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YouTube TV’s Impending Breakup with NBCUniversal Throws a Rainbow-Colored Wrench Into Its 4K Plans

Jeff Kotuby
Jeff Kotuby is a contributing writer to The Streamable who specializes in sports, music, and all things Japanese media. He cut the cord in 2017 and has spent the last six years of his career writing for technology, entertainment, and healthcare websites. He's a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles and Anaheim Ducks fan, but also enjoys watching animated shows from the '90s.
Read full bio ›
Jeff Kotuby

BREAKING: YouTube TV and NBCUniversal reached a temporary agreement to continue service while negotiations continue.

The latest big breakup in the streaming industry has sent shocks throughout the entertainment world — and YouTube TV’s 4K plans may just be caught in the crossfire.

As YouTube TV and NBCUniversal slowly but surely move towards the point of no return, and NBCUniversal channels disappear from the platform, so too will some of YouTube TV’s already slim 4K offerings.

Currently, YouTube TV’s 4K content is paywalled behind a $9.99 per month charge ($19.99 after the first year) and doesn’t offer much in the way of content — especially non-sports content. Currently, you can watch the following through YouTube TV’s 4K add-on:

  • NASCAR on Fox
  • Premier League soccer on NBC
  • NFL Thursday Night Football on Fox
  • NCAA College Football games on ESPN
  • NCAA College Basketball on ESPN (coming in January)
  • Shows and movies from FX, Tastemade, National Geographic, and other Discovery Networks including Animal Planet.

Fortunately, for sports on Fox and FS1, you won’t even really need the 4K Plus add-on. You can access all of those events from the Fox Sports App using your TV Everywhere credentials.

With the exception of ESPN, the same 4K content is available on fuboTV without the upcharge that YouTube TV requires.

So without NBC’s offerings, what’s the point of paying for YouTube TV’s 4K add-on, especially if you’re a sports fan looking for the UHD experience? At that point, it would make more sense to switch your live TV streaming service to fuboTV and get access to all the 4K sports content you can handle at a similar price point.

While the YouTube TV “4K Plus Add-On” does have other benefits, namely offline access and unlimited at-home streams, you get 1,000 Hour DVR and 10 simultaneous streams with fuboTV Pro Plan ($69.99).

If YouTube TV is truly serious about its 4K streaming add-on, they’d better hope their tiff with NBCUniversal is resolved. Otherwise, they’ll have to bank on another J-Lo/Ben Affleck breakup to get all of our eyes away from their split.

Jeff Kotuby
Jeff Kotuby is a contributing writer to The Streamable who specializes in sports, music, and all things Japanese media. He cut the cord in 2017 and has spent the last six years of his career writing for technology, entertainment, and healthcare websites. He's a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles and Anaheim Ducks fan, but also enjoys watching animated shows from the '90s.
Read full bio ›
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