YTTV 12% Price Increase A Bridge Too Far

Jimmie

Jimmie

Recycles dryer sheets
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Nov 23, 2017
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Rocky Point
Received email from YTTV yesterday that our monthly bill will increase from $73 to $83 next month. The original price for YouTube TV was $35 in 2017, meaning that the new $83 price starting in Jan would be a 230% increase over 7 years. Adding on what we pay for other streaming services, we're getting close to what we previously paid for Comcast cable. Content provider's greed is certainly getting out of hand as cord-cutting is no longer going to be the cost savings we all thought it would be in the long term.

It's time to get an OTA antenna and investigate solutions to record shows that way. Any recommendations on what OTA DVR solutions that are effective and easy to maintain? It would be nice to also access DVR recordings remotely when we're out of town.
 
I have an old DVR here that does OTA recording... not sure if it works with the old channels or the new...

The BIG problem was it was just like the old tapes... you could only record specific times and if your show moved too bad.. I did use it for a couple of years before getting cable... well, actually DISH...
 
My very old TIVO came with a lifetime guide that, if it reflects changes in programming times, will adjust for that. It’s not perfect, but it’s cheaper than paying nearly $1000 a year for You Tube TV.
 
The problem for the content providers is that the drumbeat for cable TV's death has removed a stable cash cow for them. Many cord cutters have decided not to settle for a live TV streaming service, instead choosing on-demand TV services or no streaming at all. Sports fans are the main, and very expensive, exception.

Even if people do choose a live TV streaming service, some will pause or cancel service frequently throughout the year. During the heyday of cable and satellite dish TV, the content providers could count on a reliable source of income from TV subscribers. Now, not so much.
 
Every time I've had a Hulu+Live price increase, I revisit the price of a comparable cable packager where I live. If you live alone and only use one TV, cable can be competitive. IME if your a larger household with multiple TVs cable is still WAY more expensive where we've lived. The cable teaser ads I see don't include all the necessary equipment or channels, e.g. local broadcast fees etc. I don't see how cable will ever be more cost effective than streaming with the additional hardware and labor costs, but I'll keep checking periodically. Frankly I'd hate to go back to cable after streaming since Feb 2018 - we've already saved thousands.
 
Jimmie said:
Received email from YTTV yesterday that our monthly bill will increase from $73 to $83 next month. The original price for YouTube TV was $35 in 2017, meaning that the new $83 price starting in Jan would be a 230% increase over 7 years. Adding on what we pay for other streaming services, we're getting close to what we previously paid for Comcast cable. Content provider's greed is certainly getting out of hand as cord-cutting is no longer going to be the cost savings we all thought it would be in the long term.

It's time to get an OTA antenna and investigate solutions to record shows that way. Any recommendations on what OTA DVR solutions that are effective and easy to maintain? It would be nice to also access DVR recordings remotely when we're out of town.
Click to expand...
I got a Tablo Gen4 unit about a year ago and it has performed well after I ditched a subscription service with local channels. It has a dvr function (some internal storage, but not as functional as an added external SSD). The guide is free and the unit has a lot of built-in streaming channels , which are recordable via the dvr service. Especially useful is that the unit sits as a node on your private network and streams to an app on all major streaming devices (I have a Roku Ultra and RokuTV). So you can watch OTA TV on any TV in the house via your network. I believe it's now < $100. How these units perform is dependent on your antenna and signal strength; the unit has an built-in amplifier that is switchable.
 
I abhor "subscribed" expenses of every type.. especially literal subscriptions. My only advice would be to wean yourself off of the pipeline of TV garbage. Loyalty is not rewarded. Sucks that Locast got killed -something I think was unjust. I'd be happy with an antenna but my living configuration no longer works for OTA broadcasts.

Eventually, most content can be found "free" if you wait. I'll sign up for trials of services or occasionally get content through affiliations (mobile, Walmart+, etc) and will catch up eventually.
 
In 2024 I've kept YTTV the whole year, even though I watched very little from end of March Madness until the beginning of football season. Next year I'll probably suspend it for those 4 months. So they'll get less from me with this price increase.
 
We have Fire TV Recast OTA DVRs at each home. To us it is an ideal solution. One remote for each tv. Since all of our TVs have Fire Sticks any of our TVs can access the Recast for either live tv or recorded content. Also, the guide is free.

But alas, Amazon discontinued the Recast a couple years ago but they still work and when they fail we'll do something else.

Other options include a similar gizmo from Sling that integrates OTA content with their streaming packages and a similar offering to the Recast from Tablo.

I tried out the Tablo last summer and returned it after a few days as it wasn't stable enough for me but I think some other forum members have had good luck.

How many OTA stations do you get? All the major broadcast networks?

ETA: The downside of not having cable or streaming of cable channels is that it looks like 2 of the 4 first round CFB championship games will not be available on antenna... TNT/MAX only... the other 2 are available on ABC.
 
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Not sure about other locations but if you get OTA you get all the sub channels they send out...

Some of them here were interesting when I only had OTA...
 
My $25 Mediasonic DVR / OTA tuner is clunky but works. I know some people pay $200+ for cable TV, that is insane.
 
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Texas Proud said:
Not sure about other locations but if you get OTA you get all the sub channels they send out...

Some of them here were interesting when I only had OTA...
Click to expand...
I assume you know OTA channels are very location specific, right down to individual address! People in the same town, even neighborhood can get more or less OTA channels.
 
You can lookup your address at Antenna Signal Prediction to find out the channels you should receive over the air. It’s fairly easy to receive TV channels from 25 miles away with a roof or attic antenna and assuming there isn’t a mountain between you and the transmitters. If you live in a large city, that could be a problem.
 
Yeah, we move around every so often the services. Keeps everything new and the cheapest for us. Usually 2 at a time for ~$10-20 monthly.
 
So, essentially, YouTube TV attracted cord cutters with a great introductory pricing 6-7 years ago and then annually raised prices to the point where the pricing is about what people are paying for cable. In other words, back to square one.

(And, yes, I understand that YTTV has more features and content then cable, but usually the pardigm is that as more users are added, the price tends to go down.)
 
I don’t value DVRs, so YouTubTV never seemed worth it to me.
Even back when TiVo first came out, I rarely used it (even though I bought the lifetime plan).

Between our OTA and streaming services, I can watch almost anything I want to at any time.

A big caveat, I don’t care to watch sports. This seems to be a big expense for Cable and streaming services that include sports.
 
I share YouTube tv with a friend so we each pay half which is a good deal even with the price increase.
 
Zathras said:
I don’t value DVRs, so YouTubTV never seemed worth it to me.
Even back when TiVo first came out, I rarely used it (even though I bought the lifetime plan).

Between our OTA and streaming services, I can watch almost anything I want to at any time.

A big caveat, I don’t care to watch sports. This seems to be a big expense for Cable and streaming services that include sports.
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I think that you are missing the benefit of DVRs... the ability to time shift. We record on local major networks the news each morning and evening and certain shows that we like from OTA to the OTA DVR. The DVR gives us the freedome to do other things without having to be in front of the tv at certain times to see the news or or favorite shows. For example, just this morning I had a 7 am breakfast and 8 am shotgun tee time with some neighbors but this morning's news is recorded on the DVR for me to watch when I can.
 
pb4uski said:
I think that you are missing the benefit of DVRs... the ability to time shift. We record on local major networks the news each morning and evening and certain shows that we like from OTA to the OTA DVR. The DVR gives us the freedome to do other things without having to be in front of the tv at certain times to see the news or or favorite shows. For example, just this morning I had a 7 am breakfast and 8 am shotgun tee time with some neighbors but this morning's news is recorded on the DVR for me to watch when I can.
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Agree, the news, specifically the weather, is the main thing I record. I have the Tablo and as you said, it’s not ready for prime time. However, I keep it because it does do a pretty good job of recording the main channel whose news I like to watch (our ABC station). It’s nice to capture the 6:00 local news and the ABC nightly news without having to be in front of the tv at that time, especially in the summer.
 
Qs Laptop said:
So, essentially, YouTube TV attracted cord cutters with a great introductory pricing 6-7 years ago and then annually raised prices to the point where the pricing is about what people are paying for cable. In other words, back to square one.

(And, yes, I understand that YTTV has more features and content then cable, but usually the pardigm is that as more users are added, the price tends to go down.)
Click to expand...
Yes, that is my impression. Out of interest I have been watching the pricing over the years. I never signed up because I had no interest in broadcast TV and those network shows. I was shocked at how expensive it seemed at first relative to the streaming I was paying for, yet it has only gone up and up and up.
 
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