YouTube TV price increase copies cable television’s worst feature
It’s hard to believe it was once only $35
📈 YouTube TV prices are being hiked to $82.99 a month
📅 January 13 is when existing customers will see the price increase
💰 New YouTube TV customers will see the new price take affect immediately
🚫 No new features or channels are being added with the price increase
🔙 YouTube TV’s last price hike was in March 2023
💰 The new pricing is more than double what it cost at launch
YouTube TV is still arguably one of the best live TV streaming services, but its latest price hike is a bit ridiculous.
YouTube announced today that the service's new price is $82.99 a month, more than double the $35 it cost at launch. The new pricing takes effect immediately for new subscribers, while ‘most’ current subscribers won’t be affected until January 13.
New features, though, right? Right?
Notably, YouTube did not announce any new features or content available with the increase, but it’s also not changing any current features and content availability.
When Netflix began to revolutionize TV watching more than a decade ago now, it was only a matter of time before streaming became the default way to get our entertainment fix. And it made sense: it’s infinitely more convenient, but more importantly, it was infinitely cheaper than paying hundreds of dollars for the 5 or 6 channels you actually wanted to watch.
Or at least, that was the case.
YouTube TV’s price hike is a trend
As the streaming wars have heated up in the last few years, streaming services like YouTube TV, Disney+, Netflix, and countless others have been trying to keep prices low while the companies that make the entertainment, like Warner Bros, ABC, etc., have been trying to make sure they continue to make money developing this (very expensive) content.
The result has been rapidly increasing prices for these streaming services. It’s very easy to find yourself paying just as much, if not more, for everything you want to watch than what the more traditional cable subscriptions cost.
I had always had a feeling we were going to end here, it was just a matter of time. And the truth is it’s mostly unavoidable. I spent the better part of a decade working in and around the entertainment industry, and the whole thing is massively complex. It’s much more involved than just paying a good-looking guy or gal to stand in front of a camera and read some lines.
Depending on the level of production, there can be hundreds of people involved in getting the story from the script to the screen, including everyone involved in marketing and distributing the content. All of those people have families to feed, and that’s not even to mention all the costumes, sets, cameras, equipment, etc. that’s needed as well.
Long story short, there’s an old adage in the business: you can make a movie that’s good, fast, or cheap, but you only get two out of three. So it looks like YouTube is banking on the first two.
Jason Cockerham is a seasoned technology journalist reporting on the latest tech trends for The Shortcut as well as CNET, Android Police, XDA Developers and Top Ten Reviews. You can follow him at @jasonthejasonc on X and LinkedIn.