At the end of February 2017, Google announced the introduction of its new live television service, YouTube TV, which will be available later in the year for $35 a month with no long-term commitment.

In some respects, YouTube TV offers a similar service to a number of existing providers in that it attempts to provide a comprehensive range of television channels for a competitive monthly cost, but the YouTube TV service has a number of important differentiators. Firstly, the $35 monthly charge covers almost all channels that the service supports. There are no tiers or hierarchies to follow; $35 is not the entry-level amount with more channels added for extra a month. Second, the YouTube TV service works with both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, plus any other devices that support YouTube. This does mean that a conventional (non-smart) television is likely to need a Google Chromecast.

Another feature of YouTube TV is that the $35 cost includes an unlimited PVR (personal video recording) service with unlimited storage. The YouTube TV PVR will record as many live broadcasts as you need it to and will store them for up to nine months. Recorded shows are available on any device that you use. Furthermore, one subscriptions pays for up to six accounts integrated into the service: Google stated that they have designed the service for ‘generation YouTube,’ described as: “those who want to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, without commitments.” YouTube TV is designed to provide customers with a live TV service without the hassle of a traditional cable box setup. One limit is that the service only supports three concurrent streams at a time. Television services are more about the content than the extra features and with this in mind, it’s important to detail just what customers get with YouTube TV. The service comes with live TV streaming from ABC, CBS, ESPN, FOX, and NBC, plus regional sports networks and a number of cable networks. Google has set up partnerships with local television stations and YouTube TV will offer subscribers regional-specific “sports and local news” channels. There are just two channels that may be added to the subscription costs, these being Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus, but everything else is included in the $35 subscription and all the channels are shown in the image below – totaling 44.

At the time of writing this, YouTube TV does not contain any stations produced by either Viacom or Turner, which means YouTube TV is missing MTV, Comedy Central, TNT, TBS, and TruTV. YouTube TV is also getting access to YouTube Red originals, whereby all YouTube Red original series and movies will be available via the new YouTube TV app.

Finally, for availability, YouTube TV is going to be “available soon in the largest U.S. markets.” The company has plans to rapidly roll out the service across more cities and is inviting customers to sign up at tv.youtube.com for more information. There, you can also join the official waiting list.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Droid Turf channel on YouTube; we’ll be up and running shortly 🙂

SOURCE [YouTube Blog]