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.
Perhaps, what is different to YouTube TV's offerings is that it likely will be much more focused on in terms of genre (sports, business, entertainment, news, local) and less on network-owned bundles. With YouTube TV's announcement, special emphasis was given on the expected upcoming YouTube TV Sports Plan. This was highlighted as a key package, offering access to major broadcasters, sports networks (like FS1, NBC Sports Network, all ESPN networks, and ESPN Unlimited). I'm making an assumption that "major broadcasters" are in reference to local networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.
At this point in time, YouTube TV still plans to offer its standard plan with more than 100 channels in the subscription. Also, no price has yet been announced on the various genre-specific packages to be offered.
For me personally, I am interested in three genres which include sports, news, and business. Assuming that local channels are included in this genre and the price is reasonable, I'd likely change my YouTube TV standard plan to these genre-specific plans as a replacement. While my family watches a lot of entertainment programming, much of these shows can be viewed through the number of services we already subscribe to, including Paramount, Disney Plus, Netflix, and YouTube Premium.
Article originally published at Gen X Living.