YouTube TV is catching heat from its customers.
The TV service announced a $10/per month price hike on Thursday, issuing a statement to its subscribers, in which they insisted that they “have always worked to offer the content you love, with features to enjoy the best of live TV.”
“To keep up with rising content costs, we’re updating our monthly price to $82.99/mo,” their social media message continued. “New members will see this price today; current members starting January 13.”
They continued, “We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this impacts our members. With many exciting shows and live events coming up in 2025, we remain committed to bringing you the best of TV, all in one place. Thank you for being a loyal member.”
Per Deadline, YouTube TV also told subscribers that they “are committed to bringing you features that are changing the way we watch live TV, like unlimited DVR storage and multiview, and supporting YouTube TV’s breadth of content and vast on-demand library of movies and shows.”
As noted by Morning Brew, the monthly price of YouTubeTV “has increased 137% since its debut,” with the service costing $34.99/month during its 2017 launch.
In addition to this monthly fee, there are also optional add-ons at an extra cost, such as premium TV channels like MGM+ and Shudder, live sports, and an Entertainment Plus streaming bundle of Max, Paramount+ with Showtime, and STARZ.
The service offers a 10-day free trial, as well as a limited time offer of $59.99/month for the first three months which ends on Jan. 12.
Nonetheless, customers did not take the latest price jump lightly, taking to X to call out “the shadiest move that’s been made.”
“I’m so glad that I made the right financial decision in 2018 and ditched my $89/mo cable package so that I can now pay $83/mo for YouTube TV, $23/mo for Netflix, $16/mo for Disney+, $13/mo for Paramount, $15/mo for Prime, $10/mo for AppleTV, and $21/mo for HBO,” one critic quipped.
Another claimed they “will find an alternative for the few channels [they] watch on [YouTube TV] and cancel [their] subscription.”
“You are now the problem you sought to fix,” they added.
Others called the move “greedy,” “ridiculous,” and “just as bad as cable now,” while many have written “goodbye” to the service. Some have another request: “Include YouTube Premium!”