Up, Up, and Away
- Philip Henninge
- Jul 15, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 2, 2021
On June 30, YouTube TV announced a 30% price increase for their streaming service, going from a best in the industry price of $49.99 to $64.99. The reason given was that YouTube added 8 new ViacomCBS channels and due to "the rising cost of content" according to Christian Oestlien, YouTube's VP of product management. YouTube TV launched in 2017 with a monthly price of $35.
Much like airline ticket prices and cell phone charges, ATT&T TV followed suit (intentionally, or not) by raising their monthly fee from $54.99 to $59.99.
This is all very frustrating for me as I had just recently recommended YouTube TV as the best streaming value to several customers. However, the beauty of streaming is that you can drop the service and switch to another provider at any time. Unfortunately, that requires cancelling the current provider, installing yet another app on your streaming device, setting up an account, and learning a new way to navigate channels and record shows.
Below I've listed current streaming offerings, as of July 16, 2020, their price, a link to their website and some notes:
YouTube TV
$64.99/month
85+ channels
17 sports channels for SW Florida, Showtime and Starz but no HBO
AT&T TV
$59.99/month for 12 months
Channel lineup is confusing. HBO is included for 1 year and there are limited ESPN channels
Hulu
$54.99/month
Not sure how many channels, but easy to count almost 70
Lots of ESPN channels and 'local' sports like Fox Sports Florida
Sling TV
Sling Orange
$30/month
30 Channels, no local channels. Does include ESPN
Sling Blue $30/month
50 Channels, some Local channels. Does not include ESPN
Orange + Blue
$45/month
Cloud DVR and other channel 'packages' are additional monthly charges
Fubo TV
Family
$59.99/month
Includes cloud DVR and 101 channels - share 3 screens No ESPN
Ultra
$84.99/month
Cloud DVR 172 channels share 3 screens No ESPN
Based on price and channel availability, I now recommend Sling TV to my customers. However, I have not used any of the streaming services above, so I really can't compare their app's ease of use, or channel offerings. I suggest that if you are thinking of cutting the cord, that you keep a log of all of the programs that you watch for a week (don't forget seasonal programming) so that you can pick the streaming package that meets your needs.
My wife and I live in the Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming world and simply use an antenna, Amazon Recast, and Amazon Firestick for our local channel TV viewing.
So, just like the balloon in The Fifth Dimension's song, streaming prices seem to be going 'Up, Up, and Away'
Thanks for reading!
Phil
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