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YouTube TV is now the fourth most popular pay-TV service in the US

YouTube TV is now the fourth-largest pay-TV provider in the United States. A report published by Business Insider on Tuesday shows that YouTube TV has over eight million paid subscribers.

The YouTube TV subscription numbers — which place the service behind Charter, Comcast, and DirecTV — were revealed by CEO Neal Mohan in his annual letter to the YouTube community.

Mohan wrote, “We’re bringing all the features that viewers love from YouTube to their living rooms.” “And sports are included.” “We just finished our first season NFL Sunday Ticket and it really shows what the future of YouTube is.”

Eric Sorensen’s director of the streaming video tracker, at, stated that YouTube TV’s subscriber growth was due to NFL Sunday Tickets. Parks AssociatesDallas-based specializes in market research and consultancy for consumer technology products.

He told TechNewsWorld that the NFL Sunday Ticket deal worth $2.5 billion was the reason for YouTube TV’s success and expansion. “Sports content is what drives the eyeballs and there is no better product in sports entertainment that the NFL.”

YouTube TV subscriptions increased in the third-quarter of this year as the NFL season began. Sorensen pointed out that Parks Associates survey results show a 46% rise in subscribers for Q3 2023 as compared to 2022.

NFL a Game-Changer for YouTube TV

Neil Chase, cofounder of YouTube TV, said that the NFL’s contract has attracted a large number of viewers. Brimstone PicturesThe company is located in Edmonton Alberta, Canada.

TechNewsWorld reported that “this is a game-changer” for YouTube TV. “Having a network like the NFL gives it legitimacy and a built-in viewership that they don’t need to build from scratch.”

“People already pay premium prices to watch high-quality sporting event, like the UFC and WWE. So paying for a platform to watch a product that they already love doesn’t seem out of place.”

YouTube TV, for example, can lure subscribers away from cable companies and satellite services by streaming live sporting events.


Sports is the main reason for subscriptions to broadcasting services, explained Michael Pachter, a managing director with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

He said: “Live content was the only reason cable and satellite were worth paying for. As we continue to migrate live content from cable to OTT we will see a continuing migration away from cable.”

He added, “However no one does a very good job of capturing sports or other relevant live content apart from Fubo.” “Fubo may be the only true aggregator but YouTube is able to compete.”

Finding the Sweet Spot

YouTube TV hasn’t just been a success because of the NFL.

Brett Sappington is a media analyst and entertainment expert at Sappington Media in Dallas. He told TechNewsWorld that YouTube TV appeared to have hit the sweet spot for content and price.

Stefan Lederer was the founder and CEO of BitmovinSan Francisco-based video streaming infrastructure provider,, also agreed. He told TechNewsWorld that even though YouTube TV’s prices have increased, it is still cheaper than cable and satellite, and offers more than 100 live channels as well as news, TV and sports.

He said that YouTube TV is focused on adding features to its customers’ viewing experience. Multi-view, for example, enhances the experience of sports fans. He said that YouTube TV’s huge growth is due to its focus on great content and an enhanced viewing experience.

Sappington explained how YouTube TV first started out with local channels available in the majority of major markets, along with a few popular cable channels. This allowed YouTube TV to start at a lower price point and gain a larger customer base. It was able, over time, to fine-tune the service, adding certain channels and increasing prices in order to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

Branding is a powerful tool.

Sappington added that YouTube TV has an easy-to-use, intuitive interface that blends linear, video on demand (VOD), and recordings — a difficult proposition that many services have struggled to achieve.

He said that unlike cable TV, YouTube TV started its viewers on a homepage rather than with a channel list. Consumers embraced the change. “More and more services offer the same experience.”

The brand of YouTube also gives it an advantage on the market. YouTube TV’s brand was more well-known than other virtual video platforms distributors, such as Fubo and Sling.


He said that YouTube TV was able to get a lot of coverage for its launch because it had a brand advantage and the Google name.

YouTube TV, which is available across Android devices as well as other smart TV platforms, also offers a good quality. He said that rival cable providers couldn’t claim to have a significant quality advantage. YouTube TV was available on all the streaming devices owned by consumers. Access was not a problem.

Models that mimic cable and satellite models

Rob Enderle is the president and principal analyst at The Enderle GroupHe said that Google had a big advantage when it came to pushing its own content.

He also noted that YouTube was able to figure out how to monetize their content quickly and reward the most successful contributors. They have also developed a service which could replace your local TV feed better than others.

He stated that YouTube had an advantage of Google. The YouTube team also performed exceptionally well.

YouTube TV’s biggest success is in its ability to mimic cable and satellite rivals, by offering live sports channels and bundles of channels. It’s likely that this trend will continue.

“I think the OTT guys will have to emulate the cable and satellite industry and bundle with premium cable — like HBO or Starz — offer to list Netflix as a channel, add relevant sports content, and keep prices low if they want to compete,” Pachter said.