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YouTube TV now lets you subscribe to some add-ons without a base plan

By Phil Nickinson October 1, 2022

À la carte TV is a myth. The idea that you can subscribe to — and pay for — channels individually is just something that the money folks will never let happen. The closest we’re going to get is with something like Sling TV, which sports smaller packages with a plethora of add-ons that you can mix and match.

But YouTube TV is now doing something a little different, giving you the opportunity to subscribe to a number of networks on their own without also subscribing to the $65-a-month base YouTube TV plan.

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YouTube TV on Roku. — Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

To be clear, these aren’t linear channels. You’re not, say, opting to get Comedy Central, TBS, and AMC on their own for $5 each or anything, but you are able to grab optional add-ons on their own.

Here’s the full list of what’s currently available:

ALLBLK
Acorn
CONtv
Cinemax
Curiosity Stream
Docurama
Dove
EPIX
HBO Max
Hallmark Movies Now
IFC Films Unlimited
Law & Crime
MLB.TV
NBA League Pass
Outside TV Features
STARZ
Showtime
Shudder
Sundance Now
VSiN

Prices range from just a buck or three to $15 for something like HBO Max. Everything will then be billed through your Google account. You’ll still get the bulk of the general YouTube TV experience: unlimited recording and the ability to watch on three devices at once, as well as up to six accounts per household. And you’ll still be able to watch outside your home network so long as you’re in the United States.

YouTube TV is the biggest live streaming service in the United States, with more than 5 million subscribers as of June 2022. It’s available on every major hardware platform, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast with Google TV, Apple TV, various smart TV systems, gaming consoles, and in web browsers. It’s also one of the only way you can stream live events in 4K resolution; just get ready to pay a bit more.

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YouTube TV: plans, pricing, channels, how to cancel, and more

The YouTube TV on a Roku TV.

When you think of streaming video, you think YouTube. And so YouTube TV — Google's live TV streaming service — very much just makes sense for a lot of people. Designed for those who want to cut the cord and ditch their cable or satellite subscriptions (and known in the industry as a multichannel video programming distributor, or MPVD), YouTube TV competes in the same arena as other streaming television services like DirecTV Stream (formerly known as AT&T TV Now and DirecTV Now), Sling TV, FuboTV, and Hulu With Live TV.

And YouTube TV offers a unique mix of features that make it very appealing, so much so that it's now the No. 1 service in the U.S. in terms of the number of paid subscribers, with some 5 million subscribers as of June 2022 — up some 2 million from the last time the service gave an update in October 2020. The popularity is due to several factors. YouTube TV is easy to use. It's got a selection of channels that's competitive with all its rivals. And the YouTube TV price is competitive, too. You're able to watch YouTube TV on pretty much any modern device. And the fact that parent company Alphabet (aka Google) has been marketing the heck out of it the past few years certainly hasn't hurt, either.

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YouTube TV increases its monthly prices by $8 – is now the time to switch?

YouTube TV on Roku.

YouTube TV has raised the price of its monthly subscription by $8, from $65 to $73. The move comes on the heels of its announcement that it will be adding a multiview feature for sports channels. The change in price will hit current subscribers on April 18, however, the streaming service, which is owned by Google, has already started charging new customers the higher price.

It's been a while since YouTube TV last raised its prices. That was in 2020, when the streaming service increased subscriptions from $50 to $65. When the service first launched in 2017, it only cost $35 per month.

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YouTube TV rolls out multiview: watch up to 4 NCAA games at once

An example of YouTube TV's multiview feature.

If you love college basketball and can process more than one game at a time, you're going to go bananas for YouTube TV's new multiview feature, which will be rolling out on a limited, early access basis starting March 14. With multiview, you'll be able to pick up to four channels and see them all simultaneously, with the ability to easily flip the active audio from one to another. The new feature is compatible with any TV-based YouTube TV installations (streaming media players, smart TVs, and game consoles), but it doesn't yet work on mobile devices or computers.

Initially, multiview will only be available to select YouTube TV users, who will be chosen at random. But Google says the goal is to include every subscriber by the time NFL football season starts in the fall. Another limitation, at least for now, is that YouTube TV will preselect the multiview channels you can choose. At launch, only channels that carry NCAA tournament games will be included in that preselected list.
How to use YouTube TV multiview
If you're one of the lucky, randomly chosen users, you'll see an option to watch up to four preselected, different streams at once in your “Top Picks for You” section. After selecting multiview, you can switch audio and captions between streams, and jump in and out of a full-screen view of a game.
It's all about sports
At the moment, YouTube TV sees multiview as an enhancement of the sports viewing experience, so only sports content will be eligible. YouTube TV has had some big sports wins in 2022, including 4K coverage of the Soccer World Cup, and that trend will continue in 2023 thanks to its acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket games. However, YouTube TV recently lost access to MLB Network and the MLB.tv add-on, which reduces the amount of sports content available for multiview in 2023.