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YouTube TV Is Adding More Channels, But It's Also Getting More Expensive (theverge.com)
YouTube's internet TV streaming service is expanding its programming with the addition of several Turner networks including TBS, TNT, CNN, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies. YouTube TV is also bringing NBA TV and MLB Network to the base lineup. NBA All Access and MLB.TV will be offered as optional paid add-ons "in the coming months." The downside? The price of the service is going up. The Verge reports: Starting March 13th, YouTube TV's monthly subscription cost will rise from $35 to $40. All customers who join the service prior to the 13th will be able to keep the lower $35 monthly rate going forward. And if you've been waiting for YouTube to add Viacom channels, that still hasn't happened yet. Hopefully these jumps in subscription cost won't happen very often. Otherwise these internet TV businesses might suddenly start feeling more like cable (and not in a good way). The Verge also mentions that YouTube TV is adding a bunch of new markets including: Lexington, Dayton, Honolulu, El Paso, Burlington, Plattsburgh, Richmond, Petersburg, Mobile, Syracuse, Champaign, Springfield, Columbia, Charleston, Harlingen, Wichita, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton.
We need some kind of new law, that states something along the lines of :
"Any collection of video will eventually expand until it costs $50 a month to access, and contains only 5% desirable content".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
YouTube TV is also bringing NBA TV and MLB Network to the base lineup. NBA All Access and MLB.TV will be offered as optional paid add-ons "in the coming months." The downside? The price of the service is going up.
Did Google miss that the reason lots of cord cutters "cut the cord" was because they were sick of paying for sports networks they had no interest in?
So what's the benefit of this compared to regular cable?
Does it have automatically removal or skipping of commericals? Nope...
Does it have on demand viewing? Nope...
Does it have offline viewing? Nope..
Does it have à la carte? Nope...
Does it have more channels? Nope...
Does it have all local channels? Nope, only the main ones... but I guess most cable companies do this too and don't carry the sbuchannels
Instead of what we want, which is a la carte access to certain shows and movies, they want to sell us cable television over the internet. Brilliant. Hopefully no one falls for this.
Antitrust cannot reap Google too soon...
Alternative Right.
I've got a hunch there are some channels that they get paid to place in the lineup. If so, letting you drop those would actually hurt their bottom line. Then there are channels that cost them so much that they simply must charge everyone for them or they would not be able to offer them to those that do want them, due to costs.
Twelve or so years ago my buddy set up a SMATV headend for a new prison (rack mounted, one DirecTV receiver for each channel on the system) and I got to see the price breakdown. ESPN was far and away the highest priced channel, by about a 4:1 ratio. Also, in that case the total monthly charge for a channel was based on the number of beds, not displays. In other words, an eyeball based fee.
IoT may bring that fee schedule to us, instead of Dad yelling about the lights or the thermostat or the mobile phone bill it will be "Don't look at the TV!"
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
exactly. i mean whats the point? If you are close to dead even staying with your cable co. or the equivalent, its not worth the hassle. I have spectrum and if i just choose the basic internet plan (which i think is 75 mbps). its $80 + tax. So i go with youtube and pay $40 + tax and now i'm paying as much or more than what i pay for the previously mentioned basic internet plan + the lowest tier cable package.
The whole point of the interwebs is I consume what I want (pull) not what an ad exec wants me to watch (push.)
I've got a hunch there are some channels that they get paid to place in the lineup. If so, letting you drop those would actually hurt their bottom line. Then there are channels that cost them so much that they simply must charge everyone for them or they would not be able to offer them to those that do want them, due to costs.
Yup, that's exactly how it works - some channel owners pay providers to carry the channels, while the "top-tier" channels are considered must-have and so it's the other way around: the providers pay for the right to carry the channels, and then more often than not there are groups of channels owned by the same company and the rights for them are negotiated as a group. For years, Disney + ESPN (especially ESPN) were considered must-have cable channels, so not only did providers pay for for the "privilege" of including ESPN, they paid a ton for it - easily 25% or more of the fees providers paid for their channel lineup went to ESPN.
ESPN's success is why there has been a proliferation of new cable sports channels, and it's a big part of why ESPN has been weakened so much. But the deals are so valuable and complicated that they end up being deals with a very long duration. For example, Comcast and Disney hammered out a deal in 2012 that remains in effect until 2022 (see https://mediadecoder.blogs.nyt...).
Incidentally, the long duration of these deals is also a major factor in why the TV industry has been moving so frustratingly slow for end users: people were wanting to e.g. watch TV on their computers or phones long before it was allowed because few of the business deals had provisions for anything online. It's not hard to imagine that in 2020, if ESPN is still alive, viewers will be frustrated by some inane restriction due to the fact that the content rights were negotiated way back in 2012. :)
You just made me double-check what we're paying and what we're getting. Already planning a saturday outing to the local cable branch to talk to them about WTF, how the hell did that creep up so high?
The good news is that every couple of years when we do that, and bring the old hardware with us, they somehow manage to hack down the price, hook us up with the better hardware, and add new services. Corporate helldesk line? Fucking abysmal. Local folks? Cheerful helpful, and generally awesome.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
. I'm glad I got rid of all my cable and direct TV stock, that money is now invested .. very differently.
It's bitcoin, isn't it?
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