WASHINGTON – Alphabet Inc’s Google is raising the price of its YouTube TVonline service for new customers as it adds channels from Time Warner Inc’sTurner, National Basketball League and Major League Baseball, the companysaid Wednesday.
Less than one year after launching YouTube TV, the company is increasingits pricing to $40 per month from $35 per month as it adds Turner’schannels, which include TNT, CNN and TBS, and soon will be adding MLBNetwork and NBA TV, the company said.
Google is expanding its offering at a time when a growing number ofcompeting services, such as Dish Network Corp’s Sling TV, AT&T’s (T.N)DirectTV Now and Hulu, are vying to win over the growing number of viewerswho are cancelling their cable subscriptions to watch their favorite showsonline.
The four largest cable and satellite companies lost 1.5 million pay TVcustomers in 2017.
DirectTV Now has over 2 million subscribers, according to AT&T. Sling TV,Hulu and YouTube TV do not disclose how many users they have, but researchfirm BTIG estimates they respectively had 2.1 million, 500,000 and 350,000as of the end of 2017.
The costs for these competing offerings range from $20 for Sling TV’s mostbasic offering of 30 channels to $39.99 for Hulu’s one with more than 50channels and its library of shows and movies, which costs $7.99 separately.
Google is betting that its strong sports offering will help win over moresubscribers, said Heather Moosnick, director of content partnerships,YouTube TV.
To that end, Google has targeted sports fans with its TV ads this year.Ninety-six percent of YouTube TV’s ads on television so far this year haveappeared during sports programming, including the Super Bowl, according toiSpot.tv, which tracks TV ads.
When Google launched YouTube TV last April it was cautious with how muchcontent it was offering so that it could keep the price low enough toentice cord cutters or people considering cutting the cord, Moosnick said.
At launch YouTube TV offered almost 50 channels in five markets. With theseadditions, YouTube TV will have almost 60 channels, and be in 100 markets,Moosnick said.
The new pricing will take effect for new users who sign up after March 13,the company said.