With YouTube looking to make a bigger push on subscriptions, YouTube has announced 10 new, lower-cost YouTube TV packages, which it hopes will entice more viewers across to its paid options.
YouTube has become a key entertainment option, with the platform leading the CTV market, and now rivaling traditional TV, with its Connected TV viewing (CTV) in particular seeing big growth. That means that more people are watching YouTube on their home TV sets, which could make these new paid subscription options a bigger consideration for more people.
YouTube’s new options offer topic-focused alternatives to the main YouTube TV plan, which costs $82.99 per month.
For example, to expand its sports options, YouTube will now also offer:
- Sports Plan ($64.99/month, or $54.99/month for new users): At $18 lower than the YouTube TV main plan, the Sports Plan gives fans access to all the major broadcasters as well as sports networks like FS1, NBC Sports Network, all of the ESPN networks, and ESPN Unlimited (coming this fall).
- Sports + News Plan ($71.99/month, or $56.99/month for new users): Priced $11 lower than the main YouTube TV plan, get everything in the Sports Plan plus your national news, with networks such as CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, in addition to CSPAN, Bloomberg, and Fox Business.
There are also movie-focused packages, news-specific collections, kids’ packages, and more.
So now, users will have a heap more options to choose from, priced lower than YouTube’s main offering, which could see more people signing up to watch more content through its service.
YouTube has seen consistent growth in its subscriber numbers, though overall, subscription revenue remains only a minor element in its broader $60 billion revenue pie.
But it is looking to make subscriptions a focus.
Last week, as part of parent company Google’s Q4 earnings call, the company’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler told investors that YouTube will be looking to meet the demands of more potential subscribers, by adding cheaper YouTube TV and Premium tiers.
On a related front, YouTube’s also looking at new ways to incentivize YouTube Premium sign-ups, like paywalling certain features that have been available for free. That could form a part of the broader push towards paid social media options, with all platforms now looking to squeeze more benefit from their most loyal users.
Historically, paid subscriptions have only been a very minor contributor compared to ads. But more platforms are generating good income from their paid offerings, with both Snapchat and Meta bringing in over $1 billion each from their paid add-on packages in 2025.
That presents expanded opportunity, and as more users become more accustomed to paying for extra features, this could be a bigger avenue for additional income, that would clearly make it worth the investment.
And with YouTube already dominating CTV share, this is a logical expansion, which will no doubt see the platform sign-up a heap more subscribers.
