[Updated] Some YouTube TV users concerned with potential price hike after YouTube started testing 1080p Premium with higher bitrate

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on February 24, 2023) follows:

Some YouTube TV users have been struggling with issues related to low bitrate and low-quality streams for quite some time. We’ve recently highlighted this problem in one of our stories.

However, YouTube has recently started testing a higher bitrate version of 1080p videos for its Premium subscribers.

While this move is aimed at providing better streaming quality to its paying users, it has also raised concerns among some of its YouTube TV subscribers.

YouTube TV users concerned about price hike after 1080p Premium with higher bitrate

According to The Verge, “the 1080p Premium test indicates that YouTube could be willing to let people access more quality as long as they pay for the service.”

With this in mind, some YouTube TV subscribers are reportedly worried that a potential price hike for higher bitrate videos on YouTube Premium could also affect them.

If YouTube is considering charging more for higher bitrates, could the same thing be coming for YTTV?
Source

It’s a fair point… we’re already paying, so I think it would be a tougher sell to ask us to pay more. But they’re doing exactly that with the 4K option, so it doesn’t seem out of character.
Source

The concerns stem from the fact that YouTube TV subscribers have been dealing with a streaming quality and low bitrate issues for quite some time now.

There have been discussions in online forums like Reddit about whether the potential price hike for higher bitrate videos could be done for YouTube TV subscribers as well.

Furthermore, YouTube TV already offers a 4K add-on that has faced criticism for its lack of content.

This is also evident from the poll we conducted a while back asking our readers whether they planned to keep or dump the 4K add-on after the last Olympic games.

The fear among YouTube TV subscribers is that better-quality videos could lead to a potential price hike for users who are already paying a premium for the service.

Heck, some even allege that it’s possible Google has been deliberately holding off fixes for the low bitrate issue and poor quality of streams on YouTube TV so as to ship the ‘Premium” version as part of the 4K add-on.

But having said nothing, it remains to be seen how the YouTube TV team will respond to these concerns and whether it will offer better options for its users in the future.

Until then, keep tabs on this story and we will post further updates here, if any.

06:00 pm (IST): YouTube TV support team said in their recent announcement that they have increased the price in order to bring the best possible TV experience.

An update for our members. As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in our quality of service, we’ll be adjusting our monthly cost, after 3 years, from $64.99/mo to $72.99/mo, in order to bring you the best possible TV service. (Source)

PiunikaWeb started purely as an investigative tech journalism website with a main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Fox News, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.