Orbi-Wan Techno

So, after about six months of DirecTV Now, we signed up for the week-long trial of YouTubeTV to do a comparison of the services. During that week, they added TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, etc. This was what made us drop DirecTV Now altogether and pay for YTTV. In addition to a better viewing experience, an easier to use channel guide AND the SEC Network and four ESPN channels for $35, they offer DVR functionality with unlimited storage and the ability to share with up to six family members, all who have their own login and user experience, plus each person can access YTTV on three devices at a time. Oh, and they have 3 of our 5 local channels in the line-up with OnDemand for the other two networks. Another bonus is access to YouTube Red at no additional cost, and we've already found and enjoyed a lot of their original content.

We did buy my sister-in-law an updated Roku stick for her login account, and we are currently looking at Samsung and LG TVs with the YouTube TV app already installed.

We have had nothing but a positive experience with YouTube TV so far.

seltzer77

Any user experience updates on YouTube Live TV? Starting to do some research into streaming live tv services, and this looks to be the best (on paper).

Only things it appears to be missing for me are NFL Network/Redzone, NHL Network, and HBO (which I could get HBO Now separately).

Any recent thoughts?

Thanks in advance...

stingermck

This went Nationwide yesterday .I was finally able to try it out.

parker63

YouTube TV adds more channels, and...raises pricing again. Now it's $49.99 per month.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/yout...ing-its-price/

Today YouTube TV announced that they are adding Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend. YouTube also announced that the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network will be added later this year. In addition, EPIX is now available for an additional charge.

The bad news is the price is going up to $49.99 a month on YouTube TV and $54.99 if you pay through Apple. This new price takes effect today, April 10, for new members. Existing subscribers will see these changes reflected in their subsequent billing cycle after May 13.

Cord Cutters News has reached to Google asking for clarification on what this means for current grandfathered subscribers.

Meathead

Everyone gets the rate hike:

Trevor

$50?! Screw that. Unless they keep me at my grandfathered price ($30?), I’m out.

DaveNinja

Bah! $15 increase sucks. I mainly use it for sports, though,

Raul3

It's the best service of all of them, but yeah, $50 it's too much.

RichC2

My Uverse service is cheaper. Sort of defeats the purpose.

DaveNinja

The price increased happened just days after I took down the HD antenna I had on my roof. I took it down since I had not used it since getting YouTube TV, lol.

DJariya

To me, $50 still isn't expensive. It's Live TV and they're adding more channels. But, adding more channels is obviously contributing to the price increase. Plus they have an Unlimited DVR unlike Hulu and DirecTV. If I was in the market for a Live Internet TV provider, I would consider them.

I understand that to go from $35 to 50 is a significant price increase, but it's not like this is jumping to $100. And I believe you also have access to YouTube Premium with this service, which includes Cobra Kai.

Let me ask you all who have it..,..do they have all the channels you like and watch regularly?

I know the biggest complaint with people who bailed on cable is paying $100+ and only watching maybe 10-15 channels regularly since channels are bundled.

I could see this being a problem to those who are only "Light" to "Moderate" TV watchers and you wanted to keep your entertainment costs really low. So if that's your reason for being upset, then maybe I can see why it's too much.

Trevor

I think part of the problem now is that for many, we were paying ~$150 for a cable/internet bundle, and switched to internet/YouTubeTV for ~$75+$35=$110. So the $15 price increase puts me back to where maybe cable isn’t so expensive after all, especially now that cable companies are improving their DVR and streaming apps.

dvd-4-life

I have Spectrum Cable TV Gold Package and I can stream all my channels(and then some...I have some channels that were supposedly dropped but still remain on the streaming end) and basically this is free because of the Gold Package and the on-demand streaming choices can't be matched (unless maybe Hulu or Netflix or Amazon Prime) so I am happy to pay 150 dollars a month.

Within a year or two the cost of Direct TV Now will probably double plus they are dropping channels(even NFL Network grandfathered package) and I don't know if Direct TV is probably headed into streaming and who know's how much it will cost(unless it becomes DTVN).

Groucho

Depending on who's in your 6 person "family" a lot of people are probably still paying about $8 a month for the service.

Trevor

Check your account/emails for a free 3 months of Showtime, no commitment or automatic billing.

Trevor

Maybe it was limited/unique? Did any other YouTube TV subscribers get free Showtime?

Raul3

Yep, got mine.

Some people were saying that it was for early subscribers, but not sure if that's true. In my case, yeah, I subscribed as soon as it was available.

Trevor

I wasn’t a super early subscriber, but did get in just before that first price increase from (I think) $30 to $35. Hate the new $50 price, but split it with my brother so it’s still bearable.

DJLinus

I got it, too. Nice little perk, especially after the $15 rate hike. I've been considering ending my sub - the new channels add zero value to me since I doubt I'll ever watch them - but I guess I'll stick around a little longer. It worked, Google.

Deftones

YouTube announced today that the stupid forced VOD bullshit on CBS channels has gone away.

I have to say I am impressed with the service coming from DTV. Takes some getting used to layout but I have zero complaints about PQ. In fact, I think sometimes it looks better than the DTV signal I was getting.

kefrank

I posted this in the PS Vue thread to report on what I ended up switching to, but it is probably also useful to re-post it here:

I have broadcast TV mainly for live sports and Youtube TV has some good things going for it in that regard:

• Excellent lineup of sports channels in the base package
• Excellent high frame rate streaming quality in my experience so far
• There's a nice stats feature that lets you pull up current stats for the sporting event you're watching
• Great cloud DVR implementation and features

A couple of minor complaints:

• The "last channel" button on the remote is not implemented for the app. However, you can get back to the previous channel by pressing Down->Down->Down->Enter with the way the GUI currently works.
• On the Guide, college sporting events just show what teams are playing, but it doesn't indicate what the sport is or whether it is men's or women's

I generally try to avoid Google services, but given my options, YoutubeTV appears to be the best one for me at the moment.

Bacon

FWIW
PBS, PBS KIDS and OWN are now live

RichC2

I switched to this after my U-Verse package tripled in price (I mentioned it earlier but holy shit was the non-promo price ridiculous ). Very happy with it.

Meathead

Been very happy with YouTube TV... Nice to have PBS now. I'm really only missing a channel or two but I'm not paying Spectrum's absurd fees for TV service. Hell... it's more than $25 for the broadcast fees, box rental and taxes before they even add the actual service.

Deftones

I really hope the next feature is 5.1 sound. Still ridiculous that isn't standard.