One of the most common criticisms about YouTube TV has been its DVR. Not the fact that you may record as many programs as you like and keep them for 9 months, but the library, which contains DVR recordings and on-demand programming.
This week, YouTube TV began rolling out a new DVR library with new tabs at the top, with the intention of making it easier to find the shows you’re looking for. Tabs such as New for You, Most Watched, Series, Movies, Sports, and more will now appear at the top of the library rather than in the middle.
YouTube TV appears to be hoping that these additional tabs would make their library easier to use.
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This all happened recently. A well-known research firm, MoffettNathanson, has released a report stating that YouTube TV is on track to gain 1.5 million new customers per year. According to NextTV, MoffettNathanson believes YouTube TV will become the top provider of live TV in the United States. This would make YouTube TV bigger than Comcast, Spectrum, DIRECTV, DISH, and others.
Even more importantly, it is scheduled to break even by 2024, having stopped losing money this year. According to the MoffettNathanson research, YouTube TV is predicted to generate $600 million in net profits by 2026.
This comes as cable TV and network executives had hoped that streaming services would help offset these losses, but that has not happened. YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling TV, and Fubo collectively attracted only 1,894,000 customers in 2023. YouTube TV accounted for the majority of this growth, adding 1.9 million subscribers. In 2023, Hulu added 100,000 live TV consumers, while Fubo gained 173,000 subscribers. At the same time, Sling TV lost 279,000 customers by 2023.
This is extremely terrible news for cable TV networks, which had hoped that live TV streaming would help keep their networks operational. Instead, an increasing number of Americans are choosing to on-demand streaming services such as Disney+, Hulu, Max, and Paramount+, to name a few. This could be one of the reasons Warner Bros. Discovery recently revealed that TruTV is being refocused as a sports network.
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Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and other free ad-supported streaming services have all grown rapidly. This is due to the fact that there is now more content than ever before that is completely free of charge with adverts.
If the current trend of cord cutting continues, Cord Cutters News predicts that there will be about 8 million new cord cutters in 2024.
In sum, combining all live TV services, including cable TV, satellite, and streaming, the number of individuals paying for channels such as ESPN fell by more than 5 million in 2023. Cable networks had hoped that streaming would offset the drop in cable TV subscriptions.
With these stats, you can see why Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery are planning to launch their own sports-focused live TV streaming service later this year. This strategy cuts out the middleman, allowing them to be more profitable.
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