As much as I hate to admit it, I'll probably still pay it because it's just so much superior to other cable offerings(recording, multiple devices). And there's no other way to watch live sports.
Conveniently too. Last year I went to a friend's house to watch a football game and he refuses to pay for YouTube TV or any sports streaming because 'theres free streams on the internet'.
He had to get up every 5 minutes to refresh Chrome on his laptop he had connected to the TV or find a new stream because they get taken down so quickly.
70$ a month is well worth ever dealing with that shit
Our TV bill just went up and I'm debating exploring YT TV.
What I want is the main Sports Networks (FS1, FS2, ESPN, ESPN2), my Regional Sports Network (but that's a Bally channel now -- and that's kind of a bit of a mess at the moment), and MLB TV (the cable channel, not their own MLB service).
I also want "DVR" for everything, and I want to be able to skip the ads (ideally with a +30s button).
I typically watch my games delayed so I can skip the ads, or even just plain "later". We DVR everything else.
I have YouTube TV now and was pleasantly impressed with the software on Comcast Xfinity when I saw it recently.
Meanwhile YouTube TV on the Apple TV is a shit show, with non-native controls that lag, search that barely works and no integration with system services so searching for a channel by voice doesn’t work. And it still doesn’t free me from having to pay for Fox News!
Unless the software stops being the moral equivalent of electron on the TV, I’ll be moving back to cable when I next move house.
Because its alway been cable. Just Youtube, Sony, Fubo etc are the cable provider.
Yes it streams, but it was never the same as a streaming service.
Something like PlutoTv or the soon to be oversaturated FAST market is just rabbit ears.
Mono culture is coming back big in the next couple of years, and this is how.
When our streaming forefathers spoke of a la carte as the future, they should have specified each individual piece of content and not a la carte channels. It would have saved us all a lot of money.
The issue is is that all the big networks still own all the rights. Initially they sold them for cheap to vMVPDs but now the networks are charging more so YouTube fubo etc have to pay more leading to these price increases.
I think you're pretty right, but that we are currently in a boom time for standalone streaming apps, where in addition to the big guys (Netflix, DisneyHuluESPN, perhaps another 1-2 who do have both access to huge amounts of owned content and great scale) we also have every other video content producer (Warner Discovery/HBO, Paramount, NBC/Peacock, etc) currently trying to make a go of keeping as much of their content exclusive to their own bespoke paid streaming service as they can. Many of these will probably fail and hopefully resume licensing things to streaming platforms that are bigger and more appealing.
Monoculture won't be coming back since a part of it was everyone watching or listening to something at the same time. If you missed the finale of Seinfeld or Cheers you'd have to wait a long time to see it again. No one is keeping their calendar open to watch any sort of media these days.
This is incredibly stupid naming. I saw these prices and just entirely gave up even thinking about premium until I saw the note (and then I still gave up on it, anyway).
Google has decided to use Youtube branding for anything media related. Youtube Music instead of Google Play Music, Youtube Movies & TV instead of Google Play Movies & TV (which is hanging on for now).
I think the smart thing to have done would have been to bundle Youtube TV subscriptions with Youtube Premium access - or at least have a Youtube One subscription plan for $79.99 or something.
Otherwise as a potential new customer, Youtube TV seems to be one of just many offerings with no real advantage.
I dislike price rises, and related I dislike paying for expensive sports licensing I don't watch. Sports fans should pay for sports instead of everyone subsidizing it.
That being said, as someone who helped family move off of cable in the last year, this is only inching closer to cable's headline pricing which is largely a fiction. All the big four providers of cable/satellite have the following pricing:
Sometimes you can keep threatening to cancel, take out a new 12-24 month contract, and keep the "discounted" price. But in my experience each discount is less and less generous relative to what they're advertising.
Then there are taxes & fees. The taxes are, well, taxes and also apply to streaming TV. But a lot of the "fees" have nothing at all to do with government. They're just unavoidable parts of the service's price that the cable/satellite vendors split off to misrepresent the costs.
These include, but not limited to:
- Equipment fee (main box cannot be avoided, additional boxes can be)
- Broadcast TV Fee + Regional Sports Fee (unavoidable)
- HD TV Fee (often if your equipment SUPPORTS HD then you are required to pay it)
- Administrative/Convenience Fees (rarely this can be reduced by jumping through hoops e.g. pay by paper check)
These can easily add $20 to your bill. If your contract doesn't allow monthly increases, that can sometimes not apply to fees (either increases to existing or new ones).
I don't use YouTube TV or Cable. Does this price include having 3 minutes of ads every 10 minutes like cable? If not, it being the same price as cable seems like it would still be a good deal.
Nope, YouTube TV still has ads. A lot of people still pay for it because of the convenience of the DVR and accessibility on all devices without having to maintain anything, but the price to benefit calculation is certainly changing after this.
From TFA, one bright side is that they're reducing the 4K addon to $9.99, down from $19.99. So if you were already paying for that, you come out $2 ahead/month.
Oh, I don't think it's unique to cable, but I do think they're particularly brazen about it and make no attempt to hide the fact they just invent new fees and charges every year for no reason other than to boost profit.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I need to say this on HN, but since you've probably never dated any women, I have to inform you that almost no women actually want to play first-person shooter deathmatches with you.
First, these sorts of comments are best left to Reddit, not here.
Secondly, I'm gay and my boyfriend and I play tons of video games together.
Third, even if I wasn't, I'd probably have the wherewithall to find a girlfriend that shares my interests or at least doesn't have a problem with them.
Amazingly, humans (yes, including women, perhaps shocking to you) are complex and nuanced creatures that find enjoyment across a wide range of activities. Women can absolutely enjoy video games, just not when they're forced to play with sexist creeps like you.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 33.9 ms ] threadHe had to get up every 5 minutes to refresh Chrome on his laptop he had connected to the TV or find a new stream because they get taken down so quickly.
70$ a month is well worth ever dealing with that shit
What I want is the main Sports Networks (FS1, FS2, ESPN, ESPN2), my Regional Sports Network (but that's a Bally channel now -- and that's kind of a bit of a mess at the moment), and MLB TV (the cable channel, not their own MLB service).
I also want "DVR" for everything, and I want to be able to skip the ads (ideally with a +30s button).
I typically watch my games delayed so I can skip the ads, or even just plain "later". We DVR everything else.
Will YT TV let me do that?
Meanwhile YouTube TV on the Apple TV is a shit show, with non-native controls that lag, search that barely works and no integration with system services so searching for a channel by voice doesn’t work. And it still doesn’t free me from having to pay for Fox News!
Unless the software stops being the moral equivalent of electron on the TV, I’ll be moving back to cable when I next move house.
When our streaming forefathers spoke of a la carte as the future, they should have specified each individual piece of content and not a la carte channels. It would have saved us all a lot of money.
The networks can’t achieve economies of scale with independent apps so they have to cave to price pressure too.
I'm sick of ads on YouTube so I was thinking of subscribing.
But it's USD$73 A MONTH? That's like more than AUD$100 a month.
What am I missing? That's about 4 X ridiculous.
"It's a good change..."
You're missing "TV". YouTube and YouTube TV are different products.
Yes, the brands are pretty confusing.
Otherwise as a potential new customer, Youtube TV seems to be one of just many offerings with no real advantage.
Let's put that into the BLS CPI Inflation Calculator (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm).
Results: "$64.99 in June 2020 has the same buying power as $75.84 in February 2023".
So this doesn't quite keep up with inflation.
That being said, as someone who helped family move off of cable in the last year, this is only inching closer to cable's headline pricing which is largely a fiction. All the big four providers of cable/satellite have the following pricing:
- Advertised discount price (12-24 month contract)
- Normal price
- Taxes & Fees
Sometimes you can keep threatening to cancel, take out a new 12-24 month contract, and keep the "discounted" price. But in my experience each discount is less and less generous relative to what they're advertising.
Then there are taxes & fees. The taxes are, well, taxes and also apply to streaming TV. But a lot of the "fees" have nothing at all to do with government. They're just unavoidable parts of the service's price that the cable/satellite vendors split off to misrepresent the costs.
These include, but not limited to:
- Equipment fee (main box cannot be avoided, additional boxes can be)
- Broadcast TV Fee + Regional Sports Fee (unavoidable)
- HD TV Fee (often if your equipment SUPPORTS HD then you are required to pay it)
- Administrative/Convenience Fees (rarely this can be reduced by jumping through hoops e.g. pay by paper check)
These can easily add $20 to your bill. If your contract doesn't allow monthly increases, that can sometimes not apply to fees (either increases to existing or new ones).
Except for those of us who don't watch television and buy blurays of the content we want
Secondly, I'm gay and my boyfriend and I play tons of video games together.
Third, even if I wasn't, I'd probably have the wherewithall to find a girlfriend that shares my interests or at least doesn't have a problem with them.
Amazingly, humans (yes, including women, perhaps shocking to you) are complex and nuanced creatures that find enjoyment across a wide range of activities. Women can absolutely enjoy video games, just not when they're forced to play with sexist creeps like you.
Burning Man has been intertwined with tech culture for like...30 years?