Remember all that money you were going to save by canceling your cable
TV subscription?
Cord-cutters are again dealing with the reality of rising programming
costs after YouTube TV told subscribers Thursday that their monthly fee
will go up by 14% to $82.99 starting in January.
Needless to say, many dissatisfied customers took to social media after
learning of another price increase to YouTube TV, the streaming package
marketed as a budget-friendly alternative to the traditional
multichannel services.
“I’m so glad that I made the right financial decision in 2018 and
ditched my $89/mo cable package so I can now pay $83/mo for YouTube TV,
$23/mo for Netflix, $16/mo for Disney+, $13/mo for Paramount, $15/mo
for Prime, $10/mo for AppleTV, and $21/mo for HBO,” [1]wrote Chris
Bakke on X.
Many of the 8 million subscribers to YouTube TV depend on the service
as a cost-efficient way to get live broadcast and cable channels to
supplement their favorite streaming services such as Netflix and
Amazon’s Prime Video. YouTube TV is especially popular among sports
fans who have abandoned cable but still want access to live sports.
The price increase takes effect just as the NFL season heads into the
playoffs, which attract some of the largest TV audiences of the year
ahead of the biggest TV event of all, the Super Bowl, on Feb. 9.
After YouTube TV posted information about the increase on X, readers
added a Community Note to point out the price has risen 137% since the
service was launched in 2017. The last price hike was in March 2023.
Even YouTube TV acknowledged that the rising costs may be too much for
some of its members to absorb. The company [2]posted a link on X to
where consumers could pause or cancel their subscriptions.
Enraged consumers also flooded the YouTube TV fan group page on
Facebook with complaints to the point where some members asked the
administrator to cut off comments.
“We are subsidizing their bad decision to subsidize NFL SUNDAY TICKET,”
wrote group member Alan Hulings.
(YouTube parent Google agreed to pay the NFL $2.5 billion a year to get
the package of out-of-market Sunday games in 2023. The figure is $1
billion above what previous carrier DirecTV paid. YouTube TV offers the
Sunday Ticket package to YouTube subscribers for an additional $379 a
year.)
The fan page posted a video showing how consumers who attempt to cancel
the service are being offered a discount to stick around, delaying the
$10 increase for six months.
YouTube TV did not respond to a request for comment.
YouTube is not alone in raising subscription prices. Walt Disney Co.
increased the rates for its streaming services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
Disney’s Hulu + Live TV bundle, which includes live channels and the
three Disney streaming services, also is priced at $82.99 a month.
The media companies came under pressure from Wall Street to raise
prices in order to increase profits. Some services were launched at low
prices to draw larger numbers of subscribers quickly, but those fees
proved unsustainable.
References
1.
https://x.com/ChrisJBakke/status/1867242556452688307
2.
https://x.com/YouTubeTV/status/1867236662809354569
