YouTube TV raises monthly price to $72.99 citing higher content costs
Google's (GOOGL) YouTube TV is getting more expensive.
"After nearly 3 years, we're adjusting our monthly price from $64.99/month to $72.99/month," the platform said in an email to customers on Thursday afternoon. "As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in the quality of our service, we are updating our price to keep bringing you the best possible service."
Existing subscribers will see the new price changes in their first billing cycle on or after April 18.
YouTube TV last increased the cost of its base plan in June 2020 when it hiked prices by 30% to $64.99 a month, up from the previous price of $50. YouTube TV initially charged a monthly fee of just $35 when it launched in 2017.
The news comes just two days after the platform announced it's testing a new "multiview" feature that will allow sports fans to stream up to four preselected games at once.
The multiview option highlights YouTube's heavy focus on sports as competition in the streaming space intensifies. Most recently, the service won the exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket late last year, beating out fellow streaming giant Apple (AAPL), which reportedly backed out of the negotiations.
Sunday Ticket, which makes out-of-market games available to fans nationwide, will be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels starting with the 2023 NFL season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A report from the New York Times suggested YouTube was willing to pay as much as $2.5 billion to acquire the rights, $1 billion more than former rights holder DirecTV paid for the package.
"It's an extremely expensive package of content," Tim Nollen, analyst at Macquarie Group, told Yahoo Finance Live at the time, noting the Sunday Ticket package was not a profitable service for DirecTV.
Still, although Nollen admitted the "math is difficult" due to the high costs, it might be a necessary step forward for companies hoping to survive the streaming wars: "Linear subscribers are falling by the wayside. Streaming subscribers are still growing. It's competitive, but they're still growing, and over time more sports could help to attract more users to those platforms."
"How they'll make enough money to justify double or whatever the price increase is? You'd think they'd have to double the price for the streaming services."
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
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