Our YouTube TV Bill Keeps Climbing. Here’s Why We’re Still Subscribed

As many of you know, we have been a YouTube TV household for a few years now. I was trying to remember exactly when we signed up, and I think it was four or five years ago, though I do not recall for sure. We moved to YouTube TV after trying out other streaming options and have not paused or canceled our subscription since we first signed up. Overall, we enjoy the benefits YouTube TV provides, especially its viewing experience and DVR capabilities.

We have certainly seen price fluctuations since we first started using YouTube TV. I believe our bill when we first joined was around $50. We are now at $82.99 per month, and we also have HBO Max and NFL Sunday Ticket, so my monthly bill is around $145. I have NFL Sunday Ticket broken out to charge throughout the year so it does not hit all at once, which was a nice change made last season. Still, that is a lot to pay for watching TV. Plus, like many others, we have subscriptions to Netflix, Apple TV, Disney/ESPN, and more. We spend a significant amount of money each month on streaming entertainment.

Recently, with the MLB season starting and YouTube TV not carrying MLB games, I subscribed to Royals.TV. This also gives me access to watch games from around the league, or I can listen to games through their radio broadcasts. That added another lump sum of money just to watch MLB.

YouTube TV announced different tiers, although we have not seen them show up on our membership yet. They shared that they are gradually rolling them out to their user base, and I believe the full rollout is scheduled by the end of March.

• Sports Plan: $64.99 per month
• Sports and News Plan: $71.99 per month
• Entertainment Plan: $54.99 per month
• News, Entertainment, and Family Plan: $69.99 per month
• Base Plan with all options: $84.99 per month

Customers have been asking for different tiers for a few years. I do not think I will be changing plans, as I use many of the channels. I was hoping for more of a price break with the different packages. It will be interesting to see if they offer future options that allow customers to select individual channels for their package. I know some other streaming services offer this. YouTube TV has been resistant to providing options until recently.

The future looks promising as YouTube TV plans to include ESPN content that is currently streaming only. This will be really nice, as I currently pay separately for ESPN to watch games that are only available on ESPN Plus. From what I understand, once this is integrated into YouTube TV, it will be possible to watch directly within YouTube TV without having to switch to the ESPN app. It will also be possible to record games that previously aired only on ESPN Plus to the YouTube TV DVR. My hope is that once this is introduced, it will allow me to cancel a subscription that is currently billed through Disney and ESPN.

Happy streaming, and enjoy your weekend.

Bally Sports+ Planned Release in Second Quarter for MLB, Soccer, etc. Streaming with a Subscription Required

Bally Sports has finally confirmed that they will be releasing Bally Sports+ here in the second quarter according to an article from The Streamable. How many more things can we have created that are called “+”? This is an aside, but maybe you are wondering the cost to sign up for Bally Sports+. The soft launch will be $19.99 a month or $189.99 a year. Holy crap! $189.99 a year for streaming of sports. This seems rather high to me and not worth the money.

 

I am already using Bally Sports to watch the Royals allbeit from my Mom’s account who lives in Lawrence. I have YouTube TV which does not have Bally Sports because of contract disagreements, but Sling and Dish Network customers are in the same boat where only Direct TV Stream has Bally Sports. I wil note that the Bally Sports app on my Roku, iPad, and iPhone have worked really well since the start of the season, but lately, the app on Roku does not work at all. On my iPhone and iPad, I can watch for a few minutes and then it locks up and has to be restarted. When I read the announcement from The Streamable regarding Bally Sports+ being released soon, that made me wonder if this is on purpose to force us over to the paid subscription.

 

On Roku the Bally Sports app starts, I can go to go to Teams and then the Royals, but if I try to play a recorded or live game, the app shuts down and returns to the main Roku window. This has been happening for three or four weeks now. However, if I open the Bally Sports app on Apple TV, the app works fine and I can watch games. Annoying though that the app is broken on Roku.

 

Just as annoying is that the Bally Sports app on iPad or iPhone simply stops playing video. I have to go out to the main screen of the app and start the feed again. Before long, less than five minutes, it will stop playing stating there is an error. 

 

If Bally Sports decides to make changes so that I can no longer watch Royals through their app from my a TV provider that subscribes to Bally Sports, like Midco in Lawrence, then I will not be paying for their add-on service to simply watch the Royals. I will rely on video clips from YouTube and listen to the radio broadcast. Paying $20 a month to watch the my team is not worth it let alone paying almost $200 a year to be able to watch. Instead, Bally Sports should re-work their deals with YouTube TV, Sling, Dish, Hulu, etc. so that other streaming options are available and likely do it much better than Bally Sports.

 

The season for the Royals has not gone very well thus far. Friday night was our first win in what seemed like many weeks… We had won games on Wednesday and Sunday the past week, but still, it seemed like a long time. We are 11 - 20 or 6.5 games out of first in the AL Central. We have not seen production from some we were expecting and some we would like to leave the team. The way social media is discussing, a complete management replacement is needed. I love my Royals and it makes it difficult to watch when we are struggling, but us Royals fans are used to this too. I just hope that I can continue to watch the Royals even if they are not very good, but hoping that turns around too.