With YouTube TV increasing its subscription price again by $10 per month, I think it’s time to admit that Cutting The Cord was the biggest scam of all time

USA Today – YouTube TV announced Thursday that it will once again increase the price of its subscription service.

In an email to customers, YouTube TV said it would increase its prices by $10 starting next year “to keep pace with the rising cost of content and the investments we are making in the quality of our service.” to keep”.

Starting January 13, 2025, the monthly price for a basic YouTube TV subscription will increase from $72.99 per month to $82.99 per month.

YouTube TV told USA TODAY that users can pause or cancel their subscription service.

“We do not make these pricing decisions lightly and give all members the flexibility to cancel their membership at any time,” said Allison Toh, a YouTube spokeswoman.

Toh also shared that the new price takes effect today for new members. All existing YouTube TV members will see the new price in their next billing cycle on or after January 13, 2025.

After its launch in 2017, YouTube TV gained popularity due to its low-cost entertainment service, which led many people to cut the cord from their cable.

“Cut the cord,” they shouted. Internet television and streaming is not only the wave of the future, it is also dramatically cheaper, as they condescendingly lectured us. And like idiots, we gave in to it.

“Cutting the cord” was supposed to be the move that saved us all. In 2017, the idea was simple: ditch the greedy cable providers and their $200 monthly bills, subscribe to a nifty little streaming service and enjoy the splendor of all your favorite channels for half the price. Enter YouTube TV, the hero we didn’t deserve but desperately needed, coming into our lives for a cool $35 a month. Fast forward to today: YouTube TV just announced that it is raising its price again. Starting January 13, 2025, you’ll pay $82.99 per month for the basic plan.

Spare me the corporate chatter about “rising content costs” and “investing in high-value services.”

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? When YouTube TV launched, it was a revolutionary, the Robin Hood of streaming services, offering live TV for $35 a month. By 2019, that number increased to $49.99. In 2020 it increased to $64.99. Back then, 2023 gave us $72.99, and now it’s $82.99. At this rate, it will hit triple digits before we even get a proper NFL Sunday ticket package. They’ve added Spanish-language networks, sports packages, and other bells and whistles, but here’s the kicker: Not everyone asked for them.

A few years ago Chief mentioned this on Twitter and I agreed. I felt like an idiot.

Not only was I overwhelmed every month by the 100 different streaming networks I had to use just to watch the shows. I used to be able to find everything in one place – but now, instead of having to search for what I wanted on Comcast or using DirecTV’s home screen, we have to quit one app and then find and open another. And damn if you’re logged out of your account and need to log in again.

But I digress.

My friend, the scholar and gentleman Rear Admiral, jumped in on the answers and told me I was crazy.

He texted me and told me there was no way I could pay that much and that streaming was the best thing to happen since Technicolor television.

Advertising

The original appeal of cutting the cord was its simplicity. Pay less, watch what you want, no extra nonsense. Now we’re drowning in subscription services. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Apple TV+ and God knows what else. Want to watch all your favorite shows? Great, just pay $15 here, $20 there, another $10 for the “premium” version without ads, and you’re back to spending more on cable than ever before.

I’m not a mathematician, but here are some basic numbers:

$83/month for YouTube TV

$21/month for HBO

$23/month for Netflix

$13/month for Paramount

$16/month for Disney+

$15/month for Prime

$10/month for AppleTV

And these are just the basic packages.

If you actually want to see things crystal clear on your 100,000 billion megapixel TV, that’s an additional $9.99 per month.

Not to mention the sports packages and so on for your TV service.

Not to mention what it costs to watch the NFL on the 30 different services showing games this season.

And it’s not just the money; it’s the effort. Do you remember flipping through cable channels? Simple, airy, done. Now you have to sift through five different apps to find out who owns the streaming rights The office this month. Want to watch live sports? Good luck. Half the games are blocked and the other half are on an obscure service you didn’t even know existed.

YouTube TV’s price increase is just the icing on the cake of this absurd sundae. They charge more while delivering the same product. In the meantime, executives are probably toasting champagne in a boardroom and celebrating their “flexibility” while we can’t decide which streaming service to shut down next.

And where does it end? That’s the real question. What options do we have? It’s not like there really are any. All services are basically priced the same, so you basically don’t have to do anything else to decide which service you want to switch to, while also figuring out what you’ll lose compared to what you’ll gain . We’re at their mercy, just like we were at the cable companies’ mercy, but now it’s even more dispersed. You can continue to increase the fees and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

“Cut the cord,” they said. “Save money,” they said. It’s a scam, people. Cable may have been a pain in the ass, but at least it didn’t require a damn spreadsheet to keep track of your subscriptions. The revolution promised us freedom, but instead we got a buffet of fragmented, overpriced options. If this is “progress,” then we have completely failed. We should have known. Something that seems too good to be true always is.