YouTube TV has now hit 5 million subscribers

YouTube's live TV streaming service, YouTube TV reached a new record on Tuesday, according to Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan. The executive stated the platform has already topped 5 million paying customers and "trialers" within five years while appearing in a session at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference. This number initially appears to put the streaming service ahead of its closest competitor, Hulu + Live TV, which as of April 2022 had 4.1 million customers. 

“Five years ago we launched YouTube TV to rethink how we watch live TV, give users more choice, and unlock a new revenue stream for our partners,” said Mohan. “Today, we’re thrilled that YouTube TV has become a thriving business of more than 5 million subscribers and trialers. This milestone is a testament to the amazing work the team has done to build a best-in-class experience,” he said.

When contacted for comment, YouTube failed to specify how many of the 5 million users are actual subscribers, as opposed to trial users.

According to TechCrunch, the tech giant had not provided a paid subscriber number since Q3 2020, with over 3 million paying subscribers on the service.

Due to the lack of current official statistics, analysts have had to estimate the market and as of last fall, they determined that YouTube TV was ahead of its competitors. According to estimates by Moffett Nathanson, YouTube TV surpassed Hulu + Live TV in September 2021 to take the title of largest live TV streaming provider, or Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) in the United States. 

Although the actual number of paid subscribers is somewhat lesser than 5 million when trials are taken into account, YouTube TV is still arguably the biggest internet pay-TV provider and the fifth-largest TV distributor overall in the United States based on this figure. Only Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, and Dish Network are ahead of it. Disney reported in its most recent quarterly report that 4.1 million people had signed up for its streaming subscription package Hulu + Live TV.

 YouTube TV has expanded to provide over 100 channels since its debut. It features add-ons including 4K Plus and Sports Plus, and introduced new functionalities to set itself apart from competing services. It introduced a "no spoiler mode" for sports, preventing you from seeing results for specific teams, as well as kickoff notifications, real-time stats, important plays information, and a fantasy view that enables you to add a fantasy football account to YouTube TV to follow developments. Meanwhile, viewers of news programs can use a "segments" option to go right to specific moments in a broadcast.

However, YouTube TV's fees have also frequently increased, as have those of its competitors, from a start price of $35 per month to a current price of $65 per month. It has also become entangled in contractual conflicts, having warned consumers last year that they would eventually lose access to 18 Disney-owned channels before reaching a last-minute arrangement to keep them available. These kinds of antics remind some users of the problems they experienced with paid TV and had sought to avoid by switching to streaming.

 Along with price increases and a more competitive environment, where consumers' subscription funds are tied to on-demand services, this could potentially be impeding growth.