[HN Gopher] YouTube TV, which costs $73 a month, agrees to end "...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       YouTube TV, which costs $73 a month, agrees to end "$600 less than
       cable" ads
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 163 points
       Date   : 2023-10-12 16:48 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | adocomplete wrote:
       | I was really hoping the tech giants would be able to transform
       | live TV as opposed to offer the same experience for (now) the
       | same price.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | Content is king. And you can't even neatly excise sports
         | content from everything else. If you can live without most live
         | content, you really do have good, albeit fragmented,
         | alternatives. But it does require giving up live TV.
        
           | izzydata wrote:
           | This just made me realize I don't believe I've ever
           | intentionally watched live TV my entire life.
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | That is extremely rare above a certain age. It may be more
             | common today, especially if you make a point of avoiding
             | sports, but there are a ton of situations in which people
             | gravitated to live TV until very recently (when some don't
             | now have it).
        
         | swatcoder wrote:
         | It's because the shape was due to licensing and contracts by
         | content producers, not the technology of distribution.
         | 
         | Online distribution licenses were underpriced and differently
         | packaged for a while because producers didn't know what revenue
         | to anticipate or which horse would be the best to bet on. But
         | as the industry matured, stuff evened out again and it's mostly
         | back to normal.
         | 
         | Many conveniences of the new technology are nice, though.
        
         | chung8123 wrote:
         | Netflix did transform TV. Cable subscriptions are shrinking.
         | Many people have switch to a streaming on demand service vs a
         | linear service. You can watch most TV without ads.
        
           | nicce wrote:
           | That used to be the case couple years back. Now they are
           | bringing ads to these streaming services. And you have 10
           | different streaming services what you need to buy separately.
           | Soon there will be bundling streaming service and we are back
           | to cable tv pricing and ads.
        
             | chung8123 wrote:
             | You can still buy non-ad services and the amount of content
             | you can get at one time has increased incredibly. I would
             | also say the new format has increased the quality of
             | content. In my personal opinion, tech has really changed
             | the industry and how we watch tv.
        
             | anonymoose33282 wrote:
             | Yeah we're definitely seeing a slow return to "this is on-
             | demand cable". And all I see is that independent content
             | (like YT videos) will continue to grow. I can definitely
             | say that I watch probably one tenth as many shows and
             | movies now as I did 7 or 8 years ago, simply due to how
             | fragmented streaming services have become.
             | 
             | I keep a Netflix subscription running for my parents, get
             | the free few months of Apple TV every year or so from
             | buying a new device, and beyond that I just watch more and
             | more YouTube in my free time and go to the cinema maybe
             | twice a year.
             | 
             | Sure, YouTube doesn't really have any blockbuster/high-
             | budget/studio-level content, but there's simply so much and
             | so many niches that it keeps me entertained just as well as
             | anything else, so I subscribe to YT premium and that's it.
        
             | babypuncher wrote:
             | which services have eliminated their ad-free options?
        
             | ksherlock wrote:
             | Ad-supported plans are more profitable per user than ad-
             | free plans.
             | 
             | "Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have recently
             | said the ad-supported versions of their streaming platforms
             | generate more money per user than their ad-free
             | counterparts, as the advertising revenue more than offsets
             | the lower subscription cost." --
             | https://www.wsj.com/business/media/netflix-price-increase-
             | ac...
        
           | tinus_hn wrote:
           | What used to just be called tv is now 'linear tv'. It is no
           | longer the default.
        
         | jayknight wrote:
         | I hope mlb.tv someday offers all games (without blackouts) and
         | no commercial breaks. Just leave the cameras in the field and
         | crowd between innings. I'd pay good money for that.
        
           | pradn wrote:
           | MLB could offer a super pricy option to skip all the ads, but
           | they wouldn't because they can't tell advertisers that their
           | richest customers aren't gonna be part of the audience.
           | Advertising distorts the market for everyone.
        
           | spike021 wrote:
           | As soon as they do I'm dropping YTTV.
           | 
           | Fortunately I pay 1/3 the YTTV cost by sharing with a friend
           | so the cost isn't too bad. But it's too much content for my
           | needs, and I don't prefer sharing access.
        
           | poulsbohemian wrote:
           | Dude, this all day long. In this era to have blackouts is
           | just ridiculous when consumers are willing to hand you wads
           | of cash for your content.
        
         | flenserboy wrote:
         | Unless there is true change, both in delivery & content, most
         | everything reverts back to the way it was. Music delivery seems
         | (semi-)permanently changed, as it is nigh unimaginable for the
         | album as it was known to make a comeback, market-wise. No
         | similar change has happened or been allowed to happen on the
         | TV-heritage side of things, & so we get new, shiner versions of
         | the Old Ways.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | Tech giants _have_ successfully transformed live TV, simply by
         | killing it completely. No one under 35 subscribes to any kind
         | of live TV service today other than to watch sports, and in
         | another decade that will be fully online as well (look at the
         | inroads Amazon and Apple are already making in that space).
         | Some of the best new TV content is increasingly owned by
         | Netflix, Amazon, Apple and the like. Cable TV and any kind of
         | non-sports /special events broadcasting is going to disappear
         | as a concept within our lifetimes.
        
           | xwdv wrote:
           | Cable TV will still be around for commercial settings.
        
             | cjbgkagh wrote:
             | How much of comercial settings will be eaten up be online
             | shopping? I can't remember the last time I went to a brick
             | and mortar store to buy something.
        
               | xwdv wrote:
               | TVs in bars is a billion dollar industry.
        
             | 13of40 wrote:
             | Businesses still have landline telephones too, but I feel
             | like they're just less agile, not that they'll never catch
             | up with the times.
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | 'Disruption' is a marketing tactic these days. Netflix keeps
         | hiking prices even though they're not paying usurious amounts
         | to license other networks' content. Uber now isn't any cheaper
         | than the stodgy taxis they replaced.
        
         | scoofy wrote:
         | You're think of YouTube. The business model of television,
         | especially live television, wasn't really ever going to cost
         | significantly less than it did. The inverse relationship
         | between advertising and number of outlets would necessitate
         | higher costs to the consumer, not lower costs.
         | 
         | Anyone willing to create content at extremely low cost has
         | flourished under the YouTube paradigm.
        
         | rednerrus wrote:
         | YoutubeTV experience is WAY better.
        
       | ghaff wrote:
       | Cord-cutting (still get Internet from the cable company) has
       | saved me a fair bit of money after I realized that I could go a
       | month without watching a live broadcast or a show recorded on my
       | TiVo. But you pretty much only get significant cost savings today
       | if you're willing to do mostly without live TV 100% or jump
       | through some hoops for a rare exception.
       | 
       | In spite of the occasional annoyance, I'm fine with it but I
       | realize a lot of people wouldn't be--especially for sports.
        
         | jes5199 wrote:
         | do people still watch live TV? I'm only exposed it to when I
         | stay in hotels and it seems to only be Seinfeld reruns and
         | Shark Tank
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | There's a large population of people from a prior generation
           | to you.
        
           | swatcoder wrote:
           | It's for sports and news (which both earn many many eyes and
           | are most satisfying when watched live), not so much for
           | reality or scripted productions. Even if you like channel
           | surfing among the latter, you can do that in most service-
           | specific streaming apps now.
        
             | well_actulily wrote:
             | At least for news, something like [PBS
             | NewsHour](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/) is available free
             | for cord cutters. Sports, you're mostly looking at illicit
             | streams from dodgy sites.
        
           | ericabiz wrote:
           | Sports fans watch a lot of live TV.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | Based on the couple times I have watched sports recently, I
             | would have thought it was a series of gambling ads
             | interspersed with sports.
        
               | Spooky23 wrote:
               | That's because the TV system is going to collapse soon,
               | and gambling and data neeed for gambling will replace
               | that revenue.
        
           | hanniabu wrote:
           | It's great for when you don't want to choose something to
           | watch
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | A _lot_ of people including my brother do like to have TV
             | as background. (Personally I hate it.)
             | 
             | Way back when I would travel in groups and sometimes have a
             | roommate one of the nails on chalkboard things for me was
             | people who would turn on the TV the first thing when they
             | walked into a room.
        
             | legitster wrote:
             | My guilty pleasure have been the Roku Digital Channels.
             | They have channels that are just a 24 hour feed of MST3K,
             | or Cook's Illustrated, or How It's Made, or Antiques
             | Roadshow. Just to turn on some background while I am making
             | dinner or working on a project has been enjoyable,
             | commercials and all.
        
               | bonton89 wrote:
               | I was recently on vacation where they had a roku TV and
               | watched these. I watched some old Unsolved Mysteries
               | episodes, honestly there weren't really that many
               | commercials on this at all compared to my parent's cable
               | subscription.
               | 
               | I recall that after well after I had cut the cord a lot
               | of channels on cable had switched to just playing one
               | show all day on some channels so the concept seemed to
               | pre-date the roku setup.
        
               | bdcravens wrote:
               | Many of the smart TVs have similar (I think they're just
               | repackaging what was already out there on Pluto etc;
               | Sling also includes those same channels in their
               | Freestream)
               | 
               | I actually watch a ton of This Old House on my Samsung TV
               | in my home office.
        
           | rchaud wrote:
           | Old people watch a lot of TV, so pretty much every commercial
           | is targeted at them. Medications, retirement planning,
           | predatory "manage your finances" apps, and of course
           | commercials for thinly veiled clones of NCIS.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Don't forget you can still get a DTV OTA antenna and watch live
         | TV with a much much better image quality and without cable's
         | delay. Admittedly, in can take a bit of effort finding a
         | location to place the antenna for best reception for your
         | location, but so worth not paying for cable any longer.
         | 
         | Sports is the primary reason for me messing with this, but it
         | is definitely worth it.
        
           | Goronmon wrote:
           | Having to invest time and money into the antenna is
           | definitely what's stopped me from using OTA up to this point.
           | Especially given that our location is between multiple
           | broadcast points so it's not as simple as pointing an antenna
           | in one direction, it would have to be a multi-directional
           | antenna. Last I looked a decent one of those wasn't cheap.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | I have one of those little table top style ones that came
             | with a pretty long cable. It is a bit of an annoyance in
             | that in my location, there are different places I need to
             | place the antenna for best reception for that channel.
             | Luckily, I only use it for sports, and I know the best
             | location for each channel. So I just move it as needed, and
             | then place it back behind the TV when done. I look at it
             | like being similar to grabbing a gaming controller and
             | putting it back on the charger when done.
             | 
             | Fun things happen with reception though. Just this weekend,
             | I was watching a match and everything was coming through
             | just fine. The UPS truck pulled up to deliver a package to
             | my house, and the whole time the truck was parked, the
             | signal was struggling. As soon as the truck pulled away,
             | everything was fine again.
             | 
             | As much "fun" as all of that is, it is much cheaper than me
             | finding a sports bar to watch a match. Besides, at the time
             | of the morning what I'm watching is on, I really am not in
             | the mood to go some where.
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | I'm in the same boat, and on-the-ground isn't even good
             | enough. I'll have to mount a big antenna on top of my roof,
             | which is a tall order. Not worth it to me so far.
        
               | Goronmon wrote:
               | Yup, the few more basic antennas I've tried effectively
               | got no signal worth using on any channels.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | "You" can :-) But fair comment. For many people, OTA offers
           | good enough live TV. I live at the base of a hill blocking me
           | from the nearest major city about 40 miles away. I've never
           | been able to pick up anything OTA even before digital
           | signals; there was even a big "external" antenna in the attic
           | installed by the previous owner to no avail before he just
           | got a big C-band dish. Even a lot of radio is pretty bad.
           | 
           | I was able to get cable TV before taking any extreme
           | measures.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | The irony here is that your specific situation was one of
             | the driving factors of why cable was created
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | Even leaving aside the cable-only stations (both premium
               | and non-premium), even getting the basic networks and
               | maybe some UHF channels was marginal for a _lot_ of
               | people involving a lot of fiddling to get a usable
               | signal.
               | 
               | And pre-DirectTV, the alternatives were pretty much
               | geeking out with a big Satellite dish which only worked
               | out on your big country property and were willing to
               | spend the money.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | > even getting the basic networks and maybe some UHF
               | channels was marginal
               | 
               | <clears old timer's throat>
               | 
               | In my day, we only had 3 networks and we liked it! You
               | kids and your choices!
               | 
               | But seriously, it is fascinating how in ~20 years of HDTV
               | we've gone so far away from a small collection of
               | channels with nothing worth watching to nothing worth
               | watching available everywhere 24/7. Giving people their
               | own agency in creating content has not increased the PSNR
               | levels in the great vs dreck.
        
           | yborg wrote:
           | I'd question the better image quality part of this, almost
           | all broadcast providers have chosen to use their bandwidth to
           | ship the maximum number of 480p subchannels.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | You can question, or you can do the A/B test yourself and
             | no longer have it as a question. Sure, they've sub-divided
             | their bandwidth, but their flagship station still receives
             | much more bandwidth than your cable provider.
             | 
             | Just do the Amazon rental for a weekend. If you don't like
             | it, return it. You'll see the difference.
        
               | plsmatt wrote:
               | This is very much a regional thing.
               | 
               | After the repack many markets have multiple HD channels
               | sharing the bandwidth previously allocated for one OTA HD
               | channel. In addition, as ATSC 3 is being deployed these
               | channel sharing agreements are only becoming more common.
               | 
               | In addition, some cable providers are taking this over-
               | compressed feed and compressing it further.
               | 
               | In many situations, streaming is the best option for
               | picture quality now.
               | 
               | I did some comparisons in the Philadelphia market:
               | https://www.somesortofweatherexperiment.com/tags/tv-
               | source-p...
               | 
               | Even flagship events like the Super Bowl are not exempt
               | to from low detail, compression artifact video in this
               | market.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | I haven't been near broadcast engineering since the DTV
               | transition, but at one point in time, they wanted to have
               | dial-a-yield type of abilities for the splitting of the
               | bandwidth. For primetime, they wanted to to be able to
               | give the main channel a larger portion of the bandwidth
               | when people were watching, and then during the day
               | provide more options for people to view alternate
               | programming. Even if you gave each of the .2-.X channels
               | 3Mbps, that's still a lot of bandwidth in comparison for
               | the .1 channel. Of course any live realtime encoding of
               | 3Mbps will never rival a 3Mbps encode from someone like
               | Netflix, but a lot of that is just SD content anyways so
               | meh it gets.
        
           | extragood wrote:
           | While the image quality is better (and the price difference
           | is beyond compare), I've noticed that a lot of channels are
           | still broadcast at 720p.
        
           | legitster wrote:
           | > live TV with a much much better image quality and without
           | cable's delay
           | 
           | Depends. In our area they have split the digital signal so
           | many times to carve out additional subchannels
           | (10.1,10.2,10.3, etc) that the effective bitrate is now
           | pretty dang low.
           | 
           | When watching football, the channel may only be delivering
           | 720p, and with tons of compression artifacts to boot.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Way back in the late 90s, the place I was working had a
             | subscription to a trade rag called TV Broadcasting News (or
             | something like that). I remember reading an article on how
             | Congress was upset at the networks for splitting the
             | bandwidth. But being feckless like Congress is, they did
             | nothing about it and just shrugged their shoulders.
             | 
             | Fox was famous for choosing 720p as its broadcast format
             | specifically to get 60fps for its sports programming while
             | the other networks chose 1080i5994.
        
           | drewg123 wrote:
           | Note that they have added DRM to the ATSC 3.0 standard, and
           | its being implemented quite widely. This means that you'll be
           | unable to freely record time shift sports using applications
           | like MythTV, etc.
        
             | RF_Enthusiast wrote:
             | This adds an uncertain future to OTA, but I don't think you
             | can say it's implemented widely yet.
             | 
             | Here's a list of current ATSC 3.0 channels, with an
             | indicator for the encrypted ones:
             | https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=atsc3
             | 
             | For now, most network affiliates that air an ATSC 3.0
             | signal must simulcast the primary video programming stream
             | in ATSC 1.0 format. So most primary channels are still
             | available without DRM. [1]
             | 
             | [1] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchap
             | ter-C...
        
               | drewg123 wrote:
               | In my market (Miami) almost everything is encrypted on
               | ATSC 3. Do you know how long ATSC 1 will be up?
        
             | bb88 wrote:
             | Usually after a sports event is over, it's worth a lot less
             | than when it's being played live, too. E.g. The Super
             | Bowl's value is only worth something when people don't know
             | what's going to happen. After the game everyone pretty much
             | knows what has happened.
        
               | drewg123 wrote:
               | To each his own. At least for American football, there
               | are so many advertisements and so much dead time between
               | plays, I will typically record a game and then start
               | watching it about 90 minutes after the start. That
               | usually works out so that I finish the game just as I
               | catch up the real time in the recording.
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | "The National Advertising Division (NAD) previously ruled in
       | Charter's favor"
       | 
       | HaHa! Google got kicked in the NAD[s]! Imagine that. A company
       | having to respect the "truth in advertising" concept. Calling a
       | company out by name with out-dated (at best) or flat out
       | inaccurate information is ballsy, for which they deserved to get
       | kicked squarely in for flaunting the rules everyone else plays
       | by.
        
       | webXL wrote:
       | "Charter contended the $600 figure was inaccurate, arguing that
       | its Spectrum TV Select service in Los Angeles only cost around
       | $219 a year more than Google's YouTube TV service," according to
       | a MediaPost article in August.
       | 
       | I always thought Select was considerably less than $73/mo, but
       | just going to their site, I see that it's $59.99/mo (for 12 mos).
       | So I guess it's jacked up after that first year.
       | 
       | I would have settled for "$600 less than _most_ cable "
        
       | ylhert wrote:
       | It's wild to me how much Youtube TV costs and yet they still
       | serve you tons of ads. Coming from youtube premium where
       | occasionally I have to skip through a preroll ad, I forget how
       | much you are bombarded with ads while watching traditional TV.
       | The fact that you have to pay the princely sum of $73/month on
       | top of that boggles my mind. I canceled when they raised the
       | price from $35/month and I'll never go back at these prices...
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | Yup, cable TV is ridiculous.
         | 
         | Streaming, however, is doing just fine catching up with costs
         | and playing with "ad supported" pricing levels which is only
         | expected to spread.
         | 
         | We're in the "eternal September" of streaming, it's only going
         | to get worse from here.
        
         | daveidol wrote:
         | > youtube premium where occasionally I have to skip through a
         | preroll ad
         | 
         | I thought YouTube Premium was ad-free?
        
           | banana_giraffe wrote:
           | It's free of ads from YouTube. Plenty of videos have baked in
           | ads from the content creators themselves.
        
             | _boffin_ wrote:
             | Check out SponsorBlock.
        
             | moelf wrote:
             | that's why https://sponsor.ajay.app/ exists
        
             | lapetitejort wrote:
             | If you dislike them, check out the SponsorBlock extension,
             | which will skip in-video ads. While you're at it, also get
             | DeArrow, which chooses a random frame as the thumbnail and
             | allows community written titles that accurately describe
             | the videos.
        
               | xdennis wrote:
               | But at that point why not block all ads without paying?
               | (That's what I do.)
        
               | pertique wrote:
               | I think you and the comment you replied to are talking
               | about different things. The comment you replied to IS
               | talking about skipping these inline ads without paying
               | (SponsorBlock). If you aren't using it and are watching
               | the same videos, you're also seeing these ads.
        
               | squeaky-clean wrote:
               | xdennis is asking why bother paying for premium if you
               | still need to use sponsorblock. Why not just use
               | sponsorblock + (uBlock Origin, or yt-dl, or etc) to
               | remove both forms of ads for free.
        
               | Moldoteck wrote:
               | Too bad sponsorblock will not work on tv((
        
             | pmarreck wrote:
             | I don't actually mind those, because at least you can skip
             | past them manually; if they stop allowing THAT, though,
             | THEN...
        
             | duped wrote:
             | Pretty much every streaming service with a "no ads" tier
             | does this. I agree it's infuriating.
        
               | bredren wrote:
               | It goes deeper too. Original programming (film / tv)
               | seems to contain paid product placement with no
               | disclosure.
        
               | rchaud wrote:
               | I bought an licensed VHS of Mission Impossible in '96,
               | and had to FFW through trailers for other movies made by
               | that studio.
        
           | Aurornis wrote:
           | Parent comment was comparing YouTube TV to YouTube Premium.
           | 
           | Two different products. YouTube Premium removes the YouTube-
           | inserted ads.
           | 
           | YouTube TV is a different product. It tries to compete with
           | cable and satellite TV (which also serve ads despite hefty
           | monthly fees)
        
         | secondcoming wrote:
         | You still endured ads with YT Premium!? That's shocking if
         | true.
        
           | FanaHOVA wrote:
           | He just means promos by creators, not YT ads.
        
         | jjoonathan wrote:
         | You won't have to go back, youtube premium will bring the
         | enshitification to your door over the coming decade or so.
        
         | solardev wrote:
         | FWIW https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-
         | for-y... is a crowdsourced way to skip past promos (by
         | timestamp).
         | 
         | Or some creators have moved to Nebula, which seems to have less
         | of that crap but IMO a worse UI than YouTube.
        
           | IntelMiner wrote:
           | While I like Nebula on premise, it seems creators on it are
           | getting 'lazier' and some of the people on the site are
           | downright questionable ("TL;DR News" and "Therapist Reacts"
           | being the biggest offenders for me)
           | 
           | Like, why am I paying Nebula for this garbage?
           | https://i.imgur.com/itiLYbK.png
        
             | verall wrote:
             | I think Little Joel is a treasure, personally
             | 
             | He still does long-form well-researched videos if you're
             | into that, too
        
               | ravetcofx wrote:
               | Yeah don't be dunking on little joel. He's
        
             | Theizestooke wrote:
             | What is questionable about TLDR News?
        
             | KittenInABox wrote:
             | Are you unfamiliar with Little Joel? Big Joel has actual
             | deep analysis if you like, but Little Joel is just a silly
             | side channel of his. You're paying for this, plus also
             | multi-hour-long analysis of, say, media analysis
             | contrasting with the role of Jewish people who were coerced
             | to cooperate with the Nazis in concentration camps.
             | 
             | Nebula is meant to serve a variety of videos. I'd probably
             | feel the same of "I have to watch ads for this crap?" for
             | YouTube, y'know?
        
             | solardev wrote:
             | Is that really Nebula's fault? YouTube, TikTok, etc. are
             | full of garbage too.
             | 
             | I don't really know their arrangement with creators (one
             | would hope creators get a bigger cut there, otherwise why
             | leave YouTube?), but my favorite creators* have the same
             | videos on both, just a little earlier on Nebula usually.
             | 
             | *Just engineering channels though, which is probably why
             | they're not as spammy/shock-reaction-y.
             | 
             | https://nebula.tv/practical-engineering
             | 
             | https://nebula.tv/realengineering
             | 
             | https://nebula.tv/the-efficient-engineer
             | 
             | are all excellent
        
               | chmod775 wrote:
               | Never used them.
               | 
               | The way they're marketing themselves I didn't think I
               | would have to curate their content myself. How much do I
               | need do I need to pay to not have to sift through brain-
               | numbing clickbait diarrhea?
               | 
               | At that point you might as well just kill your time on
               | YouTube. Plenty of good channels there too - if you can
               | stand the stench of the heap of trash they're buried
               | under.
        
               | solardev wrote:
               | Oh, I never thought of Nebula as a curation service, just
               | a hosting service that the creators I like seem to prefer
               | (who knows why, maybe they get paid more there or have
               | some promotion with them?). But I eventually moved back
               | to YouTube too, for unrelated reasons (auto captions
               | etc.)
               | 
               | I don't think any video site these days can be easily
               | "browsed" if you want to avoid the garbage :( It's all
               | about picking and choosing specific channels/creators to
               | follow and ignoring the crap... sadly.
        
             | rchaud wrote:
             | You may be paying Nebula, but like all UGC platforms, it
             | can't show you what it doesn't have. Social media video is
             | heavy on lazy "TLDR", and light on substance.
        
             | addicted wrote:
             | I don't pay Nebula for that "garbage" (although that
             | creator has a very different, and possibly unique, style of
             | videos).
             | 
             | What you are paying for is all the other stuff that isn't
             | garbage.
             | 
             | The "garbage" adds negligible costs to the Nebula
             | experience.
        
           | mcast wrote:
           | I _really_ appreciate creators who add chapters to their
           | YouTube videos, especially their sponsorship advertisements,
           | since you can easily skip over them.
        
           | vishwajeetv wrote:
           | I wish there was AI + crowdsourced extension as such.
        
           | a_JIT_pie wrote:
           | I enjoy this with the Youtube ReVanced app. It's an amazing
           | feature on top of regular ad blocking. I can never go back to
           | regular YouTube.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | Compare it with a cable subscription, not YouTube Premium.
        
         | squeaky-clean wrote:
         | Just because lots of people seem to be getting confused, "pre-
         | roll ad" isn't the right term for this. Pre-roll is one of
         | those ads YouTube forces you to watch 5-30 seconds of before
         | you can skip it, and when they play before the video starts.
         | Mid-roll ads are the same thing, but interrupting the middle of
         | the video. And Post-roll are ones that play after the video is
         | over.
         | 
         | What you're referring to are usually called sponsored segments.
         | They're ads, but they're just a part of the video file you're
         | being served. They're not dynamically targeted or cycled out.
         | So if a LTT video is sponsored by ASUS, every viewer will see
         | the same sponsored bit about ASUS because as far as youtube
         | knows, it's a genuine part of your video, not a slot for an ad
         | bid.
         | 
         | They're still annoying, but it's not a pre-roll ad. You don't
         | get those with Premium.
        
           | GenerocUsername wrote:
           | Hopefully OP understands this, but I can confirm folks like
           | my parents do not distinguish the difference. It's mind
           | boggling
        
             | mk89 wrote:
             | That's an implementation detail leak: for the end user it's
             | just an advertisement. Call it as you want, but when I pay
             | premium and you write "no ads" I want no ads. That's it.
             | 
             | I don't care that the content provider found a way to show
             | ads. I have a contract with you - you have to figure it
             | out.
        
               | mk89 wrote:
               | Ah right, I forgot: they don't want to do content
               | moderation, because then they become gatekeepers etc.
               | 
               | They just want our money. Twice.
        
               | squeaky-clean wrote:
               | Youtube doesn't get any money from sponsored segments.
               | It's a direct deal between the channel owner and the
               | sponsor.
               | 
               | The only way it gets YouTube additional money is because
               | it lets those channels put out more frequent or higher
               | budget videos, which usually leads to more views.
        
               | mk89 wrote:
               | When I said "they" I meant: content providers, service
               | providers and so on.
               | 
               | I frankly don't care at all, I will never buy Youtube TV.
               | However, justifying this behavior is ludicrous, even if
               | YouTube doesn't monetize on such content.
               | 
               | It's just unfair - you pay for no ads, and ...well you do
               | get them because "the file..."
        
               | eviks wrote:
               | Yeah, but life has never been that simple
        
               | mk89 wrote:
               | I am more of the opinion that things were actually
               | simpler before, even with analog TV. You knew what to
               | expect. Now you pay 70$ per month, but hey, the file (?)
               | you are streaming (?) contains an advertisement. Who
               | cares?
               | 
               | I just want to watch a show. Without ads, because I paid
               | to have no ads.
               | 
               | But hey we're a young generation, so we understand that
               | it's not Youtube's fault... (?). Sorry, but no way! You
               | are the service provider - you choose what goes through
               | your platform. When I pay, you can't treat me like
               | "you're (still) the product, sorry". That's for me
               | unacceptable.
        
               | tedunangst wrote:
               | So if you pay for premium you're blocked from watching
               | movie trailers?
        
               | mk89 wrote:
               | Movie trailers are a bit different than coca cola ads,
               | come on...
               | 
               | Plus, offer the chance to choose: with the amount of
               | metadata flying through our networks, they are even able
               | to guess what I ate for lunch, ... can't they really
               | offer a checkbox like "show/don't show movie trailers"?
               | 
               | They are Youtube, not random startup run by a guy working
               | on it over the weekends...
        
             | squeaky-clean wrote:
             | Where it gets really confusing is podcast networks (like
             | Spotify exclusives, but also others) offer the ability to
             | cycle out the sponsored segment. So you may be listening to
             | a Conan O'Briend podcast episode from 2016 and hear an ad
             | break of Conan recommending you check out some tv show
             | airing this Saturday, October 16 2023.
             | 
             | But YouTube doesn't let video makes swap out parts of a
             | video without re-uploading the whole thing and losing your
             | viewcount. From what I've heard they have let some very big
             | channels swap out things without it being considered a new
             | video. But that's for the sake of avoiding copyright or
             | fixing a dangerous error. Not for sponsorships.
        
           | bagels wrote:
           | Thanks for clarifying. I was worried that the parent was
           | actually seeing real pre-roll ads with the subscription that
           | would eventually get rolled out to everyone.
        
           | TrinaryWorksToo wrote:
           | You can use SponsorBlock to skip those.
        
             | BiteCode_dev wrote:
             | Will get more and more difficult. This morning Youtube
             | kicked me out because I was using adblock origin. And
             | update fixed it, but if they start putting DRM...
        
               | parthdesai wrote:
               | That and you can also see certain youtubers chopping off
               | sponsored ads block into multiple parts and integrating
               | it with their video
        
               | TrinaryWorksToo wrote:
               | SponsorBlock helps with this also, even when it's
               | incorporated into the video (via muting the audio).
        
           | choppaface wrote:
           | Doesn't matter how the pre-roll ad is served or who is
           | serving it. The customer wants to pay for no ads, and that
           | includes removing ads otherwise embedded into the video. The
           | fact that ads people see this as out-of-scope demonstrates
           | how little ads people want to make a product that users want.
           | It's all about burning the dumb money of advertisers and
           | abusing the users along the way.
        
             | squeaky-clean wrote:
             | If you had just said ad, I would agree with you. But a pre-
             | roll ad is a specific type of youtube that many people are
             | familiar with but don't know the proper name of. That's my
             | point. The OP comment does not get pre-roll ads with
             | premium. But they still get sponsor segment ads.
        
         | giancarlostoro wrote:
         | I was a Google Music All Access member since day 1 or whatever,
         | they grandfathered me into YouTube Premium ('Red' at the time)
         | and I was okay with that. Then my card expired, they cancelled
         | my Music All Access, and when I re-enabled it, I no longer had
         | YouTube Premium, I had to all of a sudden go out of my way to
         | pay an extra $9 a month for it. I went with Apple Music as soon
         | as I went iPhone and have not bothered to pay Google anymore.
         | All Music Access was amazing, forcing me to YouTube is a poor
         | choice that had they not gone that route I would still be on
         | All Music Access. Apple One is superior in many ways anyway. I
         | rather not be with a company that re-brands existing services
         | then axes them when there's zero need to do so.
        
         | altdataseller wrote:
         | Plus they always seem to be taking away channels too. Here in
         | NY, they removed SNY. It's like ok if you're raising prices,
         | make sure you aren't taking things away!
        
         | NegativeK wrote:
         | My significant other watches sports, so the comparison to YT
         | Premium doesn't count for us. It was either be subjected to ads
         | and pay a lot of money or be subjected to ads and pay a medium-
         | small amount of money.
         | 
         | But as someone who has never paid for cable TV before, I agree
         | that it's jarring. Our trick is to only watch things we've
         | marked to be recorded, which allows ad skipping. (On demand and
         | live don't allow skipping. Starting a sportsball game an hour
         | late gives plenty of buffer.)
        
         | redeeman wrote:
         | install yourself an adblocker and see no ads :)
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | I subscribe to YouTube TV but watch it less than 1/month (it's
       | for my parents). It blows my mind that it's $60/month and still
       | contains ads. There is nothing on TV worth sitting through ads
       | for.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | On Adult Swim, the ads are weird enough that I actually don't
         | really mind.
         | 
         | That's it though.
         | 
         | I want / would use a tenth of what YouTube TV or any cable
         | provider sells. I don't really want to spend 70 dollars a month
         | for it.
        
         | solardev wrote:
         | I really wonder how much of this effect is a generation gap. I
         | see one commercial and it drives me nuts, but my parents don't
         | even seem to notice them. Then again I have dev coworkers
         | who're younger than me and go like "I should really get adblock
         | at some point" while staring down pages full of pop-ups and
         | animated crap. Guess you really can develop banner blindness by
         | attrition lol.
        
           | ToucanLoucan wrote:
           | I mean that's why the ad revenue goes down over time. People
           | get used to clicking the right X's and ignoring the garbage
           | on the sides and in the margins, and between the actual
           | content. Less attention. The sites respond by making the ads
           | more egregious, more numerous and even more aggressively
           | placed but that just trains users to click out of the new
           | ads. Just in my lifetime I've seen the amount of ads on
           | television increase dramatically as TV dies it's own similar
           | death.
           | 
           | Techy people will just install blockers which is arguably
           | _better_ for the advertisers, since they 're at least stating
           | outright (forcefully) that they don't want ads. That means we
           | don't download the ads and the ads don't register an
           | impression for us because most good adblockers also block
           | trackers. But these people who just raw dog the internet and
           | just walk right by? They're the ones truly decimating the
           | value of advertising, and bless em for it.
           | 
           | There is no win condition for the advertisers in this. None.
           | And that's shown by how aggressive and desperate they've
           | become for even an ounce of attention. The entire pivot to
           | video fiasco happened because advertisers wanted video ads,
           | because making loud, stupid, brightly colored bullshit is the
           | only tried and true way to get attention anymore.
           | 
           | And I'm sorry but anyone still paying for television at this
           | point, YouTube or otherwise, is a sucker. You are paying for
           | (probably) the largest display available in your home to at
           | best, 2/5 of the time bombard your senses with an assault of
           | garbage, between entertainment. Entertainment that can be had
           | much cheaper, without the assault elsewhere with basic
           | technology. And if that's fine with you then by all means, it
           | ain't my money, enjoy yourself but I cannot put myself in
           | your shoes and make it make sense to me.
        
             | zem wrote:
             | Cory Doctorow had a superb piece on our "immune system" for
             | ads: https://locusmag.com/2018/01/cory-doctorow-persuasion-
             | adapta...
        
             | jowea wrote:
             | Is my memory fooling me but weren't the first ads already
             | highly obnoxious? Like ads that popup a new window or were
             | flashing and stuff?,
        
           | freedomben wrote:
           | I'm ~40 and was inundated with ads most of my life, but I
           | still _hate_ seeing ads. I 'm more tolerant on a sports game
           | or something for some reason, but still hate it with a
           | passion. I pay for lots of things so I don't have to see ads.
           | Paramount Plus started showing me ads when I paid for
           | premium, so I cut them off. Meanwhile many people younger are
           | a lot more tolerant. I think it really comes down to your
           | personality and personal mental state, and maybe what you're
           | used to already (which can change in the short term).
        
           | amerkhalid wrote:
           | It has been so long since last I saw any ad on TV/videos that
           | when I subscribed to YouTube TV a few months ago, watching
           | ads made me nostalgic. I told my wife that I was really
           | enjoying these ads.
           | 
           | But after about a week it got really annoying. Now debating
           | if it is worth keeping.
        
             | solardev wrote:
             | Lol, you're every marketer's dream! Or were, anyway.
        
           | zem wrote:
           | I'm in my 40s but I grew up in Dubai, where the tv station
           | (there was only one each for English and Arabic content!)
           | only showed ads between shows. I basically gave up on tv
           | after coming to the US - there is no way I can ever get used
           | to ads in the middle of a show.
        
           | DoesntMatter22 wrote:
           | I'm 41 and watch the nfl with my dad. I try to explain that
           | we can just record it and wait 40 minutes and watch the whole
           | thing with no commercials.
           | 
           | Nope. He wants to look up game stats without getting spoiled
           | and needs frequent smoke breaks.
           | 
           | It's nearly unbearable for me. I only stick it out because
           | he's 76
        
             | pests wrote:
             | I agree with your dad.
             | 
             | Ever have a favorite TV show release an episode and then
             | you have to avoid Facebook and Twitter so you don't get
             | spoiled?
        
               | DoesntMatter22 wrote:
               | It's not so much that it's that he wants to follow the
               | game as it goes as far as stats go. How many completions,
               | ints, etc.
               | 
               | For me I don't care so I just don't watch the game for 30
               | minutes or so and that's perfect. But there is no way to
               | do what he wants without watching in real time.
               | 
               | Miserable though for me.
        
           | icelancer wrote:
           | It blows my mind how many of my employees and co-workers
           | don't have uBlock Origin or even ABP installed. I'm 40 years
           | old and have had an adblocker installed for as long as
           | they've been around, and I'd guess over half of the mid-20
           | year old developers, analysts, content creators, and customer
           | service people who work for me have never heard of it or used
           | an adblocker.
           | 
           | Not sure how you survive the Internet these days without one.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | Sports. That has always been and will always be the answer to
         | this.
        
           | ProfessorLayton wrote:
           | I'm not so sure about "always", at least not in its current
           | structure. The likes of ESPN (And DIS by extension) are
           | facing a reckoning because of cord cutting. Sports has
           | enjoyed a privileged position where people were paying
           | ~$10/mo in their cable bundle regardless of them caring about
           | sports or not, but that's becoming less and less viable with
           | cord cutting.
           | 
           | Eventually sports fans are going to have to pay their own
           | way, and it may turn out to be a lot more expensive than it
           | is now, or they'll have to restructure to pin down costs
           | significantly.
        
         | hrunt wrote:
         | YTTV does not really have the ability to not show ads. Those
         | are put in the streams they are carrying. Could they negotiate
         | with the channels to not show ads? Maybe, but no channel is
         | going to allow that.
         | 
         | A different way to think of this is to consider how many ads
         | you would see on TV if YTTV (and every other bundled TV
         | provider) did not have to pay carriage fees to the channels.
         | How many ads would they have to sell to make up that lost
         | revenue?
        
       | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
       | I'm subscribed to them for the same reason I was subscribed to
       | DirecTV for a decade - they have a monopoly on Sunday Ticket.
       | 
       | Oh, how I yearn for Sunday Ticket to just be its own entity so I
       | didn't have to buy another service.
        
         | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
         | I know not exactly what you're looking for but I bought RedZone
         | for the first time through the NFL+ app this year and it's so
         | nice to just have that and not fuss with any other service.
        
           | bdcravens wrote:
           | Sunday Ticket is different than RedZone. RedZone is a single
           | channel that jumps between games; Sunday Ticket gives you
           | unfettered access to all games.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | Even Sunday Ticket does not give you access to all the
             | games.
             | 
             | https://tv.youtube.com/learn/nflsundayticket/
             | 
             | >NFL Sunday Ticket: Every out-of-market Sunday game[1]
             | 
             | >[1] Locally broadcast Fox and CBS games, Sunday Night
             | Football on NBC, select digital-only games and
             | international games excluded
        
               | bdcravens wrote:
               | Sure, but it does give you the lion's share, whereas Red
               | Zone is really just one show, six hours on Sundays (and
               | occasionally Saturday)
        
         | jpollock wrote:
         | You can subscribe to Sunday Ticket without signing up for
         | YouTube TV.
         | 
         | See "NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube" or "NFL Sunday Ticket + NFL
         | RedZone on YouTube"
        
           | andrewgioia wrote:
           | While technically true this is hardly an option... Both of
           | those "alternative" plans exclude YouTube TV while charging
           | considerably more. How many users who enjoy paying more for
           | less did they sell to here?
           | 
           | $350/year for Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV included vs.
           | $450/year for just Sunday Ticket, delivered via regular
           | YouTube it seems.
           | 
           | Their pricing page:
           | https://tv.youtube.com/learn/nflsundayticket/#id-plan-matrix
           | 
           | Image if you can't access it: https://i.imgur.com/0nsQZxA.png
        
             | dpifke wrote:
             | _$350 /year for Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV included vs.
             | $450/year for just Sunday Ticket, delivered via regular
             | YouTube it seems._
             | 
             | YouTube TV is required--not included--with the $350/year
             | plan.
             | 
             | So it's either $350/year + $73/month (with), or $450/year
             | (without).
             | 
             | Assuming you only keep YouTube TV for the September-January
             | football season, that's $715/season with YouTube TV, vs.
             | $450/season without. If you don't get any value from
             | YouTube TV (e.g. if you already have cable or satellite),
             | it's cheaper without.
             | 
             | (Sunday Ticket doesn't show locally or nationally broadcast
             | games such as Monday Night Football, so you kinda need
             | access to broadcast TV alongside it.)
             | 
             | When DirecTV had the Sunday Ticket monopoly, you had to
             | sign a two-year contract to be allowed to purchase it. At
             | least with Google, you can cancel YouTube TV as soon as the
             | season is over.
             | 
             | In my family's case, we weighed the cost against what we
             | spent last football season on food + drinks at sports bars,
             | and decided it was a better deal. ($715 over 18 weeks =
             | $40/weekend. If we go out half as frequently, we come out
             | ahead.)
        
               | poulsbohemian wrote:
               | I agree with your math, but the whole thing is offensive
               | and abusive no matter how you cut it. $450/year (minimum)
               | just to get football games. We've been evaluating our
               | different options overall, given that Netflix price-to-
               | value continues to weaken, as does Sling and Hulu, but I
               | can't find any reason apart from NFL games why I would
               | subscribe to YouTubeTv.
        
         | spike021 wrote:
         | As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, if mlb tv could release a
         | subscription without blackouts I would no longer need YouTube
         | tv. Same kind of problem.
        
       | simpaticoder wrote:
       | Subscription cost for entertainment is so high, and the quality
       | of entertainment is so low, I can't help but think that most
       | people keep these subscriptions purely out of habit and a BIG
       | shift in consumption patterns is bound to occur. The shift will
       | be to offline, generative software, or offline physical media.
       | Online consumption will be limited to periodic cheap/free options
       | like PBS Newshour, PBS Kids, newsletters, podcasts, and similar.
       | Ideally we'd even see a re-uptake of media like a daily local or
       | regional paper.
       | 
       | Personally, I think this shift could really improve society, the
       | state of people's minds, and encourage more offline time without
       | some draconian top-down time-limit. And all thanks to increasing
       | the price and decreasing the quality of streaming content until
       | you break the relationship. Cool!
        
         | pythonguython wrote:
         | Just because it's expensive and low quality doesn't mean people
         | will stop using it - even if they recognize that. Based on the
         | trends in entertainment over the last 70 years, I'd wager that
         | entertainment will only be filled with more ads will be less
         | substantive. I also think offline generative content will never
         | happen. Will everyone have a gpu cluster in their home to run
         | it? Generative content is certainly coming, but it will come
         | though YouTube, Instagram, and whatever openAI has planned
        
         | lapetitejort wrote:
         | This is a reminder to check out your local library. Not only do
         | they have tons of physical media (in some cases current movies
         | and TV shows in disc format) but you may also get access to
         | Hoopla, Libby, and/or Kanopy which are free apps where you can
         | borrow all sorts of digital items.
         | 
         | Some libraries also have a Library of Things, which lend out a
         | random assortment of objects. I've seen musical instruments,
         | baby monitors, cake tins, etc.
        
       | stuaxo wrote:
       | How much a month?
       | 
       | That is insane.
        
       | lionkor wrote:
       | U+1F3F4 U+200D U+2620 U+FE0F
        
       | bentt wrote:
       | I pay $73 a month to watch 1 Liverpool game a week (max), 1
       | Buffalo Bills game per week (maybe), and a smattering of NBA
       | games. I'd so much rather just give the money directly to the
       | teams and/or leagues.
        
         | hellogoodbye wrote:
         | To watch your EPL team you need Youtube TV, Peacock Premium,
         | Paramount Plus (UCL/UEL) and ESPN plus (domestic cups) :/
         | 
         | Youtube TV is the most expensive of the bunch, going to see if
         | there are any other options like IPTV
        
           | bb88 wrote:
           | At least they don't have blackouts in the states....
        
       | s17n wrote:
       | It would be nice if they offered pay per view access for those of
       | us who only want to watch live tv maybe a couple times a year. I
       | can see why they don't bother though (obviously no real money in
       | it).
        
       | daft_pink wrote:
       | They contest Youtube's non-transparency, but their total non-
       | transparency on not disclosing fees, totally fine.
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | > "Charter contended the $600 figure was inaccurate, arguing that
       | its Spectrum TV Select service in Los Angeles only cost around
       | $219 a year more than Google's YouTube TV service," according to
       | a MediaPost article in August.
       | 
       | Google should have just agreed to do a find and replace in their
       | ad copy.
        
       | Aaronstotle wrote:
       | I will cancel Youtube TV after the superbowl
        
         | jayknight wrote:
         | I signed up for sling for October to watch the baseball
         | postseason, it's gone after that.
        
       | babypuncher wrote:
       | YouTube TV is still cable, just delivered differently.
       | 
       | For that reason, it was DOA in my eyes. My problem with cable was
       | never necessarily the price (though that was a big factor), but
       | the linear, scheduled nature of the whole thing. I don't know why
       | some companies keep clinging to this dated distribution model
       | well more than a decade after Netflix showed everyone how to do
       | it better.
        
         | stronglikedan wrote:
         | Because there's enough people like me to make it profitable. I
         | don't want to feel committed every time I turn on the TV.
         | Sometimes I just like to watch whatever's on, carefree.
         | Different strokes, all equally valid.
        
       | charlesray wrote:
       | Baffled by the number of people itt saying "I can't believe it
       | costs that much and still has ads." It can't not have ads. It's
       | cable TV, YouTube has zero control over whether or not it has
       | ads. They can't broadcast the USA network without ads. Cable has
       | had ads for like 40 years, and traditional cable providers are
       | much more expensive than this. Are y'all 14 years old? idgi
        
         | superjared wrote:
         | YouTube TV injects ads on certain content. I know it's there
         | for on-demand TV shows, and some live sports. It's literally
         | overlaid on top of the channel's ads in the live example.
         | 
         | I think years ago when I first subscribed one of the major
         | benefits was the ability to skip through these ads just like
         | DVR, but you can no longer do that.
        
           | mucle6 wrote:
           | I thought you could skip ads in dvr?
        
             | rchaud wrote:
             | You can, but not while watching live TV.
        
           | charlesray wrote:
           | Cable TV broadcasts include both the network's ads and slots
           | for the carrier to run their own ads. They're not inserting
           | bonus ads on top of the actual content. Again, this is
           | exactly the same as any cable provider has always worked.
        
             | superjared wrote:
             | > Again, this is exactly the same as any cable provider has
             | always worked.
             | 
             | Arguably we don't _want_ the same as any cable provider has
             | always worked.
        
               | hx8 wrote:
               | You're not wrong. It's just that YouTube TV needs to be
               | in time sync with Cable TV.
        
         | hx8 wrote:
         | Over the last 15 years the expectation from online content has
         | been "If I pay money ($10-20/mo), I shouldn't have to see ads."
         | There's been a lot of pushback on this expectation, with
         | sponsored content and tired services. This is the strongest
         | pushback on that expectation.
         | 
         | Of course we cannot get around the limitation of a streaming
         | content provider displaying ads as part of their stream. It's
         | just that $73 buys a lot of entertaining content on the
         | internet that won't have that issue. It doubly feels like a bad
         | deal because the content on cable TV is almost always not the
         | highest quality content available. They are charging premium
         | prices for standard content with long ad breaks.
         | 
         | I wouldn't say "I can't believe it costs that much and still
         | has ads" but I would say "I can't believe that people see
         | enough value to spend that kind of money for that content with
         | those ads." In my adult life I have never paid for cable or
         | satellite tv. My parents still do.
        
         | I_Am_Nous wrote:
         | For a lot of people I imagine they are only used to ads on free
         | stuff, like Pandora, while paying for the service removes ads.
         | It's just an old world vs new world disparity, where old-
         | worlders (pre-internet or slow moving area residents) are used
         | to things like ads on cable and broadcast radio, while new-
         | worlders (people who mostly grew up on the modern internet)
         | didn't experience the same world at all.
        
         | schnable wrote:
         | The in-program ad revenue is a huge part of YTTV and Google's
         | business model. The sub costs mostly go to purchase the
         | content.
        
           | mucle6 wrote:
           | Even if they didn't profit from the ads, could they get rid
           | of them?
        
             | charlesray wrote:
             | No.
        
         | RF_Enthusiast wrote:
         | Does YouTubeTV carry public television stations? Aside from
         | underwriting sponsor mentions at the beginning and end of a
         | program, they're prohibited from mentioning sponsors [1].
         | 
         | [1] 47 CFR 73.621(e)
         | https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/part-73/section-73.621...
        
           | charlesray wrote:
           | Yes, and YouTube TV does not insert ads into those
           | broadcasts. There's no ads in YouTube TV beyond what you
           | would see on any other cable carrier.
        
             | RF_Enthusiast wrote:
             | Yeah, it sounds like there's a considerable
             | misunderstanding of the service YouTubeTV provides.
        
               | charlesray wrote:
               | I think the confusion arises because people view "cable"
               | as something that requires coax and a set top box, and
               | they view "streaming" as anything that goes over the
               | internet, therefore they mistakenly view YouTube TV as
               | streaming, when it's actually just cable. The US
               | government uses the term "multichannel video programming
               | distributor" for platforms like this, which is a
               | mouthful, but at least defines the concept separately
               | from the distribution method.
        
       | andrewmcwatters wrote:
       | Use AdGuard and SponsorBlock on macOS. It's really increased my
       | YouTube browsing quality of life.
        
         | carleton wrote:
         | This doesn't have anything to do with YouTube TV. SponsorBlock
         | and AdGuard have no effect on YTTV, only regular YouTube.
        
       | bdcravens wrote:
       | Playstation Vue was a great service. Since then streaming "TV"
       | has become less of a value.
       | 
       | Currently we get sling, which is $45 for the typical mainstream
       | cable channels and 2 local channels (ABC and Fox). HuluTV is ok,
       | since it includes Disney+, but about the same price as YouTubeTV.
       | DirectTV Stream is a very complete offering, but barely cheaper
       | than cable (and only because of the lack of equipment fees and
       | taxes)
        
       | paxys wrote:
       | Are people here really so young that they never had to deal with
       | traditional cable subscriptions? Let me tell you what it was
       | like. You signed up for Comcast, paid a $50+ installation fee,
       | prayed that the technician would even show up in the allotted
       | window, paid $100-150 month for basic service, paid for a cable
       | box/modem rental, paid for HD, paid for DVR, paid for each extra
       | TV in your house, paid for premium channels, paid for on-demand,
       | paid for sports packages, and then watched a shit load of ads to
       | cap it all off. Complaining that YouTube TV is too pricey or is
       | making things worse just shows that you don't know of the media
       | world outside of YouTube and Netflix.
        
         | NegativeK wrote:
         | We were paying about $350 for internet + the full package to
         | get sports.
         | 
         | Now it's $60 for faster internet and $73 for TV. The ads are
         | infuriating, but it's less than half the cost for pretty much
         | the same TV experience. This is a very clear upgrade.
        
         | bdcravens wrote:
         | Correct, but there are cheaper options. Additionally, you can
         | self-install cable these days in many places.
         | 
         | With streaming services you still have to pay for certain
         | sports packages and premiums.
         | 
         | Most people who stream are still paying the Internet fees and
         | modem rental.
         | 
         | Some streaming services will sell you equipment (for instance,
         | DirecTV Stream has a set-top box that isn't required, but
         | actually behaves more like traditional cable instead of having
         | to navigate to a separate app)
        
         | maest wrote:
         | ...in the US.
        
       | antisthenes wrote:
       | I just don't understand the value prop of YT TV.
       | 
       | It seems like the exact cable TV model that all the streaming
       | services were supposed to disrupt and put in the ground
       | (eventually).
       | 
       | But then again, I'm probably not the primary user of the service
       | anyway.
        
       | dumbfounder wrote:
       | I was an early cord cutter, maybe 10 years ago. Then I cut linear
       | because we rarely watched it, and the promotion I had for directv
       | streaming expired (was getting an amazing deal at $10 for directv
       | stream, + hbo with the at&t unlimited mobile plan). I now only
       | want linear tv for NFL, but I tried every which way to see how I
       | could spend as little as possible, but I can't get it any cheaper
       | than about $60/month. I am not spending that just to watch
       | football. And then you also need prime for thursday. And
       | something else for red zone. And you need to make sure you get
       | ESPN. But not ESPN+ because that's worthless. And not NFL+, what
       | the heck is that? It's all absurd and I hate it. I now use some
       | free iptv sources to watch games. Quality isn't awesome, but the
       | price is right. The way I see it, they have driven me to it.
        
       | DonnyV wrote:
       | I think the best hack I've found is get cable and a TiVo with a
       | life time subscription. Now I get the same or more content then
       | YouTube and no commercials because TiVo has a commercial skip
       | feature. I also don't have to pay for hardware for my cable
       | connection because they have to give me 1 free cable card by law.
       | I just insert that into my TiVo.
        
       | simonsarris wrote:
       | I strongly recommend cancelling all your subscription services
       | and seeing how long you can go without renewing any of them. Try
       | no TV, really none at all, for a month and see how it feels. Ask
       | yourself at the end: How did you spend your time differently?
        
         | slothtrop wrote:
         | With habit-forming I think it helps to first start by adding
         | other activities in rotation rather than just eliminating one.
         | 
         | I can already answer this one: it would be internet-use. My
         | sedentary time is still going to be sedentary time, that's how
         | I want it. I'm not going to chase productivity and socializing
         | for all the leisure time I can spare.
        
         | Minor49er wrote:
         | Or at least the in-between option: Use the savings from cutting
         | the subscription services to run your own NAS at home and
         | locally stream whatever movies or shows you own
        
       | Moldoteck wrote:
       | Imo the only subscription worth it for me is yt premium with
       | sponsorblock combo. And yt music is a nice addition, ofc not
       | Spotify's lvl, but i don't really listen to that much new music
        
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