GOOGLE RAISES PRICE OF YOUTUBE TV, ADDS SPORTS, TURNER
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| Google is raising the price of its YouTube TV online service for new customers as it adds channels |
Less than one year
after launching YouTube TV, the company is increasing its pricing to $40 per
month from $35 per month as it adds Turner’s channels, which include TNT, CNN
and TBS, and soon will be adding MLB Network and NBA TV, the company said.
Google is expanding
its offering at a time when a growing number of competing services, such as
Dish Network Corp’s Sling TV, AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Hulu, are vying to win
over the growing number of viewers who are cancelling their cable subscriptions
to watch their favorite shows online.
The four largest
cable and satellite companies lost 1.5 million pay TV customers in 2017.
DirectTV Now has
over 2 million subscribers, according to AT&T. Sling TV, Hulu and YouTube
TV do not disclose how many users they have, but research firm BTIG estimates
they respectively had 2.1 million, 500,000 and 350,000 as of the end of 2017.
The costs for these
competing offerings range from $20 for Sling TV’s most basic offering of 30
channels to $39.99 for Hulu’s one with more than 50 channels and its library of
shows and movies, which costs $7.99 separately.
Google is betting
that its strong sports offering will help win over more subscribers, said
Heather Moosnick, director of content partnerships, YouTube TV.
“Sports is really
one of the key offerings that a millennial would be willing to pay for a live
TV service,” she said.
To that end, Google
has targeted sports fans with its TV ads this year. Ninety-six percent of
YouTube TV’s ads on television so far this year have appeared during sports
programming, including the Super Bowl, according to iSpot.tv, which tracks TV
ads.
When Google launched
YouTube TV last April it was cautious with how much content it was offering so
that it could keep the price low enough to entice cord cutters or people
considering cutting the cord, Moosnick said.
At launch YouTube TV
offered almost 50 channels in five markets. With these additions, YouTube TV
will have almost 60 channels, and be in 100 markets, Moosnick said.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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