Television

Starting in early 2026, YouTube TV plans to give more flexibility to its customers by offering the ability to pick and choose from ten or more genre-specific packages over the standard base plan. This plan was announced by Christian Oestlien, Head of Subscriptions, via the YouTube official blog. Some of YouTube TV's competitors, such as Sling TV, have offered similar skinny bundles in the past and even flexibility in alternative base plan offerings. As the cost of large base packages without add-ons has risen in price, this is YouTube's way of lowering subscription costs to customers by offering smaller and genre-specific programming packages. 

It wouldn't be Christmas without Doctor Who. The best part is it was my wife that bought me the tree ornament. She so gets me!

The subscription model for anything is broke. Keep raising prices, upset your current customers, only offer a discount when they cancel the subscription. Why not make your current customers happy instead of only pleasing those arriving or departing? This is a stupid game we play.

Trying out YouTube TV for the first time. I'm a current DirecTV Now subscriber and have used SlingTV in the past. 

Technically, YouTube TV isn't being offered for my area so I used the zip code of another location I visit often. For my area, local channels aren't currently available via YouTube TV but I'm OK with that since for the past few years we've been getting our local channels through an antenna and utilizing a TiVO for our DVR. I estimate that we've saved around $2,000 in the past three years by not subscribing to Cable or Satellite TV with this arrangement.