I hope not. There are less convenient ways to get what YTTV provides cheaper. At $65, it’s borderline worth it with the T-Mobile $10 credit. If they raise the price to $80+ for a very limited amount of 4K and more channels I don’t watch, it will be time to further investigate those options.
Most people are YTTV customers because of price. The price has increased 50% over the past year or two. If I wanted to pay $85, I’d go to cable, my telco, or something else that I could bundle an equivalent TV package with internet for less.
Enough is enough.
I wasn't suggesting a base price of $85, but that maybe we see the base price rise from the current $65 to somewhere in the $70-75 range. And if you add the optional 4K upgrade, that would increase the total to $85.
When YTTV launched, it had a lot fewer channels than it has now and analysts widely believed it was operating at a loss. So price increases were inevitable. But I'd say YTTV is still cheaper than the most similar packages from traditional providers. Here's the incremental cost around here, based on regular non-promo, contract-free pricing, to add Comcast's "Extra" TV package to their standalone broadband service:
Extra channel package (includes 20 hrs cloud DVR): $70
ongoing discount for bundling w/ broadband: -$20
Broadcast & regional sports fees: $25
Cloud DVR (150 hrs, 1-year retention): $10
Total = $85
So that's still $20/mo more than YTTV's current $65 price. But then Comcast's Extra is a larger package that includes RSNs as well as other popular channels missing from YTTV like the Hallmark channels, History, A&E, Lifetime, etc. OTOH, YTTV has a better, unlimited DVR and Comcast TV isn't fully "watch anywhere" outside of home the way YTTV is. I'd say the YTTV app is also nicer to use than the Xfinity Stream app for Roku, Fire TV, etc. If you want the best experience with Comcast TV, you'll need to pay $7.50 per month for each X1 box you rent. But that does include access to 4K HDR content (like the Tokyo Olympics) at no additional cost if you get a 4K-capable X1 box. (So far, they don't offer 4K via the Xfinity Stream app, only on their own X1 boxes.)
Because of the initial low cost of streaming cable TV services, I think a lot of "cord-cutters" thought it was somehow inherently cheaper for operators to sell cable packages that way. It's not. And now those streaming services have hiked their prices to cover costs (while channel owners have forced more of their channels to be carried). If you really want to pay less, you have to be willing to give up a lot of channels and go with a skinny bundle without locals, like Sling's Orange or Blue packages ($35 each) or Philo ($25).
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