YouTube TV may soon add flexible packages that give you more control over your subscription.
On Friday, Disney and YouTube TV reached a new multi-year agreement following a two-week stalemate that saw the removal of ESPN and ABC channels from the Google-owned live TV streaming service. As part of the announcement, 9to5Google notes, Disney said YouTube TV had agreed to allow “select networks to be included in various genre-specific packages.”
This is the first time one of Google’s partners has hinted at more flexible choices for YouTube TV. In late August, as Fox and YouTube TV fought a similar licensing battle, Puck reported that YouTube TV was considering a new broadcast-and-sports tier, which would’ve provided access to the new Fox One sports streaming service inside YouTube TV. Nothing like that was announced when Fox and YouTube TV reached a deal before a blackout occurred, however.
This wording from Disney is the first official hint we’ve seen of genre-related packages. Will it usher in the cheaper, a-la-carte programming we were promised at the dawn of the cord-cutting era?
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YouTube TV saw a price increase earlier this year to $82.99 a month. If Google offers packages designed around specific themes, will it let you buy access in more affordable chunks or remove channels and make you pay more to get them back? We’ll have to see how it shakes out.
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