Variety: YouTube TV Raises Price 14%, to $83 per Month, Citing ‘Rising Cost of Content’

Story from Variety:

YouTube TV is getting more expensive — outpacing the rate of inflation — with a 14% price increase for the streaming pay-TV package going into effect for new customers immediately.

The cost of a new YouTube TV base plan subscription is increasing from $72.99 to $82.99, starting Dec. 12, 2024, for new users, the company said in a message to customers Thursday. The new price will go into effect Jan. 13, 2025, for most existing users, while those on existing trials and promotional rates “will not be affected.” The increase is “due to the rising cost of content,” according to YouTube.

With the higher fee, YouTube TV has now more than doubled in price in just under five years, from $40/month as of March 2018 to $83/month.

“We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this impacts our members,” the YouTube TV team wrote in a thread on X. “With many exciting shows and live events coming up in 2025, we remain committed to bringing you the best of TV, all in one place. Thank you for being a loyal member.”

YouTube TV will continue to include more than 100 channels, a DVR with unlimited storage, up to six accounts per household, and the ability to watch up to three concurrent streams, the company said.

The service most recently raised the price of the baseline YouTube TV package in March 2023, when it upped the fee from $64.99 to $72.99/month.

YouTube TV is the biggest internet-delivered pay-TV service in the U.S. In February, Google announced that YouTube TV had more than 8 million subscribers (it doesn’t regularly break out the number of premium subscribers). The second-biggest virtual pay-TV provider is Disney’s Hulu + Live TV, which stood at 4.6 million subscribers as of the end of September 2024.