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YouTube TV 4K upgrade dark pattern

22 points by honksillet ↗ HN
YouTube TV is currently implementing a sleazy dark pattern to try to trick you to upgrade to 4K (an additional $20 per month after promotional period expires). Here is how they are doing it. If you follow the Warriors you can direct TYTV to automatically record all their games. Well, for todays game, which is being broadcast on the NBATV channel (which is included in YTTV) the auto recording has been disabled. The game on NBATV has been renamed to Center Court, which doesn’t appear on the Warriors feed or the NBA feed. Instead, on these feeds YTTV is helpfully (sarcasm) advertising that you can upgrade to 4K, which will allow you to record the game. I almost signed up for the free trial just so I could record this game before I realized it was actually being shown in non 4K on the normal non 4K NBATV channel. By disabling recording for this game they are just trying to trick you into signing up for 4K. I know that Google/YouTube employees read this board. Please tell you bosses this. The American consumer is tired of this underhanded dishonest conduct. Knock these dark patterns off.

2 comments

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lukevp
They also give you a 14 day trial for YT TV, but a 30 day trial for the 4K. They’re obviously hoping if you like YT TV and keep it after the 14 days that you won’t realize halfway through the next month that you’re also charged $20 more for 4K. Why not make the trials match up in length?
NackerHughes
The average American consumer would not notice this dark pattern and mindlessly sign up for 4K, which is exactly what google/YT want. They aren't going to change a thing. Meanwhile, you can vote with your wallet and cancel your youtube TV subscription and watch the game by another means. Pirate it if you have to. What, would you rather give more money to these sleazy sadistic corporations?