Cord Cutter Savings Shrink as Online TV Services Raise Prices

OTT bundles are getting larger while prices continue to rise. Some are now to the point where they are close to the cable bundles they were designed to replace, resulting in cord cutters’ shrinking savings.

• YouTube TV is raising its monthly rate by $10 to $50 and adding channels such as HGTV and Food Network. The service started with about 40 broadcast and cable channels. It now has over 70 and costs over 40% more than it did at launch.
• T-Mobile will offer a $100 monthly home-TV service with more than 275 available channels.
• Sling TV, DirecTV Now and Hulu have all raised the price of their lowest-tier live-TV packages over the past year.

AT&T executives have said they needed to make the service profitable. Rate increases at Hulu and YouTube TV appear to be “more opportunistic” according to UBS.

Of course cord-cutters still need an HSI connection as well, adding to the overall cost.