Finally ditching satellite TV: opinions on YouTubeTV?

[FlightlessDuck]

We have been DirecTV customers since 2006, but only kept it the last 5+ years due to Sunday Ticket. Now that Sunday Ticket is moving to YouTube, there is no need for us to spend like $200 per month on TV.

YouTubeTV is "only" $64.99, and since YouTube will have Sunday Ticket rights, it only makes sense to us to switch. I already use YouTube a lot for video content in general.

Do you have YouTubeTV? Do you like it? What are some pitfalls? I know there is 1 hyper-local channel we won't be able to get, but we can watch on their app, so it's not the end of the world. Plus we only use that channel for the news anyway.

 

[soccerdad72]

We've had it for about 2 years now and I really like it. The only real drawback (for us) is that they don't have a deal with the local sports channel (Bally Sports), so we don't get area sports games like the Guardians and the Cavaliers.

 

[easyas123]

We have been DirecTV customers since 2006, but only kept it the last 5+ years due to Sunday Ticket.

Wow! us, too-
We just bought another 40" smart TV for our bedroom, after figuring out the existing one isn't. We are dropping DirecTV after probably 20 years? after this football season ends. We are either going with the Directv stream OR Sling TV.
DirecTV has given us Sunday Ticket for the last 3 years for some reason, at no cost, but we will probably look at getting the Youtube pkg for the games next year.
I don't watch much football myself, but my husband & the boys enjoy it. I do like having the local news channels though, and that's been my big hang up over quitting DirecTV. Now that I've figured out the local channel thing I'm ready to do it.

 

[HopperFan]

We have it (YouTubeTV) and honestly I totally forget that we don't have cable. We get everything we watched on normal cable channels. We do supplement with some other streaming services but would be perfectly fine with just YouTubeTV.

I don't understand the local TV thing as we get all of our local ones, news and all ... and we get tons of sports (even with cable Bally Sports was a pay service in addition).

 

[BrianL]

I use DirecTV Stream, but it's similar. It had the channels that I wanted, so I went with that. My friend has YouTube TV and it's very similar, just with a different interface. It is convenient being able to access it from anywhere and not needing a box or anything. I say go for it!

 

[_19disnA]

Would be good is there was someplace where you could easily compare options/prices/channels being offered, but don't think such a thing exists. Most seem to want draw in new customers with an initial discounted price but are cagey about what it will actually cost after that. I bet if you compare the ongoing rates, they are probably similar for most of the available options the different services offer.

 

[sheilafri]

We’ve had YouTubeTV for a couple years and love it. We get our local news stations, local sports, hubbys golf, and all the “cable” channels we really want. It travels with us so we save a small fortune as we have a second home. We can use it anywhere, anytime in the US where we have an internet connection. (There are some esoteric restrictions that most people won’t need to worry about regarding changing locations.).

Downsides include that the interface comes up to a menu page (with a channel playing underneath) so you have to make a second selection to get to the channel you want. It is also subject to your streaming speed so if you don’t have a fast enough internet service it could take a few seconds to load. Instant gratification is delayed a few seconds. Not a dealbreaker for me.

PS. We use Roku to manage the transfers between YouTubeTV and the streaming platforms we might use, Disney+, etc.

PSS. Note that YouTube and YouTubeTV are different. I’m not familiar with Sunday Ticket, but I believe YouTube remains free to use, although it offers pay options for some content.

 

[mrs. magoo]

We have had youtube tv for 3 years. We love the fact that you can have 3 people streaming at one time since my father lives with us - he can be watching one stream, we can be watching another and the kids can have another. We enjoy all our local channels and lots of sports. It was a great switch for us.

 

[SC Minnie]

We've used YouTube TV for 3 years and like it. We dumped cable for it. It had all the sports channels DH wanted and most of the cable channels we watched. I have noticed every so often they'll add new channels but you have to go on the website to add them to your menu.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We've had it for about 2 years now and I really like it. The only real drawback (for us) is that they don't have a deal with the local sports channel (Bally Sports), so we don't get area sports games like the Guardians and the Cavaliers.

This is actually one benefit for us. DirecTV doesn't have NBC Sports Philadelphia, but YouTubeTV does

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't understand the local TV thing as we get all of our local ones, news and all ... and we get tons of sports (even with cable Bally Sports was a pay service in addition).

Specifically there is an independent local station we don't have access to through YouTubeTV. We get the Philly market NBC/CBS/ABC/Fox channels and the local PBS channel.

 

[unrequited23]

The only downside we've experienced is that only 3 devices can be signed into the same account at one time.

 

[JLTraveling]

We've had it for over a year, and we LOVE it! One of the best features for us is the cloud DVR. Our cable used to go out all the time, which meant stuff wouldn't record. But with the cloud DVR, if we have a power outage or whatever, our shows/movies are there when it comes back. It also makes pausing/rewinding/fast forwarding live TV easy. We have our local channels plus pretty much everything else that was in our cable package. We also have a few streaming services, and manage everything on Fire TVs. But really, just the YouTube TV would be sufficient.

 

[easyas123]

I don't understand the local TV thing as we get all of our local ones, news and all

Cool, so YoutubeTV can provide local news channels? I may have to check that out.

 

[HopperFan]

Cool, so YoutubeTV can provide local news channels? I may have to check that out.

Yes. I have ABC NBC CBS with all my local programing and news exactly what cable lineup was. Now I am metro Atlanta, perhaps in smaller markets there are small networks that are very local that would not be included.

 

[kdonnel]

I switched to YouTubeTV in 2017 way back when it was $35 a month, as soon as it launched in Atlanta.

There have been one or two short outages in those 4+ years but nothing of any real concern.

The unlimited DVR is great. We currently have 385 shows setup to record and 1256 movies that have been recorded. Shows/movies hang around for 7 months but as long as they air again in that 7 month period the 7 month counter restrarts.

For movies it works out like our own on demand service. Every couple months I go through and select dozens of movies to record. Many we never watch but they are there if we wanted.

It is great for rewatching shows. At the moment we are working our way through King of the Hill. A couple months or so before we started watching I started recording. In that time every episode of every season was recorded. We have done the same for many different older shows.

 

[KarenMom]

We've had YouTube TV for a couple of years now and really like it. We don't watch any sports so I can't report on that. It provides all the channels we watch and because our city has super high speed fiber internet we don't have any down time at all. You can do a 30 day trial with most of the streaming services. We thought we wanted Sling so signed up for a 30 day trial and after 30 minutes decided it didn't have the channels we watch the most. Then we tried YouTube TV and decided right away that was the right streaming service for us. Check all the channels you watch and make sure the service you choose has all or most of those.

 

[Micca]

We've had YouTube TV for a year or so, it pretty much replaces the traditional "cable" lineup. The interface isn't the best, but once you master the small learning curve, it will work for you. It's sure is worth a shot to try the free trial.

 

[JLTraveling]

Yes. I have ABC NBC CBS with all my local programing and news exactly what cable lineup was. Now I am metro Atlanta, perhaps in smaller markets there are small networks that are very local that would not be included.

I can confirm that I have the same in New Orleans.

 

[JLTraveling]

Also, we don't watch too many sports. But YouTube TV is GREAT for the Olympics if you watch those. On Cox cable, they were programmed in four hour blocks, so if you wanted to catch, say Equestrian that was on for an hour in the middle of a block, you'd have to record the whole block. Which was constantly eating up our DVR space. But with the unlimited DVR, we just tell it to record everything Olympics and then go through and watch what we want whenever we want.