You already go to YouTube to watch funny cat videos, the latest music videos, and movie trailers, so why wouldn’t you go there to watch live TV?
For $35 a month, YouTube TV bundles together over 40 live broadcast and cable channels, YouTube Red Originals content, and, perhaps best of all, gives you cloud DVR with unlimited storage.
The channels you get
You also get 35 cable channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, SEC Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, Bravo, Chiller, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBCSN, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy, Universal HD, USA, Comcast Regional Sports Networks, NECN, CBS Sports Network, FS1, FS2, BTN, FX, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Fox News, Fox Business, and Fox Regional Sports Networks.
Ten additional channels (ESPN3, Telemundo Universo, AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, WE tv, IFC, Sundance TV, and The Weather Channel’s Local Now) will be added later (YouTube didn’t say when) at no extra cost.
Additionally, there will be “add-on” channels. For instance, Showtime will cost you an extra $11 and Fox Soccer Plus will cost $15 per month. Other add-on channels are coming, including Shudder and Sundance Now, but they have yet to announce pricing.
Lastly, the Library section is where you’ll go to channel surf; to switch between channels, just swipe up or down. It’s fast and ridiculously smooth, and definitely the fastest experience I’ve ever used to flip between 40 live channels.
In other words, YouTube TV has the potential to do both micro-targeting and macro-targeting. Being able to do both could create the kind of virtuous cycle that feeds back into YouTube’s own success. YouTube TV may be wonky now, but that’s not the point. YouTube is playing a longer game, one that’s only just getting started.