YouTube TV Has a Deal for its Sports Add-On; But It’s Likely Not Worth It
We all understand that live sports — especially the NFL — are the premier driver of television viewership across broadcast, cable, and streaming. However, not all sports bundles are created equally. YouTube TV is now offering a deal on its Sports Plus package, but upon closer inspection, the offer might not be all it’s cracked up to be.
The package requires that customers subscribe to the live TV streaming service’s Base Plan, which runs $64.99 per month, and the add-on includes NFL RedZone, beIN SPORTS, FOX Soccer Plus, VSiN, Outside Television+, PokerGO+, MAVTV, TVG, Stadium, GOLTV, Billiard TV, SportsGrid, PlayersTV, Fight Network, and IMPACT Wrestling.
Customers can prepay for 12 months of added sports service for $79.99, or opt to go monthly for $10.99 per month. The non-refundable, prepaid option is essentially a 40% discount.
While getting any sports package that includes RedZone for essentially $6.66 per month sounds like a great deal, if the wildly popular NFL whip-around channel is your only reason for signing up for the Sports Plus Package, there is a much more cost-efficient way to do it.
RedZone only broadcasts during the 18 weeks of the regular season, which means that you would only need the sports package from Sept. 8, 2022 through Jan. 8, 2023, or exactly four months. So, paying $10.99 for the four months of the NFL season would get you access to the Redzone for just $43.96, 45% off paying for the entire year in advance.
By opting to just subscribe to the sports add-on during the season, customers also have the option to cancel mid-season if they aren’t getting what they want from RedZone and the rest of the package, which they can’t do when they pay upfront. And given that the rest of this package is pedestrian at best in comparison to RedZone, chances are that you are only interested for the NFL anyway.
However, if you are looking for live coverage of the World Series of Poker, PokerGo will broadcast 33 events from June 2 through July 20. So, who knows, it may be worth adding on two extra months, but even then it would only cost $65.94 paid monthly.
For cord-cutting sports lovers, the main sports add-ons run relatively the same across all live TV streaming services, costing $10-11. The differences come in terms of what content is included on what tiers, and whether or not you will have to pay even for everything that you really want.
Streaming Sports Options
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Get $10 Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| ACC Network | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| ACC Network Extra | - | - | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| beIN Sports | - | ✓ | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | + $11 | |
| Big Ten Network | + $15 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | + $11 | ✓ | |
| CBS Sports Network | + $15 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| Next Level Sports | + $15 | + $6 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| ESPNEWS | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| ESPNU | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| FanDuel TV | + $15 | - | + $10 | - | - | - | + $11 | |
| Fox Soccer Plus | - | + $6 | - | - | - | - | + $11 | |
| Golf Channel | + $15 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | + $11 | ✓ | |
| Longhorn Network | + $15 | - | - | - | + $11 | - | - | |
| MLB Network | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | + $11 | - | |
| NBA TV | + $15 | + $8 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | ✓ | |
| NFL Network | + $15 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| NFL RedZone | + $15 | + $11 | + $10 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | |
| NHL Network | + $15 | + $8 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | - | |
| Pac-12 Network | - | + $8 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | - | |
| SEC Network | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| Tennis Channel | + $15 | + $8 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | + $11 | |
| truTV | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | + $6 | ✓ | ✓ | |