From YouTube’s Offical Blog, verbatim:
We love TV. We love the shows, live sports, and can’t-miss events that drive our FOMO and need for #spoileralerts. But while what we watch on TV seems to get better every year, the way we watch TV never seems to change. How long do we have to wait until we can watch live TV on the go, on all our devices? When will we have DVRs big enough to handle all the things we want to record? And when will we be able to get the channels we care about, at a price we can afford, without all the commitments, equipment fees, and hassle?
The answer? Today.
Finally, live TV made for us. YouTube TV is here.
Today, we’re launching YouTube TV in the nation’s largest metro areas — New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia —with more U.S. markets coming soon. A YouTube TV membership is only $35 a month, less than half the average cost of cable. And there are no commitments; you can cancel anytime.
We can’t wait for you to experience YouTube TV for yourself, so we’re giving you a free one month trial. We’ll also give you a complimentary Google Chromecast after your first month’s payment, while supplies last.
With a YouTube TV membership, you’ll get:
• Live TV streaming from ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports Networks, Comcast SportsNet and dozens more. YouTube TV gives you the best of live TV, from must-see shows like “Empire,” “The Voice,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Scandal,” to the live sports you want from the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NCAA. Based on where you live, you’ll get your local broadcast TV stations covering local sports and news. You’ll also get dozens of popular cable channels, including FX, USA, Disney Channel, Bravo, MSNBC, Fox News. And you can add Showtime or Fox Soccer Plus for an additional charge. In total, YouTube TV will give you more than 50 networks, listed below.
• A cloud DVR, with no storage limits. With YouTube TV, your cloud DVR can record as many shows as you want, simultaneously, without ever running out of storage. You can keep each of your recordings for nine months.
• TV when it matters, where it matters. You can watch YouTube TV on your phone, tablet or computer—and you can easily stream to your TV with a Google Chromecast or Chromecast built-in TV (we’ll be supporting even more connected TV devices later this year). And your cloud DVR goes with you, so you can stream your recordings on any device, whenever you want and wherever you go in the U.S.
• YouTube Red Originals. With a YouTube TV membership, you can watch all of our YouTube Red Original series and movies right in the new YouTube TV app.
• Six accounts included. You can share your YouTube TV membership with your family and roommates, and each account will receive its own unique recommendations and cloud DVR with no storage limits. Your household can watch up to three streams at a time.
• More networks coming soon. We’re excited to announce that AMC, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, WE tv, and BBC World News will be included soon at no additional charge. These networks will join Telemundo and others listed below as networks coming to YouTube TV soon after launch. This means you’ll be able to watch shows like “The Walking Dead,” “Doctor Who,” and your favorite telenovelas. And you’ll also be able to add Sundance Now or Shudder for an additional charge.
To get started, check out tv.youtube.com today to start your free trial. If you’re not in one of the initial launch markets but want to find out when YouTube TV is coming to your area, you can sign up here.
MacDailyNews Take: Besides the fact that it’s Google and we don’t trust them with our viewing or any other data, no Discovery Channel*, no sale. No HGTV either; the wives’d kill us**. There are several other missing pieces as well. The list of omissions will be different for everyone.
It also seems to be Chromecast-only; no mention of Apple TV that we can see.
For now, Sony’s Playstation Vue*** remains our go-to service choice (over DirectTV Now and SlingTV).
*We mean, cripes, we need our Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold, etc.
**Dead; with immediacy
**Worst-named, but best-featured service currently available
SEE ALSO:
Record live TV without a cable subscription – March 23, 2017
Making sense of myriad cord-cutting options – March 17, 2017
The ultimate cable television cord cutting solution for Apple TV owners – February 17, 2017
Sony releases PlayStation Vue app for Apple TV – November 17, 2016
If they had the Golf Channel and the Tennis Channel, I’d sign up!!!
You actually pay to watch people play Golf and Tennis?
Golf, while fun to play, is the only game more boring on TV than Major League Baseball. Tennis is right up there with watching paint dry or grass grow.
To each his own…
And yet Apple is still paying Eddie Clueless Cue who apparently cannot shoot fish in a barrel. With more money than Gawd, he cannot close the deal.
$35 a month. Google is aiming to kneecap AT&T (DirectTV Now), (Dish) Sling and HULU (Disney/Comcast/Fox), etc.
And Apple has planet of the Apps. Kind of makes you proud to be a shareholder, right?
I am firmly convinced Eddie Cue could not get laid in a whorehouse with a briefcase full of money.
What exactly has and is Eddie Cue doing?
Kinda hard for Eddie to shoot the fish without the ammo (user data). 😛
I bet half the shit they say is available requires more subscriptions/money.
This is still bundled cable service. And the bundle has too many channels that I never watch (and that are usually the most expensive to carry; ESPN and its children Fox Sports and its children).
I have yet to see a bundle that would appeal to people like me: ideally, premium cable, Discover / NatGeo, usual women’s channels (such as Life, Hallmark, Cooking, Food, etc. for the wife), local PBS stations… I’d even take a package with broadcast networks and news/weather, as long as I’m not subsidising other people’s sports privileges.
Regrettably, people like me (with zero interest in watching sports, rather than actually participating) will never be a consideration for cable operators and other streaming bundlers. There are simply too few of us to even bother to develop a package that would work for us. And by bundling sports in every package, operators can spread their cost across the entire customer base (meaning that I essentially pay part of your own sports watching). There has yet to appear an à-la-carte service that will let you pick and choose your channels, so for now, we are all subsidising someone (you may watch sports, but not care for PBS or Discover, thereby subsidising my watching of those channels). My only gripe is that for every one HGTV or Food Network that costs $0.49 per month to carry, there are twelve ESPN and eight Fox Sports channels, costing $1.20 each. I read somewhere that half of the cable TV monthly cost (for all the hundreds of channels we get) goes for the handful of sports channels.
I’m really tired of people complaining about bundled tv services. A la carte will never work like we’d want it to. To break everything up your costs will skyrocket and your overall value will plummet. Without the bundled model, some of your favorite channels would have never come to light.
The current TV model is definately broken when I have to pay $240 just for tv and internet. With YouTube TV I could cut my cable bill in half!!! Nothing would make me happier than to take the power out of the hands of the “monopolistic” cable companies and put it right back into the hands of the people. Cable operators should just step back and accept their roles as dumb pipes and let the true innovators step forward and disrupt the tv industry and not just break up bundles.
Apple …. At this point I would be happy just to see Apple strike a deal and get the AppleTV in as a substitute for the outdated cable boxes that we are subjected to use. Just that alone would save me $480 a year and upgrade my overall experience.
It looks like a pretty good offering. No CNN. And although I don’t care about Fox News, I know a lot of people here do, and that’s missing. The price is great. The lack of Apple TV support is a non-starter. I think Chromecast stinks. But it does show that a reasonably priced skinny bundle is possible. They really should fire Eddie Cue if he can’t get this done. If the premium package of pay channels is the best Apple will offer, that’s ludicrous.
(Casual head Bob in acceptance)