Ad Disclosure
YouTube TV is Launching a Sports-Only Tier
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
YouTube TV will have a sports only tier that’ll include all of the heavy hitters for cheaper than its current $82/month plan, according to Andrew Marchand:
CAN YOU SAY SKINNY BUNDLE?!?! SKINNY BUNDLE!
Every pay-TV subscriber has been trying to nail the skinny bundle for over a decade and there’s no one-stop shop for it, which is the most frustrating thing around these announcements. All sports fans want is an affordable sports-only package with all of the big network players and regional sports networks so that I can watch Kyle Schwarber hit 50 bombs, Tyrese Maxey score 50 points, and Matvei Michkov… well whatever Michkov is allowed to do under Rick Tocchet.
We’ve never gotten that, and we probably won’t in the foreseeable future. So why am I wasting your time with this blog? Well YTTV might be the first one that actually works for a pretty solid price, according to Jacob Feldman at Sportico.com:
The YouTube TV Sports Plan will include broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC), ESPN’s networks, FS1, NBC Sports Network, TNT and USA. Regional sports networks were not mentioned in a blog post unveiling the product. A full channel list and price point remain unannounced.
…
As part of its new carriage agreement, YouTube TV will also incorporate all of the streaming games included with ESPN Unlimited’s package by the end of 2026. Oestlien confirmed that that will include out-of-market NHL contests, with the delay stemming in large part from the technical challenge of integrating the thousands of events into YouTube’s UI.
One good thing that came out of you missing that Eagles/Packers game on MNF? ESPN Unlimited is now free on YTTV and will be included in this. But there’s that little caveat, “regional sports networks were not mentioned.” Why can’t we figure regional sports networks out? How is it so hard? Probably because it’s the only thing people want from Comcast/NBC nowadays other than Internet and your wife’s Bravo shows, so they make it impossible to access in deals without getting their cut. Gotta love leverage! But here’s the thing, and why I think this is still big news for us the consumer, if YTTV can even make it 1% easier to subscribe to an NBCSports RSN add-on so I can watch the Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers this will be a win.
At one point I left YTTV because I had the big brain idea to see if I could bundle a bunch of packages together for like a third of the price. Save a little scratch in this economy, you know? I was going to use the streamers I already paid for and the streamers I mooched off my relatives to watch all of the Eagles games on primetime and streaming. I would download the NFL app for games that were broadcasted outside of those windows and then I would add the NBCSports bundle on Peacock for the last couple of Phillies games and the start of the Flyers/Sixers season. My plan was foolproof! What could go wrong? I’ll tell you what. Adding the NBCSports bundle on Peacock was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever dealt with. Even trying to give money to Comcast was like the Eighth Level of Hell because that Xfinity site is down more than Lane Johnson this year. So I went back to YTTV with my tail between my legs even though I don’t watch two-thirds of the channels. That’s the state of pay-TV in today’s society. What company feels like they are kicking me in the balls the least?
Luckily, YTTV’s multiview is worth it alone. Watching Conference Championship Saturday and Duke vs. Michigan State this weekend was flawless. I build multiviews like the Middle East sovereign nations build skyscrapers. The ability to watch games out of market is flawless, too, something that was always a roadblock accessing when I had Xfinity. Yes, they’ve increased the monthly price twice in the last two years, but it’s still cheaper packaging that with Xfinity Internet than the $200+ I was paying a month for cable. If they can incorporate more to multiview (including RSNs!) this will be worth whatever amount they want to charge me.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com