YouTube TV is increasing their price - will you cancel it?

danaht · Post by **danaht** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:18 pm

YouTube TV just announced a price increase to $49.99 for existing customers effective May 13th. For this extra price - we are getting a lot of extra channels/features. How many people who have You Tube TV are going to cancel it now?

$37 a month I guess was too good to be true. Since, I am no longer going to be grand-fathered into a price of $37 - I am probably going back to the old OTA HD local channels (via HD antenna). I'll set a calendar event on my phone to cancel my subscription before the May 13th date.

Stinky · Post by **Stinky** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:30 pm

Keeping it.

DW loves the fact that she can now watch HGTV on YTTV.

jpsfranks · Post by **jpsfranks** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:45 pm

I had just commented in another recent thread how Google had had a decent history of grandfathering pricing in the past...

I bought a bunch of Google Play gift cards at a discount that will last another few months. When that runs out I'll probably look around again, at $50/month it's pretty similar to all the other offerings now, and it may be cheaper/similar just to add cable back to my internet service.

jef · Post by **jef** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:46 pm

Have not seen the announcement but I thought I would get the $37 forever. Inertia will likely keep me from changing unless something better comes along. Its only used for sports but can't give those up.

indexfund56 · Post by **indexfund56** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:52 pm

I’ll keep it. Still a large savings over what I had been paying for cable. And the DVR is great.

lostdog · Post by **lostdog** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:20 pm

$25 Sling is awesome.

onourway · Post by **onourway** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:22 pm

We will keep it. The overall user interface is so much better than the alternatives that we can’t imagine switching back.

There were articles circulating over the last year indicating that Google was likely losing $10-15/per subscriber at their current pricing which was not a major cost with a few hundred thousand or even a couple million subscribers. Get ten million subscribers each losing $10/month and suddenly that’s no longer sustainable. So I’ve been expecting this. The added channels are a minor perk. My wife has commented on not having some of them in the past, but I wouldn’t choose to pay $10 extra for them.

randomguy · Post by **randomguy** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:32 pm

indexfund56 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:52 pm I’ll keep it. Still a large savings over what I had been paying for cable. And the DVR is great.

It is getting pretty close to what I am paying for cable. In the next round they will add another 5 channels and the price will be the same:) The good part is you don't have to switch cable providers every 2 years to get the good deals. I wish we would have ended up with the future where people didn't pay for the channels they didn't want. Of the 60 or so channels they have I am unlikely to ever watch more than 20.

donaldfair71 · Post by **donaldfair71** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:14 pm

Would love to cancel it but the only alternative that has the same plethora of channels I like would run me $100 or more.

muddgirl · Post by **muddgirl** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:23 pm

We are still considering our options. We primarily use it for sports and to time-shift OTA tv (we do not get reception in our house and can't install an external antenna - it's a rental) so the extra channels are not very attractive. We will likely switch to a competing service that still offers just sports and local TV.

catdude · Post by **catdude** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:30 pm

I've only had YTTV for a few months and I've been paying $40/month. I'll probably stick with them but I'll take a look around at see what the other streaming services are offering. When I was shopping around a few months ago, YTTV was the only service with MLB network as part of its basic package. That's a pretty big factor in their favor...

Will 82 · Post by **Will 82** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:48 am

Satisfied with the service and glad they added the new channels. Not real happy about the $15 price increase, but no plans to get rid of it right now. I'll reevaluate after any future price increases though.

PaddyMac · Post by **PaddyMac** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:26 am

We were paying $44 anyway, plus $5 for Motortrend app. So $50 including Motortrend is about the same. But I'm worried that every time they add a few channels they'll sneak up the price. I don't want 200 channels for $150...

crg11 · Post by **crg11** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:32 am

Will keep it as it is the only streaming option that has my local broadcast networks plus local sports networks. Still cheaper than a cable package and a lot easier to use (all via Apple TV and iOS apps).

I do hope this is the end of the price increases and that this channel lineup stays stable.

FrugalInvestor · Post by **FrugalInvestor** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:38 am

We have an antenna and OTA DVR. We use YTTV almost exclusively for sports. Now that the $35 grandfathered price is going away we'll likely cancel service when we're not using it and pick it back up when we want it. It will also open the door to trying other services which we haven't done for almost two years since we started with YTTV. They had me 'locked in' with the grandfathered price but I'm now FREE!!

mrmass · Post by **mrmass** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:47 am

I think most the the streaming services won't stop until $60/month. Just enough to keep you from going back to cable.

Foredeck · Post by **Foredeck** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:54 am

We recently signed up for the service and are paying ~$40 a month. We only have it to watch the English Premier League and really nothing else. If it gets above $60 a month or the don't carry EPL games anymore, we'll cancel.

Ed_Sandwich · Post by **Ed_Sandwich** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:13 pm

I was looking forward to trying out YTTV after being a Sling user for years. But that price is too much. Very frustrating how all services are becoming even less 'a la carte' and more expensive. Sling at least gives you two options and has several add-on packages.

whodidntante · Post by **whodidntante** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:14 pm

I never subscribed. Guess I showed them.

Hoosier CPA · Post by **Hoosier CPA** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:24 pm

We cancelled but were thinking about doing so anyway. We mainly have it for local news, football and college basketball, and were planning to cancel after basketball season ended anyway. It's no longer a good price vs what we can get by bundling. Plus our kids mostly use netflix.

I didn't find the interface that great anyway. I know others liked it.

TimDex · Post by **TimDex** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:31 pm

You can get channels such as HGTV and Science, etc. on the Philo streaming service. Cost is $16 a month. Basically, it’s cable tv without the news and sports channels. I was paying $140 a month for directv. Now I’m paying 22 a month for philo and cbs all access which includes my local news channel. Combined with amazon direct which I was already paying for, plus tubi which is free, I’ve got all I want. Tim

Edited to add....I’m using amazon firestick. I don’t like paying Bezos but for the 40 upfront it’s a deal

Earl Lemongrab · Post by **Earl Lemongrab** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:39 pm

I tried YTTV free trial. The missing channels were a killer for me. I don't watch much sports these days, but I do shows on Discovery and other channels not available. I don't see much attraction for YTTV.

I also have a tough time getting used to cloud DVRs, as their functionality is so much worse than the cable box. For now I'm sticking to cable. Yeah, I'm paying more, but I've decided that it's worthwhile.

Dialectical Investor · Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:49 pm

Earl Lemongrab wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:39 pm I tried YTTV free trial. The missing channels were a killer for me. I don't watch much sports these days, but I do shows on Discovery and other channels not available. I don't see much attraction for YTTV.

I also have a tough time getting used to cloud DVRs, as their functionality is so much worse than the cable box. For now I'm sticking to cable. Yeah, I'm paying more, but I've decided that it's worthwhile.

Discovery is now included.

Earl Lemongrab · Post by **Earl Lemongrab** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 4:10 pm

Dialectical Investor wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:49 pm Discovery is now included.

Thanks for the update.

BlueCable · Post by **BlueCable** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:18 pm

I switched to YTTV last fall and have loved it, but $50 is too much. I'm headed back to Sling TV.

Snowjob · Post by **Snowjob** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:22 pm

I’ll be canceling it was a great package before but the 10 dollar increase covered channels I didn’t care about.

bcsguy · Post by **bcsguy** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:27 pm

Canceled it today. We really didn't use it that much and the $15 price increase made the decision way easier.

yolli71 · Post by **yolli71** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:30 pm

I just cut the cord 3 weeks ago and elected to go with Playstation Vue...Youtube TV was my second choice. The main reason we didn't go with Youtube was b/c of the channels it was missing.

These new channels make Youtube much more compelling to me...not having HGTV was a no-go for my wife when we were shopping. The only missing channel (for me) on Youtube now is the NFL Network, though it has NESN which I wish Vue had. FWIW, we've been extremely pleased w/ Vue so far...we chose the $50 option so the pricing is about the same as Youtube (now with the price increase). That's inconsequential to me though...we're saving about $70/mo. from our old DirecTV package!

Random Musings · Post by **Random Musings** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:05 pm

YouTube is banking on customer inertia.

RM

catdude · Post by **catdude** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:44 pm

My brother recently bought a new TV and he got a free month of service from Sling. He couldn't use the freebie so he gave it to me. I'm up & running on Sling now... I'm watching a hockey playoff game and toggling back & forth between Sling and YTTV. The picture quality (to my eye, anyway) seems to be significantly better on YTTV as compared to Sling. (I'm watching on my iPad, BTW). Almost like YTTV is in HD, and Sling is standard definition. Anybody else notice a difference? YMMV, of course...

FrugalInvestor · Post by **FrugalInvestor** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:57 pm

catdude wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:44 pm My brother recently bought a new TV and he got a free month of service from Sling. He couldn't use the freebie so he gave it to me. I'm up & running on Sling now... I'm watching a hockey playoff game and toggling back & forth between Sling and YTTV. The picture quality (to my eye, anyway) seems to be significantly better on YTTV as compared to Sling. (I'm watching on my iPad, BTW). Almost like YTTV is in HD, and Sling is standard definition. Anybody else notice a difference? YMMV, of course...

It's been awhile since I used Sling but at that time YTTV was technically much better (picture quality and reliability) which is one of the primary reasons we chose to use it. Now that YTTV has raised their price I'll be circling back to try the others including Sling.

mancich · Post by **mancich** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:46 am

I actually just signed up for YTTV at $50. We've tried DirectTV Now and Playstation VUE in the past. Still a lot cheaper than what we paid for cable ($115/month).

RickBoglehead · Post by **RickBoglehead** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 5:14 am

Lesson here, always viable, is never trust Google to not find a way to screw the customer...

F150HD · Post by **F150HD** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 5:58 am

just got that email. I had it all last Fall for college football season and will re-enroll this Fall, I put my membership on 'hold' in the meantime.
Of all the services I've tried - Sling, PSVue, Hulu - YTTV is by far the best.

I wondered when an increase like this would occur....too bad it wasn't more gradual.

FrugalInvestor · Post by **FrugalInvestor** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:15 am

F150HD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 5:58 am I wondered when an increase like this would occur....too bad it wasn't more gradual.

Especially for those of us early adopters who were grandfathered.

atdharris · Post by **atdharris** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:19 am

I will keep it because there are no real viable alternatives. If I switch to cable, it will be more expensive and more restrictive. Hulu TV is cheaper, but doesn't offer the channels I want, and its interface is awful. DirectTV Now is not an option in my view. I'm happy to finally get FoodNetwork.

Tycoon · Post by **Tycoon** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:25 am

I haven't paid for TV since 1991.

anil686 · Post by **anil686** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:33 am

atdharris wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:19 am I will keep it because there are no real viable alternatives. If I switch to cable, it will be more expensive and more restrictive. Hulu TV is cheaper, but doesn't offer the channels I want, and its interface is awful. DirectTV Now is not an option in my view. I'm happy to finally get FoodNetwork.

Agree with this. The other options are worse. Many of the other options (when made comparable to YTTV) cost more such as increase in DVR size, numbers of devices or concurrent streams or numbers of accounts. I am disappointed they added the discovery channels as mandatory instead of offering them as a tier add on but I get it - if only 20% of their subscribers were going to pay more for the Discovery suite - the cost to offer it may have been $25 or $30/mo more - making no sense over just buying the shows a la carte. One of the great things I found about YTTV prior to this was it allowed me to buy HGTV shows my family liked a la carte from Apple for $20/season - they were commercial free and added maybe a couple of bucks per month in cost over what I was paying in YTTV.

I tried Hulu first - I am not a fan with the interface nor the commercials. Alas, if YTTV would have offered separate tiers of programming that would have been best for my family - but then it becomes like cable has become - a gotcha game to buy more packages by analyzing what people want and breaking those networks into separate packages so people want to buy all the packages...

miles monroe · Post by **miles monroe** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:42 am

smart marketing move.

much like ESPN is a "must" for most men, HGTV is a "must" for most women who have veto power over the tv provider.

on a personal level, i like the addition of TLC and FN.

jhh9327 · Post by **jhh9327** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:55 am

For those that liked the Youtubetv option but missed having stations like Discovery, HGTV, TLC, etc a commonly suggested combination was to add in Philo for $16/mth. No need for that for the added $10/mth now. This is a win for that group. I didn't pay the extra for Philo but my daughter is much happier with our move to drop cable and switch to youtubetv now that she has TLC back.

Northster · Post by **Northster** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:16 pm

I have been considering canceling anyhow. I had been looking forward to Nat Geo & Smithsonian but find most of the offerings are dreck and have ads to boot. Not that impressed with the DVR nor the remote, which lacks an easy way to advance through ads. I think I will be better off just paying Amazon for the few items I find on YTTV that are of value. I may have to wait a bit but that's OK.

dsmclone · Post by **dsmclone** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:35 pm

I'm trying out YTTV right now and there are some things I really like but still has limitations that I don't know if they are worth it.

Right now I have cable with 3 Tivo DVR's and pay about $80/month

There are still 3-4 channels that I'm interested in that are on cable but not YTTV
Love that the recordings are in the cloud. Hate that you can't delete or mark shows as "already watched".
The $30 savings isn't a true $30 savings since my internet price will go up by $10 because I don't bundle. I may also have to spend another $10/month so that I don't hit data caps.

jdb · Post by **jdb** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:50 pm

I know that I am out of touch. Never heard of it. And never heard of most of other tv options mentioned. I strongly believe in wisdom of paying a fortune each year for Comcast cable which we rarely even use. Good luck.

DecumulatorDoc · Post by **DecumulatorDoc** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:53 pm

Pretty irritated, especially since I just moved from Directv Now to YTTV a week ago, after doing my research. Can't believe they don't give customers at least a one year price guarantee. 25% increase is out of line IMHO. I'll be looking at alternatives.

rolandtorres · Post by **rolandtorres** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:38 pm

It's a real shame for those who thought they'd get the $35/mo price grandfathered forever like those on Google Play Music. The cost of licensing tv networks is not going down- the only way Google could have made the economics work with keeping subscription price down would be to generate a ton more in ad revenue. On that note, enjoy the new Disney+ streaming service this fall at $70/yr while it lasts. Seems to me that Hulu Live tv is a better value than YTTV at $45/mo.

madbrain · Post by **madbrain** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:09 pm

I had a power outage a few weeks ago on a day that 3 of my favorite were supposed to be recording on my Dish satellite DVR.
I signed up for a trial of Youtube TV so I wouldn't miss the shows. When the power came back, I tried watching the shows.
The experience was just horrid. It wasn't possible to skip commercials at all on those new CBS shows ! Every single one had to be watched. Even if fast-forwarding ! This is no DVR. This is worse than VCR experience. I haven't had through a single full TV commercial in over 10 years due to the DVR. I canceled the Youtube TV the same day. The cost is also higher than what I pay for my Dish monthly subscription.

ERISA Stone · Post by **ERISA Stone** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:35 pm

Keeping mine. Still much lower than what I would want with cable. I might be more proactive in canceling services between Hulu, Netflix, and HBO now.

Earl Lemongrab · Post by **Earl Lemongrab** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:41 pm

madbrain wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:09 pm I signed up for a trial of Youtube TV so I wouldn't miss the shows. When the power came back, I tried watching the shows.
The experience was just horrid. It wasn't possible to skip commercials at all on those new CBS shows ! Every single one had to be watched. Even if fast-forwarding ! This is no DVR. This is worse than VCR experience. I haven't had through a single full TV commercial in over 10 years due to the DVR. I canceled the Youtube TV the same day. The cost is also higher than what I pay for my Dish monthly subscription.

Did you actually set up recordings ahead of time? One thing that's often not clear with some of the streaming services is that if the show wasn't recorded at the time that it aired, you'll get the On-Demand version. Like with cable, there are often restrictions on fast-forward. All of the services that I tried would record to the cloud DVR and allow commerical skip.

madbrain · Post by **madbrain** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:48 pm

Earl Lemongrab wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:41 pm
madbrain wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:09 pm I signed up for a trial of Youtube TV so I wouldn't miss the shows. When the power came back, I tried watching the shows.
The experience was just horrid. It wasn't possible to skip commercials at all on those new CBS shows ! Every single one had to be watched. Even if fast-forwarding ! This is no DVR. This is worse than VCR experience. I haven't had through a single full TV commercial in over 10 years due to the DVR. I canceled the Youtube TV the same day. The cost is also higher than what I pay for my Dish monthly subscription.
Did you actually set up recordings ahead of time? One thing that's often not clear with some of the streaming services is that if the show wasn't recorded at the time that it aired, you'll get the On-Demand version. Like with cable, there are often restrictions on fast-forward. All of the services that I tried would record to the cloud DVR and allow commerical skip.

Yes. There was a day long power outage (according to the ETA from the utility), and I signed up for Youtube TV during the day, and scheduled those shows to record before they aired later that evening.

jpsfranks · Post by **jpsfranks** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:57 pm

madbrain wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:48 pm
Earl Lemongrab wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:41 pm
madbrain wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:09 pm I signed up for a trial of Youtube TV so I wouldn't miss the shows. When the power came back, I tried watching the shows.
The experience was just horrid. It wasn't possible to skip commercials at all on those new CBS shows ! Every single one had to be watched. Even if fast-forwarding ! This is no DVR. This is worse than VCR experience. I haven't had through a single full TV commercial in over 10 years due to the DVR. I canceled the Youtube TV the same day. The cost is also higher than what I pay for my Dish monthly subscription.
Did you actually set up recordings ahead of time? One thing that's often not clear with some of the streaming services is that if the show wasn't recorded at the time that it aired, you'll get the On-Demand version. Like with cable, there are often restrictions on fast-forward. All of the services that I tried would record to the cloud DVR and allow commerical skip.
Yes. There was a day long power outage (according to the ETA from the utility), and I signed up for Youtube TV during the day, and scheduled those shows to record before they aired later that evening.

Even when you've scheduled something to record, you can't always fast forward through commercials. In some cases the network will have an agreement with YouTubeTV where they won't let you watch the version you recorded and instead force you to watch the On Demand version with unskippable commercials. It can vary depending on the network/show/when you actually choose to sit down in watch it (generally if you watch very soon after it airs you can watch live recorded version, and the on demand version will be added some time later).