Entering the fray of hopeful cable-killing streaming services today is YouTube with the launch of YouTube TV. Lots of people, especially younger people, already consume a ton of their TV programming via YouTube especially in clip form from Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show directly alongside YouTube's own user-created programming, but they're used to doing it for free. Alphabet is now hoping to use the YouTube brand to capture some major market share at $35 a month when comes to cord-cutters and so-called "cord-nevers," offering up some of the basics of network TV, live sports, and some cable channels, though how many you're going to get depends on where you are. YouTube TV is still very much in its early beta stage, as Wired reports, so you're probably going to have access to about 30 channels, give or take, including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN, but not including CNN, HBO, or HGTV.
At launch, YouTube TV is only available in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and the number of local affiliates you get varies by region, meaning that catching your local sports team on the service is not a guarantee.
As Consumerist notes, the only premium cable channel currently available as an add-on is Showtime, though that may change later, and Sundance is reportedly coming on board soon.
The biggest appeal seems to be the ability to watch things on your phone, whenever and wherever, and to quickly and easily be able to stream things from phone to TV whenever you please, without spending hundreds of dollars on a real cable package.
As the Associated Press explains, there is a cloud-based DVR, but unlike services like Hulu or Netflix, this is not a service where you can simply watch shows or movies from an online library you can channel surf in real time on your phone, and record shows, but the search function still needs quite a bit of work, which is unfortunate for a service owned by Google. (Per the AP: "A search for 'nerd comed'" brings up 'The Big Bang Theory,' but 'comedy about nerds' does not. And a search for 'Modern Family episode on basketball' doesn't bring up the episode titled 'Basketball.'")
On the plus side, NFL games will be streaming live on YouTube TV to your phone.
For those who mostly only keep their Xfinity accounts to watch Game of Thrones and Flip or Flop, this is never going to cut it because of the above-mentioned channel exclusions. But as a cheap alternative that still gives you access to live events like the Super Bowl, it may be just enough to chase competitors like Dish’s Sling TV and Sony PlayStation Vue out of the game.
The next entry: Apple's long-anticipated TV subscription platform, which has only been in the works for about eight years now.
Below, The Verge's review of YouTube TV.
