General Discussion YouTube TV Price Hike 2025 (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Highlights of the email I just received...

YouTube TV has always worked hard to offer you the content you love, delivered the way you want, with features that make it easy to enjoy the best of live TV. ‌ To keep up with the rising cost of content and the investments we make in the quality of our service, we’re updating our monthly price from $72.99/month to $82.99/month starting January 13, 2025. ‌ We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this has an impact on our members. We are committed to bringing you features that are changing the way we watch live TV, like unlimited DVR storage and multiview*, and supporting YouTube TV’s breadth of content and vast on-demand library of movies and shows. ‌ The price of your YouTube TV Base Plan membership will change in your first billing cycle on or after January 13, 2025, and will be charged to your payment method on file going forward. ‌ Sincerely, The YouTube TV team​

 

[Robert Crawford]

Shocking.

 

[Malcolm R]

Sounds just like a cable company except they don't have to maintain all the miles of cable, household connections, and set-top hardware.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Sling TV recently announced a price increase, so this doesn't surprise me. I will still be saving over $100 per month over what Comcast wanted to charge me for Internet + live TV.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sling TV recently announced a price increase, so this doesn't surprise me. I will still be saving over $100 per month over what Comcast wanted to charge me for Internet + live TV.

The gap is closing for me.

I initially was saving $20 per month by leaving Fios Cable and switching to YouTube TV plus Internet (1GB)

Now, with the price hike, that savings is $10 a month. And in another year? The price will go up again.

I knew a price hike was coming as there was a leak online a few weeks ago. Nobody knew by how much. I was hoping maybe a $3-$5 increase each month. A $10 increase is significant.

There was a time when cord-cutting proved to be an effective means to save money. However, the cost difference between cable and streaming has become nominal. Worst yet, the cost of entertainment continues to skyrocket. No doubt, people are going to continue to make hard decisions about what they can afford to stream in their homes.

 

[Malcolm R]

My advantage with YTTV would be they offer more channels than in my cable package, though the current costs would work out to be about the same.

No doubt, people are going to continue to make hard decisions about what they can afford to stream in their homes.

Until they start to make those hard choices and they hit the bottom line and result in fewer subscribers, I'm not sure there's any incentive for these companies to stop the hikes. Consumers must be adsorbing them pretty freely, as they seem to keep coming.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The gap is closing for me.

I initially was saving $20 per month by leaving Fios Cable and switching to YouTube TV plus Internet (1GB)

Now, with the price hike, that savings is $10 a month. And in another year? The price will go up again.

I knew a price hike was coming as there was a leak online a few weeks ago. Nobody knew by how much. I was hoping maybe a $3-$5 increase each month. A $10 increase is significant.

There was a time when cord-cutting proved to be an effective means to save money. However, the cost difference between cable and streaming has become nominal. Worst yet, the cost of entertainment continues to skyrocket. No doubt, people are going to continue to make hard decisions about what they can afford to stream in their homes.

Ron,

Looking at your Internet speed is another place you can look for savings. Do you really need a 1Gb service? I dropped our ISP speed down as the prices went up with no impact. I went from 1Gb to 400Mbps with Comcast/Xfinity, and have 600Mbps now with Wide Open West at $45 per month. I may look at what other tiers WOW has to potentially offset the YouTube TV price increase. When I switched from Xfinity to WOW earlier this year, though, 600Mbps was really their pricing sweet spot.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron,

Looking at your Internet speed is another place you can look for savings. Do you really need a 1Gb service? I dropped our ISP speed down as the prices went up with no impact. I went from 1Gb to 400Mbps with Comcast/Xfinity, and have 600Mbps now with Wide Open West at $45 per month. I may look at what other tiers WOW has to potentially offset the YouTube TV price increase. When I switched from Xfinity to WOW earlier this year, though, 600Mbps was really their pricing sweet spot.

Scott,

As a last resort, that would be where I would cut costs

However, I would not drop down to 400MBps (Fios offers 300MBps instead) as that is too slow.

I do a lot of file downloads, and I'm taxing my wireless bandwidth with a plethora of cameras and smart devices. My wireless speed is only 300MBps in good areas and 90MBps in hard-to-reach. Don't want to play with that.

The difference between 1GB and 500MBPS is only $5 a month, so clearly, it's worth keeping the 1GB plan

 

[Ronald Epstein]

For anyone in this forum that is reading this post, and has YouTubeTV, I have some valuable information for you.

I found out, through Internet discussion, that if you attempt to cancel the service due to its cost you will be offered a 6-month promotional deal keeping you at the current rate.

So, I went ahead and tried to cancel the service and sure enough, I got this offer...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

For anyone in this forum that is reading this post, and has YouTubeTV, I have some valuable information for you.

I found out, through Internet discussion, that if you attempt to cancel the service due to its cost you will be offered a 6-month promotional deal keeping you at the current rate.

So, I went ahead and tried to cancel the service and sure enough, I got this offer...



View attachment 240156

I just tried the the above, and it worked for me as well. Thanks, Ron!

 

[JimJasper]

The gap is closing for me.

I initially was saving $20 per month by leaving Fios Cable and switching to YouTube TV plus Internet (1GB)

Now, with the price hike, that savings is $10 a month. And in another year? The price will go up again.

I knew a price hike was coming as there was a leak online a few weeks ago. Nobody knew by how much. I was hoping maybe a $3-$5 increase each month. A $10 increase is significant.

There was a time when cord-cutting proved to be an effective means to save money. However, the cost difference between cable and streaming has become nominal. Worst yet, the cost of entertainment continues to skyrocket. No doubt, people are going to continue to make hard decisions about what they can afford to stream in their homes.

Ron, just curious: was Fios Cable raising prices roughly in tandem .... or holding steady? - Jim

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron, just curious: was Fios Cable raising prices roughly in tandem .... or holding steady? - Jim

Jim,

I never paid attention to any other services like YouTube TV while I was a Fios subscriber (for about 24 years). So, I don't know if the price of cable went up accordingly with other services.

Additionally, since I was among the first wave of customers when it first launched in New Jersey, my monthly rate has consistently been lower compared to most other customers. I’ve noticed this because every year, I would call and inquire about the latest deals, and I was consistently informed that customers with comparable service were paying more for the same package.

What began to irk me about Fios is that for a long time, there were small, incremental increases in my monthly cost. That I expected to be normal like anything else. However, a year ago, my monthly rate jumped $25 in a single month. That was alarming, and I was pissed off about it. It was at that point that I began considering cutting the cord, but it would take me another year and a power surge that destroyed my Tivo boxes to finally do it.

But, looking at the history of YouTube TV and even Sling, there have been frequent price hikes. I found a chart below that shows its pricing history

The one thing that I have always found unfair is that everyone who subscribes to cable (and I imagine it is the same for the streaming services) is hit with a Regional Sports Fee. This is whether you subscribe to any sports channels or not. I don't watch sports, yet I am subjected to this tax on my monthly bill.

I have been following the reaction to the YTTV price hike on Reddit and some of the other forums and as usual, everyone is saying they are canceling the service. But I think, in the end, those are empty threats as outside of getting a TV antenna (which has limited feeds), our choices for getting channels in our home are rather limited and I feel we are being held hostage by these companies that continually raise their prices on almost yearly basis.

 

[ScottHM]

It's ironic that having so many options has left us with so little choice. If I had my way, I'd be able to find a service that would provide my with à la carte service for about $3 a channel. That'll never happen.
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[Scott Merryfield]

The one thing that I have always found unfair is that everyone who subscribes to cable (and I imagine it is the same for the streaming services) is hit with a Regional Sports Fee. This is whether you subscribe to any sports channels or not. I don't watch sports, yet I am subjected to this tax on my monthly bill.

I have been following the reaction to the YTTV price hike on Reddit and some of the other forums and as usual, everyone is saying they are canceling the service. But I think, in the end, those are empty threats as outside of getting a TV antenna (which has limited feeds), our choices for getting channels in our home are rather limited and I feel we are being held hostage by these companies that continually raise their prices on almost yearly basis.

YouTube TV doesn't carry any of the regional sports channels, so there is no fee for that service. Here in Michigan, the regional network is Fanduel Sports Detroit (formerly Bally Sports Detroit, and before that Fox Sports Detroit). It's not a big deal for me, as they carry the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons. I am a hockey fan, but not a Wings fan, and I no longer follow MLB or the NBA.

As for the price increases, it's not entirely the fault of the cable TV or streaming services, as the content providers are continually raising their prices to the carriers, as well. Of course, that sometimes results in a game of poker between the two sides, and customers are caught in the middle when some stations get removed from a service for a short time while the two sides play hardball with each other.

I would dump live TV completely, but it's the only way for me to get the sports channels, which is pretty much all I watch via traditional live TV. My wife wouldn't be happy if I dumped it, either, as she watches programming on several channels.

 

[ScottHM]

The one thing that I have always found unfair is that everyone who subscribes to cable (and I imagine it is the same for the streaming services) is hit with a Regional Sports Fee.

That's nothing compared to having to pay $30+ per month for local channel "retransmission", when I can see the exact same thing over the air for free.
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[TonyD]

For some reason YTTV Carries Philadelphia Comcast Sports Net which is where all the local teams have their games except for nfl.

We set our home location to Phila and while living in Florida and for awhile in Minneapolis and we always have access to SportnetPhilly as long as someone in Philly market logs in once a month.

We are moving back to the Phila area tomorrow.

 

[Dennis_H]

I did do the extra 6 mo at $72 and also dumped the 4K package since almost nothing is 4K. It provides more streams, but 3 is enough for me. If I could find just ESPN, FS1, and Big10 ala cart (with timeshifting), or if Amazon bundled just those for an extra cost, I'd dump it and just an OTA dvr for locals. Having the DVR ability is number 1 priority, and really need 2 streams with my son in law in the house also, so Sling Orange is out. Feel like I'm kind of tied in and YTTV is great for most thiings, but getting hard to justify the cost.

 

[MrCreosote]

Noticed this from email notification of poster threads and was astounded that YouTube subscription is that high. I can't conceive of anyone paying that kind of money for YouTube. But then I know people that spend $2-3k for their phones and cable service. There must be a lot of money out there. Having OTA, Netflix, Prime and internet streaming, I would pay Youtube $5 a month since I don't need them. $10 would be out of the question. My condolences all.

 

[AllanP]

I just tried the the above, and it worked for me as well. Thanks, Ron!

Hi! HOW did you contact YouTube TV to get the promotional pricing for 6 months - via website or telephone??

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hi! HOW did you contact YouTube TV to get the promotional pricing for 6 months - via website or telephone??

Go into your YouTube TV settings -> Account

Do a cancellation. It will ask you why you are canceling. Select "cost" or "too expensive." It should bring you to a screen that gives you the option of taking a 6-month promotional plan.