At least, it saved me money for 2 years.
I pay approx. the same price. But instead of 150Mb/sec internet I get 500Mb/sec down and 35Mb/sec up.
I get all the usual cable channels including the ones above. That also includes unlimited landline/phone service. (Not that I make much use of the landline.)
Agree, Internet is becoming a utility, but TV steaming consumes a lot of data...
Most ISP imposes data caps now, overages are crazy expensive...
In my personal experience, you need to look at the big picture. Youtube TV significantly impacted my internet bill.
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2,999,999 now
Exactly, but even now they raise stuff way too often, so people do notice. And instead of changing one parameter at once, they lump them, like with raising sub AND adding/increasing ads. Think where I had it in the beginning, it was at the low price, and I don't remember ads except the ones during live TV.
I've never cancelled anything so fast.
Then again, I only signed up for it a few months ago to see the Super Bowl, then promptly forgot about it. I got an email notification from YouTube yesterday talking about this price increase, and within minutes I'd cancelled the service.
Still have YouTube Premium, but the value that provides at its price point is still quite compelling for me.
Then again, I only signed up for it a few months ago to see the Super Bowl, then promptly forgot about it. I got an email notification from YouTube yesterday talking about this price increase, and within minutes I'd cancelled the service.
Still have YouTube Premium, but the value that provides at its price point is still quite compelling for me.
There's nothing on TV that would make me consider paying more than $40 a month. It's the same garbage that you used to get for free.
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I used to have YouTube Premium but canceled it because it doesn't offer anything I'm not getting now for free.
The bigger problem was the VHF/UHF swap that many broadcasters took when their 8-VSB encoded ATSC 1.0 stations were trashed by interference and propagation in the VHF band. The unfortunate consequence of that is that unless you're in a large city or coincidentally close to the transmitter, you're SOL for indoor reception. I'm 20-30 miles from most of our local transmitters, and half of our local major network affiliates are completely impossible to receive from our first floor TV with an antenna. Second floor you can pick up all but one, as long as you have the antenna angled just right. That's the original reason CATV came into existence, and it has only been exacerbated by shortsighted solutions when we transitioned to ATSC.
Of course, that's part of the reason MSOs are still raising prices and not pushing back on content providers or the local broadcasters insatiable appetite for higher retransmission consent payments. Where are suburbanites and rural folk to go? Can't pick up OTA in the suburbs. Slow internet (likely with data caps) means paying out the nose to go to YTTV/Sling because you also have to pay your ISP to lift your data cap and/or switch from discount DSL to expensive cable internet to get the throughput needed to support 2-3 simultaneous HD live streams along with whatever else people in the household are doing online.
I'd love to sign up for Locast. I've been monitoring them for over a year and donating regularly, but they still haven't come to my city (a top 25 market). Even so, that's just live OTA. I'd still need a DVR solution. Unfortunately there are few options that cost less than $65/mo now, with YTTV making this change.
Personally, I'm in a similar boat. I still have cable + internet through our MSO because I've been able to finagle a promo out of them, but that promo is set to expire in a few months. I really don't care about the basic and expanded cable channels most everybody here is saying are worthless -- I agree with that sentiment. I have cable so that I can DVR my local broadcast channels, watch a couple news networks, and for the regional sports network. Everything from MTV to ESPN to the movies and "original content," I couldn't care less about any of it and would gladly drop all of them to save even $10/mo. But unfortunately, that's just not an option with any of these providers and they make you take all or nothing, YouTube TV included.
As far as the "any device" benefit, I basically already have that through my cable provider. They have limits on what you can watch through their streaming app when away from home, but I can VPN in to my home network and it thinks I'm home. I also have an old Slingbox hooked up to the DVR set-top box for watching recorded content when away from home. So while the YTTV interface would be a big upgrade from the VPN workaround and slow Slingbox, it's not really delivering anything I couldn't already do before.
So all considered, if I can save $20+/mo with YTTV, that's great. But in my opinion (for me) it would be a big risk to take to drop traditional cable, turn in the DVR, permanently lose whole house DVR (my provider no longer offers it, but I'm grandfathered in), only to learn next year that the price is going up another $10 or $20 and that savings isn't going to happen. Even if I wanted to go back, I'd be stuck paying for separate DVRs in each room that can't talk to each other or stream recorded content remotely, so I probably wouldn't go back anyway. At least with cable, a promo locked in is pretty much guaranteed for at least a year and there's a little negotiation power still left. YouTube TV and Sling are sold as-is, no negotiation possible. I don't even think YouTube TV has a phone number.
I guess my thoughts are to proceed carefully, but still consider it if the savings are there and worth it to you. With this increase for YTTV, it's probably safe to say they won't raise it again for at least a year-ish. So as long as your cable provider doesn't have you over a barrel with "legacy" lock-in like mine does with the WH-DVR business, I'd say give it a try or run them both side by side for a week during the trial window and cancel YTTV before they bill you if you don't see the value there.
Right now I pay $5 a month for a box. Which is optional. I could use my own equipment if I wanted. The fees are quite ridiculous. But again, it's still cheaper than paying for a high data cap internet package and signing up for Hulu Live or YouTube TV.
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I thought it was 9.99 a month... I need to check my bill.
Yikes...
So, when I first helped my parents cut the cord, (Playstation Vue + OTA TabloTV 4-tuner primary sources) their total monthly cost *including Starz and HBO* was under $100/mo. Now, w/ YouTubeTV and this new increase, their monthly cost will be $92.20/mo without HBO and Starz..
Now, YouTubeTV is still *cheaper than the local cable co to get the exact channels they want, two channels YouTube includes require going up two packages/tiers in price with the cable co, but, come Dec/Jan the annual family budget meeting will be interesting. (*local cable co price would be about $50/mo more, even with bundles and other 12mo-24mo "deals" and that's before equipment rental and additional fees)
With Covid-19, so many TV shows are on extended hiatus, I know they've been watching more Netflix and cooking shows on PBS OTA than anything else...
The value isn't really there?
If they'd let me move the antenna from the attic to the roof, I suspect that I could pull in the two OTA stations that they currently watch on YouTube, on the Tablo Quad...
Did I mention that the value isn't really there?
I wonder how many people will drop YTTV and move to OTA solutions and Netflix/HBO Max/Prime/AppleTV in coming months?
So, when I first helped my parents cut the cord, (Playstation Vue + OTA TabloTV 4-tuner primary sources) their total monthly cost *including Starz and HBO* was under $100/mo. Now, w/ YouTubeTV and this new increase, their monthly cost will be $92.20/mo without HBO and Starz..
Now, YouTubeTV is still *cheaper than the local cable co to get the exact channels they want, two channels YouTube includes require going up two packages/tiers in price with the cable co, but, come Dec/Jan the annual family budget meeting will be interesting. (*local cable co price would be about $50/mo more, even with bundles and other 12mo-24mo "deals" and that's before equipment rental and additional fees)
With Covid-19, so many TV shows are on extended hiatus, I know they've been watching more Netflix and cooking shows on PBS OTA than anything else...
The value isn't really there?
If they'd let me move the antenna from the attic to the roof, I suspect that I could pull in the two OTA stations that they currently watch on YouTube, on the Tablo Quad...
Did I mention that the value isn't really there?
I wonder how many people will drop YTTV and move to OTA solutions and Netflix/HBO Max/Prime/AppleTV in coming months?
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I'm still grandfathered in at the $9.99/month from back when it was YouTube Red. I watch a lot of YouTube and to me it's a bargain - I'm always shocked at how many ads there are when I try to watch on a device that isn't signed in.