Yesterday, YouTube TV launched their new 4K Plus add-on, which includes 4K streaming, the ability to download shows offline on your mobile device, and watch unlimited simultaneous streams in your home. The new add-on costs $19.99 a month, but will be discounted to $9.99 a month for your first year (after a 30-Day Free Trial).
Part of the reason for the lower price in the first year is there just isn’t very much 4K content available on the service at the moment. At the outset, there are no full-time linear feeds of any 4K channels (so you won’t see them in your guide), but in the coming months there will be live linear streams to select major sports.
In July, you will be able to watch select events in 4K including the 2020 Olympics on NBC/NBCSN (July 23rd) and 2021 MLB All-Star Game (July 13), and NASCAR on Fox. In August, you will be able to stream select Premier League action. Then, in September you can watch NFL Thursday Night Football, select College Football games on ESPN, followed by College Basketball on ESPN in January.
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. This is also available at no extra charge to those with fuboTV.
While there isn’t much there right now, the fact that this add-on exists hopefully will mean that YouTube TV will push content providers into offering even more 4K content. Really, the only 4K content that isn’t available on YouTube TV, available elsewhere is NBC Sports Chicago, which offered select Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox games in 4K this season.
So what can you watch right now?
With the 4K Plus add-on there is some on-demand content from FX, Tastemade, National Geographic, Discovery Networks including Animal Planet. To see all 4K content, from the Home Screen, you can select the “4K” filter (a full list is below).
The on-demand content is pretty limited to just 14 shows, but it will at least give you a taste of the experience until the live sports become available in July. For now though, if you do add the 4K Plus add-on, expect to use it mostly for offline downloads and unlimited in-home streaming.
YouTube TV 4K On-Demand Content
- Make This Tonight (Tastemade)
- Pose (FX)
- Struggle Meals (Tastemade)
- Mad Good Food (Tastemade)
- How It’s Made (Discovery)
- Snowfall (FX)
- Insane Pools: Off the Deep End (Animal Planet)
- Misfit Garage (Discovery)
- Race to the Center of The Earth (Nat Geo)
- Jeremy Wade’s Mighty Rivers (Discovery)
- Sea of Shadows (Nat Geo)
- Basic Versus Baller: Travel at Any Budget (Tastemade)
- The Community Table (Tastemade)
- American Titans (Discovery)
What Devices Can You Stream 4K Content?
In order to stream YouTube TV in 4K, you need a device that supports YouTube VP9 codec. Unfortunately, that means the 2017 Apple TV 4K won’t work.
- Chromecast with Google TV
- Apple TV 4K (2021)
- Amazon Fire Stick 4K (1st Gen)
- Android TV (Sony Bravia, NVIDIA SHIELD, etc.)
- Roku (4K Models)
- Samsung Smart TV (2016+)
- LG Smart TV (2016+)
- HiSense 4K Smart TV