YouTube TV has announced new Plans for 2026 that will unbundle the main, full-fat bundle in favour of genre-specific options. There’ll be a total of ten streaming packages available in the new year, but YouTube is being cagey about the details right now.
We do know there’ll be a sports bundle that’ll include the FS1, NBC Sports, the ESPN networks and ESPN Unlimited. There’ll be the usual options to add NFL Sunday Ticket, Red Zone and all that good stuff.
It appears the packages can be stacked, with users able to choose news, sports and entertainment for example. Full details will be announced at a later date.
In a blog post, YouTube said: “TV should be easy, giving viewers greater control over what they want to watch. Our goal is to let you tailor your subscription with more options. Whether you stick with our main YouTube TV plan with 100+ channels, focus on sports, combine sports and news, or select a plan centred on family and entertainment content, subscribers will be able to easily choose the plan that works best for them.”
YouTube TV is among the most expensive of the services offering live TV and has increased prices dramatically since its inception as a service costing just $40 a month. It is now more than double that now. The company is also facing more competition from fuboTV coming under the ownership of Disney/Hulu/ESPN.
So, the opportunity to focus bundles on preferred genres would be very welcome, provided those bundles are more justly prices and comprehensive of everything users need to enjoy their preferred genres.
There’s no point in a sports bundle that, say, doesn’t have access to USA Network would be undesirable given the amount of Premier League football on that network. We’ll have to wait and see what YouTube comes up with in the New Year.
