Is YouTube TV worried about its growth? The streaming service now offers users $20 off their next bill if they get someone else to sign up. Users who sign up with a referral code get $10 off their first month of the service.
To participate, you’ll need to be a paying subscriber with an active YouTube TV Base Plan. As long as your referral is new to YouTube TV, they’ll get their first month at a discounted rate. Once their first bill is paid, you’ll see an automatic discount reflected on your next billing date.
How to Send a YouTube TV Referral
- Open the YouTube TV app, or go to tv.youtube.com in a web browser.
- Select your profile icon and then “Refer a friend.”
- You’ll get a unique referral link to share with a friend. Follow the steps to copy or share your unique referral link.
If the friend signs up using your referral link, then you’ll get an email about your discount once they become a paying YouTube TV subscriber. The discount will go towards your next monthly bill for your YouTube TV Base Plan once the referred member makes their first payment. You won’t be notified or get a discount when a referred member signs up for a trial.
Why YouTube TV Might Be Trying This
A stunt like this seems fairly aggressive. Referral codes are nothing new, but those are often reserved for digital startups, not one of the top vMVPDs in the industry. YouTube TV’s parent company, Alphabet (Google), doesn’t release subscriber numbers, but it’s estimated there are 4 million users. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to something like Netflix or Disney+.
It’s possible YouTube TV is feeling the heat from Hulu Live TV, which recently raised its price by $5/month, but now includes Disney+ and ESPN+ automatically. That’s a compelling value, considering how similar the streamers are.
Overall, YouTube TV has 114 channels while Hulu offers 105. YouTube TV offers these channels that Hulu doesn’t: AMC and WE tv. But Hulu will be your choice if you like to watch A&E, History, and Lifetime. See our full comparison of the two services.
YouTube TV has also been slammed by some carriage disputes lately. YouTube TV got into fights with Disney and NBC over their channel packages. And it fought a long, bitter battle with Roku. In the cases of Disney and NBC, YouTube TV likely coughed up more money to continue carrying the channels. With Roku, the issue was user data.
If YouTube TV is losing margin because of the higher costs of channel carriage rights and it’s losing out on some of the user data it craves, it makes sense the service is hungry for a larger user base.
YouTube TV could also take some moves to become more attractive to users. Like fuboTV, it could include 4K without additional cost. Like Sling TV, it could offer distinct channel tiers to allow users to save money. Like the now-dead PlayStation Vue, it could offer a multi-view option to watch several channels at once. Any or all of these moves would make YouTube TV a more attractive value.
With younger people avoiding broadcast TV altogether and the ever-escalating costs of live channels, streaming TV is a tough place to be. This referral promotion seems to hint at internal worries at YouTube TV. We’ll see if this effort is successful or whether the company needs to do something more drastic to make its service more profitable.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $72.99/month. This plan includes local channels, 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The service includes an unlimited DVR.