YouTube the world’s most popular video streaming website, is set to launch its digital TV subscription service ‘YouTube TV’, initially offering US viewers access to 40 premium broadcast channels for $35 per month.
Speaking to US media, Susan Wojcicki CEO of YouTube stated that its TV service would ‘lean heavily on sports content’ with viewers able to watch broadcasts of ‘pro and college football, basketball, baseball, plus other sports’.
Bloomberg news reports that YouTube’s $35 package will include access to 10 sports channels including; the ESPN Network, ComCast, NBC Sports and FOX Sports TV.
Due to complex Streaming and TV content policy, Google-owned YouTube will initially roll-out the service in ‘limited US markets’, where the company has the appropriate content rights.
Reacting to the news of YouTube TV, a number of technology news sources have labelled the service as the potential ‘cable cutter’ which could be a ‘game-changer’ for viewership of sports and entertainment content.
Technology commentators further point to YouTube’s popularity which cannot be matched by traditional TV broadcasters. This week Sundar Pichai CEO of Google detailed that YouTube outputs ‘one billion hours of content’ per day.
YouTube management did not give any insight on its international ambitions for the TV service. However, a number of technology insiders have noted that Google could make a play for the Premier League multi-billion broadcast rights competing against Sky and BT Sports.
