{"id":339954,"date":"2025-12-10T18:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339954\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:25:11","slug":"local-channels-espn-to-stream-at-lower-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339954\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Channels, ESPN to Stream at Lower Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYouTube TV<\/a> will introduce a sports-focused subscription package early next year, the company announced Wednesday, after signing new carriage agreements with top channel operators. The last of those deals came after a protracted standoff with Disney that saw ESPN\u2019s channels go dark on the platform for two weeks in November.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe YouTube TV Sports Plan will include broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC), ESPN\u2019s networks, FS1, NBC Sports Network, TNT and USA. Regional sports networks were not mentioned in a blog post unveiling the product. A full channel list and price point remain unannounced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOther sports-focused cable-alternatives operated by DirecTV and Fubo with their own sets of included channels range from $56 to $70 per month (not accounting for discount offers). Direct-to-consumer services, such as ESPN\u2019s $30\/month product and $20\/month Fox One, give fans the option of cobbling together their own streaming<\/a> combinations as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tYouTube says it will release more than 10 genre-specific packages in total, such as news and family-centered channel bundles. The offerings are intended to give customers a lower-priced entry point and more optionality, YouTube VP, head of subscriptions\u00a0Christian Oestlien\u00a0said on Tuesday while speaking to reporters, much like the service has built customizability into its interface with multi-view offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNew plans also give YouTube TV flexibility when it comes to managing its content portfolio and its pricing mix. YouTube still expects the existing TV offering\u2014currently $83\/month\u2014to be the most attractive option for most customers. It reportedly has 10 million subscribers, making it the third-largest cable-like option, behind Charter\u2019s Spectrum and Comcast\u2019s Xfinity.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of its new carriage agreement, YouTube TV will also incorporate all of the streaming games included with ESPN Unlimited\u2019s package by the end of 2026. Oestlien confirmed that that will include out-of-market NHL contests, with the delay stemming in large part from the technical challenge of integrating the thousands of events into YouTube\u2019s UI.<\/p>\n

\n\tYouTube\u2019s new deals also give it more flexibility in how it presents content, including the possibility of smarter recommendations, more customizable multi-views, expanded free previews and deeper YouTube integrations. While YouTube TV might not create its own form of a RedZone-like whip-around program in the near term, it could one day make it easier for users to jump from a Sunday afternoon NFL game to NBC for\u00a0Sunday Night Football.<\/p>\n

\n\tNFL Sunday Ticket, which is exclusively available via YouTube, and RedZone will be available as add-ons to the sports plan. DirecTV\u2019s MySports includes an add-on for regional sports channels, while Fubo includes the option to subscribe to select RSNs\u2019 direct-to-consumer services through its platform. And then there\u2019s all the games moving to exclusive streaming players such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.\u00a0No perfect all-in-one option exists.\u00a0But with its sports plan, YouTube TV is at least giving fans more choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YouTube TV will introduce a sports-focused subscription package early next year, the company announced Wednesday, after signing new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,2708,427,115292],"class_list":{"0":"post-339954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-streaming","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-youtube-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}