YouTube Is About To Take Over TV With New $35 Per Month Streaming Cable Plan
If you didn’t already know, YouTube is kind of a big deal and it looks like the site is about to take over the world completely. It pretty much already has, but this move here could be the end-all-be-all.
YouTube, which is actually a Google site, made a major announcement on Tuesday that it will be launching a new $35 per month TV service cable package set to launch this spring.
Here are some more details via Recode:
Like other new digital TV services, YouTube TV won’t offer every network that cable TV services provide; instead it will feature a “skinny bundle,” composed of the four broadcast networks — Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC — along with some of the cable channels related to the broadcasters. Which means you’ll also get networks like Fox News, ESPN and Bravo; YouTube execs says the base package will include about three dozen channels.
YouTube TV will compete with digital TV services launched in the last few years by Dish Networks, Sony and AT&T. Hulu, which is jointly owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox, Comcast* and Time Warner, will launch its own pay TV bundle this spring.
One thing that distinguishes YouTube TV from its competitors is that while it will feature cable networks owned by companies that also own broadcast networks — so it will offer both ESPN and ABC, both owned by Disney — it doesn’t feature any networks owned by programmers that operate exclusively on pay TV, like Viacom, AMC or Time Warner.
As for some of the specific features, here you go (they’re killer):
A cloud DVR with unlimited storage space, included in the base package. (That’s a feature Hulu has been talking about selling as an add-on to base package.)
A recommendation system powered by Google’s AI.
“Reliability and scalability” — a not-veiled reminder that other digital TV services have had technical struggles when they first launched.
Is there anyone on earth that wouldn’t love to see this take out Comcast? If you’ve ever dealt with Comcast in any capacity imaginable you know that it’s hell. As soon as you dial that bogus 1–800 number you realize your entire day is ruined, you’re going to be charged for something unheard of and have an urge to jump off of the roof of your house instead of dealing with those clowns.
Comcast is actually the worst company out there. Period.
It’s also worth pointing out that no one between the ages of, I’d say, 18–30 buy traditional cable anymore. There really isn’t a point when you can stream pretty much every sporting even on the planet via the Internet, every good show nowadays is on Hulu and Netflix and if you want to watch a cable show you watch it a couple of hours after it launches on the stations app on your smart TV/phone/whatever hell else device.
Traditional cable is on the way out, it has been for years and years.
Anyways, YouTube TV is coming and it sounds pretty incredible. Oh, and it’s only $35 per month, that’s better than any cable company out there.
