I maintain that YouTube TV is the very best streaming TV service, but unfortunately it gets expensive. Today, YouTube announced the service’s latest price increase, increasing the monthly subscription to $82.99. The change applies immediately to new customers and will take effect for “most existing customers” from January 13th. As usual, the company attributes this increase to “the rising cost of content and the investments we are making in the quality of our services.”

$82.99 is the same price as Disney’s Hulu + Live TV package. Even Sling TV, long considered the most affordable option among Internet TV services, recently increased its monthly rate by $5.99 for everyone.

YouTube TV last increased its subscription cost to $72.99 in March 2023. Before that it was $64.99. The days when the service only cost $50 seem like a lifetime ago now. Some of you who got in early may remember that it was only $35 per month.

Since then, however, YouTube has regularly found itself in carriage disputes with Disney, NBCUniversal and other content owners, and these renegotiated agreements have caused YouTube TV’s price to rise ever higher. Today’s YouTube TV is very different than it used to be; While there are more channels, the service has also dropped a number of regional sports channels.

The company is quick to note that there are no changes to the service’s core benefits. The basic subscription still includes over 100 channels, Cloud DVR with unlimited storage, up to six user accounts per household, and the flexibility of three simultaneous streams. But YouTube TV still charges extra for 4K streaming, which seems harder to explain after that $10 price hike.