YouTube Enters the Television Space with YouTube TV

By Sia. in Social Media. March 2, 2017.

YouTube is about to make its first play into the television business as the company has revealed that it will be launching a new service within the coming months: YouTube TV.

Available exclusively in the United States, YouTube TV is the company’s first attempt at providing a television-like service. At launch, the service will have around 46 channels, ranging from American television mainstays such as ABC, FOX and many others, to genre-specific channels like National Geographic Wild and ESPN. On top of that, YouTube Red will also be part of the YouTube TV experience.

Unique to YouTube Red is something YouTube is referring to as a "Cloud DVR". With this system in place, subscribers to YouTube Red can opt to record television programs for later viewing directly to the Cloud. The best part about the "Cloud DVR" is that there will be no storage limits tied to it. As such, subscribers can record any amount of programs as they please and view them from their platform of choice.

Speaking of platforms, YouTube TV will be available across Android and iOS devices, as well as the traditional computer. While it appears that YouTube TV won’t be available as an app for Smart TVs just yet, YouTube did confirm that the service will support both Google Chromecast and Chromecast-ready TVs.

Now for the important bit: pricing. YouTube TV will have a monthly subscription fee of USD35. A subscription to YouTube TV will net the subscriber six YouTube TV accounts, each of which comes with its own recommendations and Cloud DVR system. Assuming you’re able to share the cost of a YouTube TV subscription amongst yourself and five other people, YouTube TV would cost roughly USD5.83 per month for a single person.

The only restriction that YouTube TV seems to have at the moment is that the service can only support up to three concurrent streams at any moment.