Soon you'll be able to watch TV on YouTube for $35 a month
YouTube is ready to bundle.
The company confirmed Tuesday that it's launching a paid TV streaming service.
The news underscores YouTube's efforts to compete with cable providers as well as online TV upstarts including Sling TV, Sony PlayStation Vue, AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Hulu's forthcoming service.
YouTube TV will offer programming from over 40 networks -- from ESPN to E! -- as well as access to all of YouTube Red's originals, starting at $35 a month.
The membership, which has no long term contracts or commitments, allows users to have six accounts under one plan.
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The service will also have a cloud DVR, with no storage limits.
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"It’s no question millennials love great TV content but what we’ve seen is they don’t want to watch it in traditional setting," YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said at a packed YouTube press event. "Instead, younger generations want to consume TV the way they are used to consuming."
In the 1980s and 1990s, cable television built a bundle that would become a dominant force in the U.S. media industry, at its peak drawing more than $100 billion of revenue per quarter in North America.
As Mashable reported last year, three decades and hundreds of unwatched channels later, the clunky television bundle is becoming less popular, frayed by standalone streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video.
But the bundle isn't completely disappearing. It's re-emerging as a popular option for cord cutters.
YouTube emphasized it wants to "re-imagine TV for the YouTube generation" by combining cable, online video and mobile.
"There has never been a way to bring these three developments together to have great content we love on TV," Wojcicki said. "And complement our dynamic online creators, and have it work as well on mobile as to does on our TV screens or desktops."
A Pew Research report from December found that one in seven Americans is now a cord cutter.
YouTube on Monday said people around the world are now watching a whopping 1 billion hours of YouTube’s content every day.
Topics YouTube
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
