One of the main complaints about YouTube TV has been its DVR. Not the fact that you can record all the programs you want and keep recordings for 9 months but the library where you find DVR recordings and on-demand content.
Now, this week, YouTube TV has started to roll out a new DVR library with new tabs at the top that they hope will make finding the shows you want easier. Now you will find tabs like New for you, Most Watched, Series, Movies, Sports, and more at the top instead of the middle of the library.
YouTube TV seems to hope that these new tabs will make their library easier to use.
This all comes as recently MoffettNathanson, a well-respected research group, has come out with a report saying YouTube TV is on track to add 1.5 million new subscribers per year. With this MoffettNathanson says it expects YouTube TV to become the largest provider of live TV in the United States in a new report according to a report by NextTV. This would make YouTube TV larger than Comcast, Spectrum, DIRECTV, DISH, and others.
Even more important it is expected to break even in 2024 as it will stop losing money this year. It is expected that YouTube TV will reach $600 million in net income in 2026 according to the MoffettNathanson report.
This all comes as cable TV and network executives had expected streaming services to help replace these losses but that is not happen. YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling TV, and Fubo though combined only added 1,894,000 subscribers in 2023. Most of that came from YouTube TV, adding 1.9 million subscribers. Hulu added 100,000 live TV customers and Fubo added 173,000 subscribers in 2023. At the same time Sling TV lost 279,000 subscribers in 2023.
This is very bad news for cable TV networks who had hoped live TV streaming could help keep their networks running. Instead a growing number of Americans are switching to on-demand only services like Disney+, Hulu, Max, and Paramount+ to name a few. This could be one of the reasons Warner Bros. Discovery just announced TruTV is being refocused into a sports network.
We have also seen an rapid growth of free ad-supported streaming services like Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and others. This comes as there is now more content than ever 100% free with ads.
If this trend of cord cutting growing faster and faster continues, we could see cord cutting get close to 8 million new cord cutters in 2024, according to Cord Cutters News projections.
In total, counting all live TV services, including cable TV, satellite, and streaming, the number of people paying for channels like ESPN dropped by over 5 million in 2023. Bad news for cable networks hoping streaming would offset the decline in cable TV subscribers.
With these numbers you can now understand why Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery is moving to launch their own sports focused live TV streaming service later this year. This move cuts out the middle man helping them be more profitable.
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