Category: YouTube TV

YouTube TV has added a seventh premium add-on option to their lineup, AMC Premier.   The more immersive version of AMC can be added to your YouTube TV account for an additional $5 per month.  It joins the likes of Stars, Showtime, and Sundance Network in the premium services lineup of Google’s streaming television service.

AMC Premier is a more user controlled and immersive experience over AMC, which is part of the standard YouTube TV package.  With Premier, users can get ad-free watching, additional show content and other membership benefits.  AMC is the home of shows like The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, and Preacher to name but a few.

The available movies on YouTube TV just got bigger – a lot bigger.  The cord cutting streaming service has announced that Starz is now available on the service for $9 per month.  As usual, it comes with a 7-day trial so you can check it out prior to your first billing.

What’s cool about this is that it isn’t just one Starz channel.  In all, you get the entire 16 channel lineup from Starz with all of the benefits that you have with YouTube TV such as a cloud-based DVR.

YouTube TV, the television streaming service, has updated their available networks page with some exciting new content coming soon.  The changes indicate that Local Now, a local news service, will be added to subscriptions at no additional cost.  Perhaps more exciting is that NBA League Pass and MLB.tv is coming soon too.

Both sports networks will be coming to YouTube TV at some point this year and both are listed as add-on networks.  That means there will be a monthly fee associated with each network but, for NBA and MLB fans, you’ve already been paying it anyway.  This should simplify life.

YouTube TV has announced that several new channels are coming to the streaming television service as well as growth into over 100 markets in the United States.  TNT, Adult Swim, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies are the highlight channels that are added with future additions of NBA League Pass and MLB.tv coming soon.

As part of the announcement, the streaming service will increase their price for new subscribers to $40/month starting March 13th.  If you are a current subscriber, your price will remain $35/month.  And, as an incentive, if you sign up before March 13th, you will get the $35/month price too.

Google’s streaming television service, YouTube TV, has added 34 new markets in its latest expansion efforts.  The new markets bring the total number of markets where the service is available to 84, a substantial increase for the dozen markets that were available at launch.

For those who may not recall, YouTube TV is Google’s streaming television service that, for $35 per month, you get six accounts and access to over 40 channels.  You can access your account from any device even when you are not at home plus you have an unlimited storage cloud-based DVR to record shows to watch later.  The service is aimed at “cord cutters”.

The expansion into new markets is an indicator that Google is seeing success with the service and generally reviews have been positive.

Google’s announcement today of YouTube TV, a subscription based streaming service of live TV, has been met with mixed reviews.  When you compare the service to those of DirecTV Now and Sony Vue, it certainly has big holes in the offering.  It is pretty clear that Google was able to negotiate deals with the national carriers like ABC, CBS and NBC but weren’t (or haven’t completed yet at least) the big brands in cable like Viacom and AMC.  That means things like HBO just aren’t there in the offering.  That doesn’t mean they won’t be later, but Day One, nope.

So is it worth the $35 per month price tag?  It really depends on the content you are wanting to get.  For sure, having the ability to stream your local stations and have them stored in a Cloud DVR has a lot of appeal.  I rarely watch a show in real time.  It is always on my DVR or via an app on my phone or tablet.  I’m not alone, nor are you, and YouTube knows this as well.  The ability to record this week’s Big Bang Theory then watch it when I have time is a big bonus.  So having local channels while I’m on-the-go is nice.

But the real winner for viewers may be sports.