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Cord cutters

Heads up, cord cutters: YouTube TV goes national

 

YouTube TV, which launched nearly two years ago, in a limited amount of markets, is now catching up to its competitors by going national. 

The cable TV alternative service is adding 95 additional markets, which will cover 98 percent of US households, up from 85 percent, according to the company. YouTube says it will fill in the remaining 2 percent shortly. 

Rivals DirecTV Now, SlingTV, Hulu with Live TV and PlayStation VUE say they are available nationally. 

Some of the new places where consumers will be able to get YouTubeTV include Boise, Idaho, Evansville, Indiana and Reno, Nevada.

YouTube offers 60 networks (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, along with favorites like ESPN, CNN and others) but has two big omissions — the Discovery Networks and the Viacom channels, which include Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. In 2018, it did add Turner Networks (TBS, TNT, CNN) and Starz to the lineups, as well as sports from Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.

YouTube TV menu shown on a television.

The service costs $40 monthly, which YouTube says is about half the price of cable, and allows users to view programs on TVs, phones, tablets and computers, with unlimited DVR space. 

More:Hulu updates monthly pricing: Live TV bill goes up while on-demand cost drops

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More:TiVo's new DVR for cord-cutters still charges monthly fee

Christian Oestlien, VP of Product Management for YouTube TV, tells USA TODAY that its viewers tend to be younger, millennials who "love" live TV, but want it "delivered in a way that suits their mobile and flexible lifestyles. "We see more millennials using YouTube TV than any other generational group."

 

Oestlien says most users are watching TV live on YouTube TV, and 70 percent of them are watching on TVs, not mobile devices or the computer.

Due to a corporate spat between Amazon and YouTube-owner Google, the YouTube TV app is not available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick, a popular streaming player, but can be found via Roku and Apple streaming players, as well as the Google Chromecast. 

One thing that makes watching TV via an alternative service like YouTube TV different from traditional cable or network is the addition of recommendations, like Netflix or the YouTube app, to help viewers discover new fare, based on their watching history. 

Oestlien says it's the recommendations along with the visual menu of show choices, that help members find out what to watch. "A large portion of watch time on YouTube TV comes from the first recommendation users see on their homepage," he says. 

Separately, rival Hulu announced a price hike of its live TV cable alternative Wednesday, $45 monthly, up from $40. 

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

 



 

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