YouTube TV subscribers are once again about to face a massive increase in their bill. Starting on January 13, the price for current subscribers is going up from $72.99 to $82.99 a month, an increase that Google’s parent company Alphabet said in an email to customers is to match “the rising cost of content” and investments on and around the platform. New subscribers will have to pay the new price starting today. It’s the heftiest hike for the popular live and on-demand television service since 2020, coming just over a year and a half since it last added another $8.00 to its monthly plan.
“We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this has an impact on our members,” the email on Thursday read. “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.” With its last price increase, the news wasn’t entirely unsurprising after YouTube had made the move to snap up NFL Sunday Ticket just months prior in a high-profile mega deal. The cost of streaming only continues to get more expensive these days, though, as today’s news now pulls the platform in line with its competitor, Hulu+Live TV, which just raised prices itself back in October.
Since its launch in 2017 for just $34.99, YouTube TV has managed to over double its cost in a fairly short period of time. The height of the pandemic in 2020 was key to driving the price to where it is now, as it rose $15 from $49.99 to $64.99. Such increases haven’t driven away business though. This year marked a new high for the platform according to the Nielsen Gauge, as the service accounted for roughly 10.8% of all television use in November. It’s one of the most consistently popular live television services with a reported subscriber base of 8 million and has become a real threat to be the top paid television service in the U.S. as soon as 2026. Though Alphabet doesn’t specifically list YouTube TV’s performance separate from YouTube itself, the platform as a whole has raked in an eye-watering $50 billion over the past 12 months as of the parent company’s Q3 report.
Other Streaming Services Have Continued to Raise Prices
YouTube TV isn’t the only one getting more expensive either. Back in August, Disney once again announced price increases for its “Disney Bundle” – Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. While not all plans were affected, most, particularly deals for the individual services and the ad-supported bundle, saw serious increases, with the highlight being Disney+’s ad-free tier soaring to $15.99 a month. The company’s flagship service has been thriving of late, between the release of Deadpool & Wolverine online and the new Star Wars show Skeleton Crew along with its other IPs. Streaming price increases have become as inevitable as death and taxes though, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
Stay tuned here at Collider for future updates on the state of streaming.
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