YouTube TV offers all the same channels as SD, and has unlimited DVR for $40/month (and includes all local channels). It costs $35 to SD and $8 to Channels, thus making it $43/month. I am questioning how this model is going to be sustaining in the long-term. Am I missing something? Is YouTube TV not available everywhere?
I love Channels DVR for all my local stations… it’s the bomb. I’m just trying to understand how the SD premium package is a draw for anyone.
YTTV offers broadcast network channels, not local channels, is that not so?
Got no dog in this fight, as we wouldn’t do either.
You might be right… I’ve not subscribed to YTTV, but just noted that they list all the major stations that I watch. (ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, FOX). I just assumed they were the local stations. For anything else I just use the apps for other stations on my ATV. Channels DVR is the best solution I have found for local channels… the kids and wife both love how easy it is to use.
Unlikely that they’re local stations. That would require Google negotiate carriage fees with every local station in every market in which they carried the locals. YTTV may get big enough for them to do that, someday, but I doubt they’ve got the volume to support those costs at this point.
They do negotiate carriage fees with the local station, that’s why it’s not offered in a lot of places (including where I am).
Not all of them, apparently. They list only the four with “major” network affiliations (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) in my market. Four of (looks…) the eight “major” local stations.
That being said: I’m somewhat surprised they’re doing even that, and that probably meets most people’s desires.
If you pay upfront to a one year plan for Channels DVR it comes down to $41.66/month.
I’ve heard YTTV is notorious for expiring DVR’d shows early and replacing them with VOD equivalents that require you to watch commercials. Why would you want to sit through that?
In addition, YTTV does not have HGTV, which is a deal breaker in many households.
All the same channels? You tube is missing many TOP cable channels. No A@E, History, Discovery, HGTV, Hallmark, All Viacom. Yout yube tv is struggling to build customers.
I’ve tried nearly all the streaming services and am now using SD Premium. In my opinion, YTTV best met my needs vs. Vue, Sling and DTN, but it does depend greatly on your personal needs. YTTV does have many of my locals but not all and the ones they are missing tend to be go to stations for us when we want to veg.
SD Premium currently lacks quality but for right now we are satisfied with it enough to keep it and also to show support for SDs efforts. They have already shown a commitment to improve the quality as well. Time will tell.
On the whole the combination of OTA Channels and Premium provides a very nice simple and seamless experience. And, being in the path of Florence, a bit of fail safe should we lose our internet but keep power - locals will continue to be available. It is rather nice to know that I don’t have all of my eggs in one basket.
As always your needs and personal tastes may result in a different answer.
YTTV is not available in all markets. I had been waiting for it to come to our area but then Premium TV was released so I decided to give that a shot. I added the Channels DVR and with this setup I never have to worry about local channel carriage disputes (which has already happened with some of the streaming services) or the inevitable price increases that follow. Sure, the price will always go up but not having local channels factored in to the cost equation is nice. I also get ALL of my locals including PBS and the CW in a single interface which is something that the other services can’t offer (except for Sling with AirTV). It was already mentioned but another plus is not having to worry about DVR content expiring or being replaced with an On Demand version.
Youtube does offer certain channels that aren’t available on Premium TV (FXX, FXM, DIsney Junior, Pop, BBC America, etc.) but they do not have Comedy Central or other Viacom channels. Premium TVs quality is decent, but not great, at this point in time and that is something that they are working to improve. You also don’t get network app authentication and that may be a big negative for some people.
YouTube TV is not available everywhere yet. I like having the content recording locally… not cloud based.
If this YTTV experiment doesn’t produce the results Google wants (more user data to sell would be my guess) they’ll simply drop it, anyway. This is the thing people don’t get about Google products: End-users are not the customer, they’re the commodity. Sellers of things and marketers are Google’s customers.
Both Youtube TV and DirecTV Now have the local channels in my area for NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX.
One benefit for Youtube is they let you choose your local zip code in a settings field while DirecTV does some kind of automatic “location” detection based on your home’s IP number.
So in a somewhat infuriating experience DirecTV sometimes shows the local channels, sometimes it has channels from a nearby major city, then sometimes I don’t get any local channels at all. My ISP uses a dynamic IP assignment so after rebooting my modem it gets a new IP which can “locate” to various regions depending on who had it last when it was mapped.