From the Los Angeles Times, by Stephen Battaglio
Do you recall how much money you would have saved by terminating your cable TV service?
The reality of growing programming expenses has returned to cord-cutters when YouTube TV informed users on Thursday that their monthly subscription fee will increase by 14% to $82.99 beginning in January.
Naturally, a lot of unhappy consumers flocked to social media when they discovered that YouTube TV, a streaming service that was promoted as an affordable substitute for more established multichannel providers, had increased its price yet again.
Chris Bakke said on X, “I’m pleased that I made the right financial choice in 2018 and cancelled my $89/month cable package so I can now pay $83/month for YouTube TV, $23/month for Netflix, $16/month for Disney+, $13/month for Paramount, $15/month for Prime, $10/month for AppleTV, and $21/month for HBO.”
Many of YouTube TV’s 8 million customers rely on the service as an affordable method to access cable channels and live broadcasts to complement their preferred streaming options, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Sports lovers who have given up cable but still want to watch live events are particularly fond of YouTube TV.
The price rise goes into effect right before the NFL season enters the playoffs, which draw some of the year’s biggest TV audiences in anticipation of the Super Bowl, the biggest TV event of all, on February 9.
Readers added a Community Note when YouTube TV announced the price increase on X, pointing out that the price had increased by 137% since the service’s 2017 inception. March 2023 marked the most recent price increase.
Even YouTube TV admitted that some of its members would find the growing expenses too much to bear. Customers could stop or cancel their subscriptions using the link the company posted on Xto.
Infuriated customers also bombarded the YouTube TV fan group page on Facebook with grievances, to the extent that several participants requested that the administrator disable comments.
Group member Alan Hulings wrote, “We are subsidizing their bad decision to subsidize NFL SUNDAY TICKET.”
In order to obtain the package of out-of-market Sunday games in 2023, YouTube parent company Google agreed to pay the NFL $2.5 billion annually. The amount is $1 billion more than what DirecTV, the former carrier, paid. YouTube customers can purchase the Sunday Ticket bundle from YouTube TV for an extra $379 annually.)
The fan page shared a video that demonstrated how customers who want to cancel the service are given a discount in exchange for staying, postponing the $10 rise for six months.
A request for comment from YouTube TV was not answered.
The increase in subscription fees is not exclusive to YouTube. Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ are streaming services that have seen price increases from the Walt Disney Company. Disney’s Hulu + Live TV bundle costs $82.99 per month and includes all three Disney streaming services as well as live channels.
Wall Street put pressure on the media businesses to boost their earnings by raising pricing. Some services were introduced with low pricing in an attempt to attract more users as soon as possible, but those charges turned out to be unsustainable.
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