YouTube TV finally lets you avoid paying for channels you don’t watch

Everyone has their own personal viewing habits when it comes to streaming. Some people mainly want live sports, others just want to keep an eye on current affairs, and plenty of households are really paying for kids’ channels and familiar favorites. Forcing all those people into an all-encompassing live TV bundle never felt especially logical. YouTube TV has been teasing its changes to address this issue, and the new bespoke plans are finally rolling out.

Over the coming weeks, YouTube TV is launching at least 10 genre-focused plans, following its December announcement that it would move beyond a single, all-in package. In a post on the YouTube Blog, the company says its goal is to let you pay for what you actually watch, rather than defaulting to the $82.99-per-month base plan.

YouTube has outlined four example plans so far. The Sports Plan costs $64.99 per month — $54.99 for new users — and includes major broadcast networks alongside FS1, NBC Sports Network, and the full ESPN lineup, with ESPN Unlimited coming later this year. There’s also a Sports + News Plan at $71.99 per month, which adds channels like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, and Bloomberg.

If sports aren’t a priority, the Entertainment Plan drops to $54.99 per month and focuses on channels such as Comedy Central, Bravo, Food Network, HGTV, FX, and Hallmark. The News + Entertainment + Family Plan bundles those categories together for $69.99 per month, adding kid-friendly channels like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, PBS Kids, and National Geographic.

Despite the shake-up, the full YouTube TV plan isn’t going anywhere. If you want everything in one place, you can keep the 120-plus-channel package exactly as it is, at the same price.

On paper, this is an easy change to like. Having the option to trim entire categories you don’t care about feels overdue, and our readers were generally in favor of the change in our poll. That said, YouTube clearly isn’t making a loss-leading move here. Three of the four example plans are less than $20 cheaper than the full package. Still, if you already know what you watch but didn’t want to pay $83 per month, you’ll soon have more flexibility.