YouTube TV today announced a price hike for all users, first hitting new subscribers immediately and then arriving for existing subscribers beginning with billing cycles after May 13. The price hike will be a $10 increase on the monthly cost of the live TV streaming service, boosting the price of the platform to $49.99/month. The cost of YouTube TV will be even more if you subscribe to the service through one of Apple's devices, as those members will be billed at $54.99/month due to the 30 percent cut that Apple takes during the first year of an annual subscription. Apple's policy has resulted in divergent prices for numerous apps and services on the App Store, leading to legal battles with companies like Spotify. For YouTube TV, the company says that the price increase is so that it can keep bringing its customers "the best possible service," today including the addition of Discovery network branded channels. Eight total channels are being added to YouTube TV as of this week: Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend. EPIX is also available for an additional charge. That means YouTube TV has now grown to over 70 channels. The base price of the service also includes 6 accounts per household, a cloud DVR with no storage space limits, 3 concurrent streams, and local affiliate coverage in over 90 percent of the markets where YouTube TV is available (which is now all U.S. markets). With today's news of a price hike, YouTube TV is now the third major over-the-top streaming service to announce a price hike in the past month. DirecTV Now started the trend in early March with a $10/month price hike, then FuboTV followed later in the month with a $10/month price hike, and now YouTube TV customers are facing their own $10/month subscription increase. With the changes, Hulu With Live TV and PlayStation Vue are now the cheapest options among the major platforms, and YouTube TV sits in the middle in terms of cost for entry-level subscriptions. SlingTV - $25/month for "Orange and Blue" with limited-time discount - $25/month for "Orange and Blue" with limited-time discount Hulu With Live TV - $44.99/month - $44.99/month PS Vue - $44.99/month for "Access" tier - $44.99/month for "Access" tier YouTube TV - $49.99/month - $49.99/month DirecTV Now - $50/month for "Plus" and "Live a Little" - $50/month for "Plus" and "Live a Little" FuboTV - $54.99/month for "Standard" This is the third price hike in YouTube TV's history. The service originally cost $35/month and then increased its price to $40/month in the spring of 2018.<doc-sep>Good and bad news, YouTube TV subscribers. YouTube is adding nine new channels to its live TV service. But it's also raising prices. Previously priced at $39.99 a month, YouTube TV now costs $49.99 a month. Those billed through Apple, meanwhile, will be charged $54.99 per month. The price hike went into effect Wednesday for new members. Existing subscribers will see the new rate on their bills after May 13. As a silver lining, YouTube is adding Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend to the service. The company also plans to add OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network later this year. You can also now subscribe to Epix through YouTube TV for an extra charge. In a statement, YouTube TV VP of Product Management Christian Oestlien said the company is raising prices "to keep bringing you the best service possible." YouTube TV earned an "excellent" rating in PCMag's review earlier this year. We praised its "excellent lineup of sports and news channels," "robust and easy-to-use DVR features," and "intuitive user interface." On the down side, we noted it was missing some popular channels, but the additions announced this week should help with that. YouTube TV isn't the only video streaming service to get more expensive as of late. AT&T recently raised the price of its DirecTV Now service by $10. Hulu in January also gave its live TV plan a $5 price hike, and Netflix that same month raised prices by $1 to $2 across the board. This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.<doc-sep>Even in an era of bundle bloat for virtual MVPDs like DirecTV Now and Sling TV, the recent news that YouTube TV had agreed to a carriage deal for Discovery’s major networks was a surprise, taking its total network count to 80. Even more so was the fact that YouTube TV was increasing its monthly fee to $49.99. $10 more for Discovery’s networks? Analysts are praising the deal for Discovery. Most of their major networks are included, with eight initially being available and OWN being added later in the year. The deal has increased Discovery’s VMVPD coverage to 71% of homes with a subscription, up from the low 58% they had following their departure from DirecTV Now (only Viacom had worse coverage of the major network groups). But when it comes to YouTube, the reaction is more confusion than celebration. Considering the recent growth that YouTube TV has experienced, with total subscriptions estimated to have increased by 400,000 in Q4 2018 and reportedly over a million subscribers, it appeared that YouTube had hit a sweet spot with consumers. It was lower priced than most competitors (including the other fast-growing service, Hulu with Live TV) and offered a higher than average number of channels. YouTube TV was also estimated to be incurring heavy losses in spite of increasing the monthly fee by $5 in March 2018. The Information estimated last summer that the cost to YouTube per month for its network bundle was $49; given the subscription was priced at $40, this meant that YouTube was losing at least $9 a month per subscriber, as this doesn’t include the costs of running the service. With the estimated 400,000 new subscribers at the end of 2018, that amounts to $3.6 million extra per month. Chump change perhaps for parent Alphabet, but a growing loss nonetheless. The cost of adding the Discovery networks to YouTube TV (estimated from SNL Kagan’s carriage fees and assuming a 6% increase a year) amounts to around $1.90 immediately, rising to $2.01 once the OWN channel is included. With the monthly subscriber increase of $10, this means around $8 will be available after for YouTube. But this isn’t profit. Instead, this will staunch the losses the service is making, to a more palatable $1 per subscriber per month. There may be value to subscribers with these new networks. However, YouTube couldn’t raise their prices for the second year in a row by a substantial amount without giving their consumers something. (It’s also easier to do it this way than to let consumers know they’re not paying the true cost for the service, and they have to spend $8 more per month without getting anything in return). The timing of the announcement is also interesting. It happened one month before the upfronts, so Discovery can tell advertisers they are reaching over a million more (mostly young) consumers who don’t have traditional Pay TV. The impact of the price hike on YouTube subscribers will also be noted after the upfronts happen. Should the number of subscribers fall, as could well be likely with this move, it will be after advertisers see YouTube’s upfront pitches with the most up-to-date numbers for the year to date. It could be as well that YouTube chases more of the addressable advertising pie this year, and, as they are one of only three VMVPD providers to offer individual user profiles, going out there with the maximum number of addressable individuals can only aid their cause. It’s important to note that addressable advertising by household carries a much higher CPM ($40) than standard advertising ($10), and that addressable by individual has a premium on top (at least $50 per CPM). YouTube’s biggest rival currently for addressable is Hulu, as they also have user profiles and a higher subscription count, so the timing for the price hike is fortunate. YouTube TV enters the upfronts with a wide range of networks, its highest subscriber count ever, and the capability for individual addressable ads. It will likely keep two of those three in the months following, but with the service price now above both the mean and median for VMVPDs, it is tough to see their rapid growth continue unencumbered.<doc-sep>
YouTube launched its competitor to cable TV two years ago, charging $35 a month, but it's now over 40 percent more expensive. Google raised the price of YouTube TV to $40 in March 2018 and yesterday announced it's raising the price again, this time to $49.99. In both cases, the Google-owned streaming TV service paired the price hike with extra channels, but subscribers have to pay the new, higher price whether they want the new channels or not. "To keep bringing you the best service possible, we are also updating our membership pricing," YouTube TV told subscribers in an email yesterday. "The price for new and existing members will be $49.99/month." The new price is effective immediately for people who sign up for new YouTube TV service, Google said. Existing subscribers will pay the higher rate "in their subsequent billing cycle after May 13." The price is higher still for customers who get billed through Apple—they'll pay $54.99/month to account for the fees Apple charges distributors. But you can order service on YouTube's website to avoid the $5 markup. Discovery, Oprah among new channels The new channels added to YouTube TV this week are Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend. Later this year, the service will add OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. "This means that you'll be able to follow along on the adventures of Sig Hansen and Captain Keith Colburn on Deadliest Catch, watch as Drew and Jonathan Scott create dream homes on Property Brothers, and celebrate as Randy Fenoli and the Kleinfeld crew help brides in Say Yes to the Dress," the company blog post said. For an extra $6 a month, customers can add the newly available EPIX channel. Other premium channels such as Showtime and Starz were already available as add-ons. In all, YouTube TV includes more than 70 channels, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, AMC, ESPN, CNN, and BBC America. You can see the full list at the service's website; enter your ZIP code to find out which local news and sports channels are included. TV providers generally blame the rising cost of programming for their price hikes. Prices keep rising significantly whether you subscribe to a cable or satellite package or a streaming equivalent. AT&T this month is raising the price of its DirecTV Now streaming service by $10 a month, with packages starting at $50. DirecTV had already raised prices for satellite customers in January. Comcast hiked its "Broadcast TV" and "Regional Sports Network" fees again on January 1, raising the price of cable TV even for customers under contract. Charter has similarly been raising its cable TV prices. YouTube TV still has an advantage over cable and satellite in that it doesn't include tons of extra fees that raise the price well above the advertised rates. As Google notes in a support article on the new pricing, "The updated pricing will continue to include DVR with unlimited storage, up to 6 accounts per household, and 3 concurrent streams," while "No additional fees are required for broadcast, HD, set-top box, DVR, or otherwise." Hulu's live TV service starts at $45 a month. Sling TV, which has fewer channels in the base package but more à la carte options, starts at $25 a month.