Google Takes on Cable With ‘YouTube TV’—40 Channels for $35
YouTube
Google just joined the “skinny bundle” TV war with YouTube TV, a paid
subscription service that streams a slew of premium broadcast and cable
networks to your mobile device, tablet, computer, and anything with
Chromecast.
Just $35 a month gets you six accounts and access to live TV from more
than 40 providers including the big broadcast networks, ESPN, regional
sports
networks and dozens of popular cable networks. Subscriptions include cloud
DVR with unlimited storage, AI-powered search and personalization, and
access to YouTube Red programming. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki calls it the
evolution of television, and a bid to “give the younger generation the
content
that they love with the flexibility they expect.”
So-called skinny bundles include only those channels you really want, at a
price that is cheaper than traditional cable. They also bring the world
one step closer to the day when you can watch what you want, when you want,
when you want, on the device you want. YouTube TV joins a growing wave of
services, including Dish’s Sling TV, Sony PlayStation Vue, and AT&T’s new
DirectTV Now, with a similar web TV offering from Hulu expected soon. And
like these other options, unfortunately, YouTube still has some holes with
its
offering.
YouTube says it spent two years working on this, and reportedly landed its
first partner in October when CBS signed on for the skinny bundle. Other
big networks like ABC, NBC, Fox, are on board, but several premium
channels,
like MTV and CNN, aren’t. You can add content like Showtime and soccer for
an added fee, but some content comes with restrictions. If you’re a pro
football fan, for example, you’ll have to watch games on your TV or
computer
because the NFL’s deal with Verizon made it off-limits to your mobile
device. And no matter what you watch or what you watch it on, you may see
ads—
Google, being Google, and its network partners can sell ads on YouTube TV
to
bring in additional revenue.
The company won’t say when the service launches, but says you can expect
it in the US in the “coming weeks and months.”
Still, YouTube TV shows how far the company has come since its founding in
2005, when it was little more than a place for people to share homemade
video clips. Today YouTube is the biggest online destination for video,
with
people watching more than 1 billion hours of video each day. And if there’s
one thing the Internet’s biggest video company getting into this space
proves, it’s that such a la carte viewing is the inevitable future of
television.
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