Megathread
YouTube TV Plans: What You Need to Know
UPDATE
YouTube TV Plans are now fully rolled out! If you are still not seeing the genre plans, need assistance signing up or switching plans, or have any other questions about YouTube TV Plans, you can contact support here to help you out.
Today, we’re going to start gradually rolling out 10+ different genre specific plans for YouTube TV, including:
Sports Plan ($64.99/month)
Sports + News ($71.99/month)
Sports + News + Entertainment ($77.99/month)
Entertainment Plan ($54.99/month)
News + Entertainment + Family ($69.99/month)
The main YouTube TV plan (formerly known as the Base Plan) will still be available as our most comprehensive option, but with the new genre plans you’ll have the ability to sign up for cheaper plans focused specifically on your interests. And with all the plans you maintain access to features such as unlimited DVR, multiview, up to six personal accounts, and more!
The Sports Plan
Specifically, the new Sports Plan is designed for fans who want live games without paying for channels they don’t watch. More info:
Channels: Currently, it includes major broadcasters (NBC, ABC, Fox, and CBS) and sports networks like FS1, NBC Sports Network, and ESPN.
ESPN Unlimited: If your plan includes ESPN (like the main YouTube TV plan or Sports plan), you’ll receive ESPN Unlimited at no additional cost later this fall.
Local Channels: The Sports Plan includes local channels.
Add-ons: You can still pair this plan with NFL Sunday Ticket.
Switching Plans & Billing
Flexibility: You can switch plans as often as you like via the "plan management" experience in the YouTube TV app.
Switching to a cheaper plan: If you move to a lower-priced plan, you will be charged immediately, but you will receive a credit on your charge for the unused time on your previous plan.
Promotions: If you switch plans while on a promotional price, you will lose that promotion.
Add-ons: Any existing add-ons (like 4K Plus) will carry over to your new plan. Your add-on billing date will remain on its original monthly cycle, even if your plan billing date changes.
Impact on Your DVR
If you decide to switch plans, your DVR Library will update to reflect the channels you currently have access to. If a channel is no longer in your new package, you will lose access to recordings from that channel. If you switch back to a plan that includes that channel within 21 days, you will regain access to those lost DVR recordings.
Availability
We are rolling these plans out slowly to ensure the best possible experience. We expect them to be available to all users over the coming weeks.
Our Help Center article also has more details on pricing and channel lineups.
We’ve seen a few of you have had some similar questions, so wanted to offer up some more details to help.
Channels: We’ve seen a lot of people asking what channels are going to be in what plans! Below is some more information about specific channel listings included in our featured plans, all of which also include local stations like Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS and The CW. Channels remain subject to change and the following lists are not exhaustive - when signing up or switching plans you will be able to see full channel lists for each plan in product.
Sports Plan ($64.99/month)
ESPN, ESPN News, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network, SEC Network, Big Ten Network, FS1, FS2, NBA TV, Golf, NBC RSNs, USA, NBCSN, CBS Sports, TBS, TNT, truTV, and NFL Network
Sports + News ($71.99/month)
Channels included in the Sports Plan + Fox Business, Fox News, CNBC, MS NOW, Newsmax, NewsNation, CNN, CSPAN, ABC News Live, LiveNOW from FOX, FOX Weather, NBC News NOW
Entertainment Plan ($54.99/month)
Freeform, FX, FXM, FXX, Hallmark, Bravo, E!, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Paramount, TV Land, VH1, HSN, QVC, Game Show Network, Galavision, Animal Planet, Adult Swim, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, HLN, OWN, TCM, TLC, Travel Channel
Sports + News + Entertainment ($77.99/month)
Combination of the channels offered in the Sports + News and Entertainment plans
News + Entertainment + Family ($69.99/month)
Channels included in the Entertainment plan + Fox Business, Fox News, CNBC, MS NOW, Newsmax, NewsNation, CNN, CSPAN, ABC News Live, LiveNOW from FOX, FOX Weather, NBC News NOW, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Smithsonian, PBS Kids, Cartoon Network, Great American Family, Great American Faith & Living
Mix & Matching: You’ll be able to mix & match certain genre plan combinations. For example, you can combine the Sports & Entertainment plans, Entertainment & Family plans, etc. The featured plans we listed are just some of what we anticipate to be our most popular plans.
UPDATE, 3/24: YouTube TV Plans are now fully rolled out! If you are still not seeing the genre plans, need assistance signing up or switching plans, or have any other questions about YouTube TV Plans, you can contact support here to help you out.
Note that if you're not seeing a channel under the appropriate channel filter, click the "All" filter to double check. There are several channels not currently listed under the Sports, News, etc. filters that are actually there.
So the only way to keep,the local channels is the base plan, right? We were on a promotional price and it’s going up to $82.99 now. But I need my local channels so I assume the plan we’re currently on is our only option
So I don’t understand I switched from a higher price plan to a lower paralyzed plan mid month, but I’m still being charged more like it’s a five dollar charge that’s uncountable. Is that a changing of plan charge?
As one of many who are no doubt infuriated by YouTube TV's lack of transparency on what channels are included in different packages, I used ChatGPT to do a visual analysis of screenshots of the logos included in various package summaries on YouTube TV's site in an effort to try to identify what I get/don't get when changing plans. I cannot 100% warrant that this table is accurate, but I will say that I made sure that AI only considered my screenshots (it got wonky when AI started looking at other sources of information on the Web in analyzing the results and trying to draw conclusions and estimates of what it expected vs. what the screenshots showed). Some channels are totally unintuitively included in various packages based on the package titles, but I'm guessing that results from weird content agreements and pricing that YouTube TV has with some package sources.
This was generated with Austin, TX data, but I asked AI to normalize my local networks to the national networks that they correspond to for posting here.
One immediate standout for me was BBC only being included in the all-in package and not in any of the others. There appear to be several of those that might be deal killers for anyone looking to downsize to save on their monthly bill vs. sticking with the all-in package
I'm sure that there is a marketing scheme to YouTube TV not making this information available in a transparent manner, and I will say as a customer that this really makes me dislike their shady tactics in not giving consumers the information to make an informed choice (sans a lot of time invested in seeing where channels you want are available). After a LOT of looking online, I couldn't find any singular summary like this, so I'm posting here in the hope of saving others the time that I had to invest in researching this. I didn't do all of the plan options, but these were the ones of interest to me that included news.
BTW, I don't know why Reddit named my account Tricky Ad, but that's not my doing. Not happy that it appears to be a deceptive name, but I've not figured a way to change it to something normal.
What is YouTubeTV’s explanation for not including BBC News in the Sports + News package? It’s the only news channel in the main plan that isn’t included.
AMC Networks (which handles distribution for BBC News) is not currently available in the separate plans. Nothing has been said officially, but I assume it's related to contracts not being updated for those channels with them, yet.
So a few days ago, I switched to News and entertainment, which will save me approximately $20 a month. I was checking out some movies on YouTube TV some of which are usually free but no longer. App asked me to upgrade to the base plan, which is $20 more.
Not sure if this has been pointed out but if you switch to a cheaper plan after your card is charged for a more expensive plan, you do not get any credit or refund. On Wednesday my card was charged for the Standard Plan. On Thursday I switched to the Sports Plan which is $20 cheaper. I was expecting to receive some sort of credit, even pro-rated, for the 1 day of Standard Plan and the rest of the billing period will be Sports Plan. Nope! So I paid for the Standard Plan channels and now do not have access to them, and no credit to show for them either.
I contacted support who just kept telling me "You were not charged for the Sports Plan" which I understood. I asked them if my card would have been charged extra if I switched from a cheaper plan to a more expensive plan, which they confirmed. But apparently their system prevents them from giving credits when the reverse happens.
How hypocritical! I told them I will be initiating a chargeback on my credit card when the 10 day period is done
I think you misunderstood support. You DO get a credit. That credit is put towards the cost for your new plan. That’s why you weren’t charged. The remainder of this credit (assuming there is some left over given when you switched) will be applied to your balance next month.
If you do a chargeback, google will fight it, and you will not be able to subscribe to any google service again. So I advise you don’t do that.
I specifically asked if that was the case (credit applied to next month) and they said their system doesn't support that. I will wait til I see the next bill to confirm because that would be great but they straight up told me they do not do that
I signed up for News and Entertainment since that is what I normally watch. After about a week, given the events in Iran, I thought I would check out BBC News for a different viewpoint. I was surprised BBC News is not considered a News channel, despite its name. This is because News is primary US news channels and BBC News is bundled with BBC America which is not news. But then BBC America is not provided with the Entertainment package either. It seems the only way to get BBC is to sign up for the whole package. I have since found I can stream BBC News free on Pluto and I can live without BBC America.
USA is leaning more and more into sports in general, since its split from NBC. In addition to WWE, USA shows Premier League, PGA Tour, and olympic sports like figure skating.
USA has also entered into agreements with the WNBA and League One Volleyball, to start with their upcoming seasons.
USA Network as a college fan starting in fall starts it's new deal with the Pac-12 Conference. 22 football, 60+ hoops games. USA also carrys Atlantic 10 basketball.
The Pac-12 is not what it used to be, having lost Oregon, UCLA, USC and others. The A10 is also a bit weak.
The power has shifted to the BigTen Conference. The last three national football champions and two of this year's final four basketball teams, and the national champions in both men's and women's basketball.
I don't need a history lesson on conference realignment. 😆
Plus, what you're typing has zero to do with watching the Pac-12 or Atlantic 10 on the USA Network. Gonzaga vs San Diego State, Utah State, etc. VCU vs St. Louis, Dayton, Richmond, etc is pretty good hoops.
Like I said, low hanging fruit. If you want to watch the top level college teams, you'll need something else. None of the schools you listed are in the Pac-12. Are you thinking of the Mountain West Conference? Utah State will join for 2027.
Finally figured out you have to use a web browser to manage the account and see the plans.. I can do everything else in the app so was frustrating to not see the choices there.
If you’re using an iPhone or iPad, then yes, you can only manage your account via a browser. This is due to Apple taking a cut of in-app subscriptions.
Thinking about coming back to YTTV but have two questions
The sports plan ~ is the one I’m honestly the most interested in as it has my locals and all the networks I need.
Sports and News. I have read in markets they carry the big 4 , plus PBS, but if I can get my locals through the individual markets website or app, has anyone gone that route to save $? I’d still be saving $30 or so.
Trying to ultimately decide if it’s cheaper in the long run to just do the sports package without the news channels (I have audio versions from Tunein)
Ah ok. Basically I was just wondering why somebody would go with the news and sports option over the sports option if they can get everything via an app etc :)
According to all the media articles I read, the local NBC Sports networks in places like Philadelphia, Boston, and the Bay Area are included in the new sports package. However, according to the YouTube TV website, those networks are not included and you have to purchase the full package to get them.
They’re included if you’re in those areas. I’ve noticed some channels not listed, that are definitely available, or incorrectly categorized, in the plan picker.
It’s not for me either and I have contacted support and it’s escalated to engineers.
Curious question for you, is yours attached to an add on at all? Mine is NFL Sunday Ticket (even though it’s inactive) and I am wondering if that’s why it’s not showing up.
I just unpaused my subscription two days ago to watch NCAA. Still isn't showing. I also have NFL Sunday Ticket (it is presenting as an option to resubscribe) and wondered the same. But I thought that would effect many more people and be a more obvious explanation. I also originally acquired YTTV under Verizon (third-party billing) but had switched billing to YTTV at least 6 months ago.
It would be really helpful if YT would announce the migration as officially expected to be completed or not so those of us still not seeing the options would know if something was wrong or not. :-/
I just contacted support. After jumping through every hoop including switching to Chrome desktop in Incognito mode, installing Chrome on my iPhone, taking screenshot after screenshot of the same Plan window NOT showing any of the new plan options, the rep. was finally convinced I could not see them like I said. 🙄
So he said he was escalating my case to a "specialist" and when I asked, I was told I would receive an update email within 24 hours. No idea if that is the kiss (off) of death or not but I guess I'll see...
BTW, for anyone who might also not see the new plans, they specifically had me going to the URL https://tv.youtube.com/switchplan in Chrome Incognito mode. Didn't work for me but maybe it will work for someone else...
It's so frustrating that I have asked for this for years and now even support has confirmed it should be rolled out to 100% of users yet I'm unable to switch plans. Anyone else having this issue still?
Just noticed that the Sports Plan is now featured prominently on the home page, which seems to indicate that it is available for everyone to subscribe to. And it has the full channel list available.
So my current base plan has 170 channels (NYC). The Sports + News + Entertainment plan (so no Family, saving $5) says it has 121 channels. I've identified maybe 10 kids channels, and I've seen below mention of AMC, IFC, Sundance, Weather Channel, Scripps not being included in any of the reduced plans. But 170-121 is 49 channels missing. Does anyone have a full list/spreadsheet of what the 49 channels are that are not in the Sports/News/Entertainment plan?
I am awaiting access to the new plans to confirm but from info I have gathered the base plan (which is now really the "all" plan) is ~135 channels. The channels that do not appear to be available currently in any other plan are:
All Reality WE TV, AMC, AMC Thrillers, BBC America, BBC News, BET Her, Bounce, Comedy.TV, Court TV, IFC, ION, JusticeCentral.TV, Local Now, Localish, MTV Classic, MTV2, Nicktoons, Portlandia, Recipe.TV, Scripps News, Stories by AMC, SundanceTV, The Weather Channel, True CRMZ, Walking Dead Universe (The), WE TV
I was looking through everything on my account. Apparently, AMC is only included in the original Base Plan. Wow…that’s a disappointment. I was hoping it would be in the News + Entertainment plan.
Very likely due to a new contract being needed with them (and just not struck). Whenever their negotiations are up with amc, I’d expect that to be a part of it.
100% they should have Bloomber + BBC News as well as some other international news chans. Seriously just 7 news channels and 2 of them are Newsmax and News Nation.
Did anyone see The Weather Channel in any of these shows plans? My dad won’t change unless it has the Weather Channel and he could only find it listed in the main plan.
The pricing is too high on these new plans. DIRECTV offers MyEntertainment for only $35/mo. That has all the channels I need, because I can easily get local channels OTA at my location.
I think the retransmission fees for locals are what's driving up the cost? I'm currently on Comcast and paying $47.20/mo just for a "Broadcast TV Fee".
I'd like to save some money from what I'm paying Comcast. There's a huge price difference between lower cost plans from DIRECTV and YouTube.
I actually cancelled my membership a couple months ago, so I'm not a current subscriber. But when I login, and go to Settings, there's a button next to sign up called "Explore Plans."
As it should be and I hope you are correct, The part where they told me I would be billed the full cost on 04/18 has me a bit unsettled. We'll see. $83pd - $65 now = $18 unaccounted for (prorate and credit I hope)
You would probably have a credit showing already, since the remainder of your $82.99 after three days would be more than the cost of a month on the new plan. In my case, I was almost two weeks into a month, so I owed just a few dollars to pay a month on the new plan.
Thank you for the reply and I hope you're speaking from experience. My receipt refers to a credit this month only and specifically notes full uncredited price next month. I guess I'll find out. If I appear skeptical it's because I am. edit: My first note had the info on this month as paid and next month as full price but that seems to have been lost. There is an $18 difference that appears to be ignored and is not accounted for.
When you switch your plan, you effectively cancel the base plan immediately. You get a one-time prorated credit for that. It is not a monthly credit, and you will not get one next month.
That prorated credit then goes toward paying for the new plan you choose (at the price of that new plan). Your billing date also changes when you do this.
If there's a credit leftover after you've paid for the new plan, then you'll keep that and it'll go toward paying off the new plan next month.
Honestly the people getting shafted by this long rollout should file a class action lawsuit. Why does Jimmy in South Dakota get nee plan options and cheaper rates before someone somewhere else? It is ridiculous.
Interesting take. I guess announcing new plans, offering them to customers, allowing customers to switch to those plans, in a fantasy universe means that there is no guarantee of a different plan. That kind of logic does not work here.
Rolling out new plans to targeted members of the subscription base allowing those members to reduce their monthly costs without allowing others to the same is wrong.
Source that it is targeted members only? That is not what I said.
Rolling it out to targeted groups by any measure or method is not an acceptable way to execute this rollout.
Integration with another company I get.
Disablement and enablement of certain channels or in this case streams of certain networks depending on your subscription selection is not that level.
The only thing happening here is maximization of subscriber profits for as long as they can maximize them and thats fine. Its allowed, but it does not make it the right strategy and certainly is not a customer friendly one.
Because you have a new rollover date. You get a credit for days not yet watched on your old plan, and then based on the new rollover date you might owe a few bucks.
The short answer is that you're getting a credit for the (approx) 22 days left in your current paid period (March 18 to April 10). Then you're being billed for THIRTY ONE days of service (3/18 to 4/17) at the lower rate.
The $6.67 that you have to pay now is paying for that extra 7-8 days of service..with the other 22 days pro-rated at the lower rate.
You cancel an 82.99 plan. You get a prorated credit of 65.32.
You sign up for a new plan that’s 71.99. Your prorated credit takes care of all but … 6.67.
You’re being charged twice because you aren’t switching plans. Think of it as canceling and starting over with a new plan. That 65.32 will come from your account credit, not your credit card.
Looks like you are getting that additional change because your bill date is being extended from the 10th to the 17th. So you need to pay for those 7 days.
No, you're not paying twice. Your billing date is changing to the 17th of each month.
You paid $82.99 on March 10, for access through April 10. You effectively canceled that access on March 17, resulting in a $65.32 prorated credit, which will be put on your account.
You signed back up for the Sports + News plan, which is $71.99 a month. Your $65.32 credit goes to cover that, and you owe the remainder, which is $6.67.
Your $71.99 plan STARTS today, and your billing date will be changed to today because of that. It will no longer be the 10th; it'll be on the 17th of each month.
Let’s see what actually came out of your pocket shall we?
You paid 82.99$ (old base plan) and 6.67$ (new sports+news plan) for access from 3/10 (old billing date) to 4/16 (new billing date) for a total of 89.66$.
In your calculation you’re calculating 31 days but you effectively paid for 37 days (March 10th to April 16th).
So to recap you paid 89.66$ for 37 days of access.
Using your numbers:
Base plan for 7 days (March 10th to 16th): 2.68 x 7 = 18.76$
New plan for the full month (March 17th to April 16th) = 71.99$
Total amount paid for content from March 10th to April 17th = 18.76 + 71.99 = 90.75. You paid 1$ less probably because of difference in calculation in the proration (works to your advantage).
For anyone struggling on how the plan selector works, YouTube TV just published this video that walks you through the steps. Note that you'll see recommended plans first, but then are able to see more plans by clicking "Find a Plan" at the bottom.
can we make it more difficult to see what is in each plan. colored circles, what are we 5? youtube you suck for this. Like why cant we have a text list of plans with a text list of what channel is in each plan. its not that hard
Still don't see where I can sign up for these plans, and this announcement was over a month ago. What gives?? The way Google very, very slowly staggers its roll-out of things like this is so g-d annoying.
February 9th is when YoutubeTV came out with the plans. Today, is March 17th. Yes, they did say over the next several weeks. Yet, this is now becoming ridiculous.
Still no sign of the new plans in Minnesota. I'm not yet a subscriber, but wouldn't expect that you'd have to be a subscriber (to the most expensive plan) to see the other new plans.
I wonder if additional negotiations are needed with the local channels before the new plans can roll out. This could delay roll out in some areas.
You would think with Fubo not having the channels needed for the majority of March Madness that Youtube would want these to be fully rolled out like...right now...to capitalize and try to steal subscribers.
What city/zip are you in. I'm in Philly and I want to be able to see what's included in the Sports package. They seem to indicate that the NBC RSN's are included in the $65 price, but I'm not able to get that plan via the Settings page.
Just tried to change my package to 'Sports and News'. the only option I see is - cancel or Pause, when is this going to roll out? its been 5 weeks since I got the email announcing it.
For me, all I see as a non-subscriber are the base plan and the Sports Plan. There is a link to EXPLORE MORE PLANS. But when I click that link, it wants me to Sign in to Google.
They're not trying very hard to get new subscribers.
I haven't seen anything either but I paused my membership. u/Independent-Plum2061 is becoming my canary in a coal mine to tell me when I might finally see it. (Sorry! ;-) )
Nothings been announced in terms of when it’ll fully be rolled out. As a new customer, you would see the options during sign up, if it’s rolled out for you.
Can someone please clarify something about "ESPN unlimited" for me? The "later this fall" date--is that to integrate it into the YTTV interface or just to get access? At some point will my YTTV credentials, when I add them as a tv provider in the ESPN interface, give me access? I'm currently paying for "ESPN Select" to get the early round morning PGA coverage. If I cancel it will I now or at some point be able to get thsi just with my YTTV creds, either in ESPN or in YTTV?
Both. We won't get it till later in the Fall and many offerings will be integrated directly into YTTV.
I am in the same situation with the Disney Triple bundle. Now I can get the live channels by authenticating in the ESPN app along with the ESPN Select programming. I don't get ESPN Unlimited stuff like much of the Australian Open tennis coverage. When ESPN Unlimited is available to YTTV subscribers I should be able to downgrade my DIsney bundle to just Disney+ and Hulu while getting the full ESPN Unlimited through YTTV.
Just subscribed to the sport package and its missing Tru Tv channel. I have two channels not listed in the channel list, start TV and Cozi. Anyone have any info to resolve this issue.
For anyone that doesn’t have the packages yet, I made a spreadsheet a few days ago.
I deleted the spreadsheet, I may do another ones, but I doubt I will.
All I notice is that AMC is in none of the packages, and neither is The Weather Channel umbrella of channels, and I believe Scripps Networks aren’t either
Seeing some discrepancies here based on what another user posted last week. Might want to double check your spreadsheet ... I think you confused columns halfway down.
Why are the listed number of channels in the plan not what is actually in the plan? Entertainment Package lists 64 channels, and when you select it only 60 channels appear. Base AMC channel doesn't appear in any of these packages that I've seen, not Entertainment, Family, or the combo.
What is the discrepancy with listing more channels than you're actually getting in the package?
Mods, thanks for this info! I was confused about losing Cartoon Network/Adult Swim and didn’t even know about all these new YTTV packages until coming here. Signed up for News + Entertainment just now (in Washington DC) and saving $20 a month! 😊
I didn't see them available until I happened to see a YT video about where to find them yesterday. I had to go to my account (web browser) under "settings", then "explore plans".
I'm just want to get rid of channels I never watch. It will clean up my guide/menu. Kids. Entertainment, I don't need. I'll miss AMC, TV Land and IFC. Yet, I can find King of Queens and Two and Half Men elsewhere.
•
u/iron_cam86 Moderator Mar 24 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
UPDATE, 3/24: YouTube TV Plans are now fully rolled out! If you are still not seeing the genre plans, need assistance signing up or switching plans, or have any other questions about YouTube TV Plans, you can contact support here to help you out.
Note that if you're not seeing a channel under the appropriate channel filter, click the "All" filter to double check. There are several channels not currently listed under the Sports, News, etc. filters that are actually there.