Subscribers tapping clever hack amid price hike
After YouTube TV announced on Tuesday that it would be raising its rates to $65 per month, a little-known discount began making the rounds online.
“If you plan ahead, you won’t be paying $64.99 a month for YouTube TV,” one crafty subscriber on Reddit explained.
YouTube TV’s new monthly rate that goes into effect July 30 marks a $15 increase from the $50 per month subscription.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly, and realize how hard this is for our members,” Christian Oestlien, YouTube TV’s vice president of product management, said in a blog post.
The Google-owned TV service just added 8 new channels to its lineup, including Comedy Central, MTV and Paramount Network. That brings YouTube TV’s base plan to 85+ channels.
YouTube TV is owned by Google. The search engine giant also operates the Google Play platform and sells gift cards that can be used to buy apps, movies, music and subscriptions.
DIY discount for YouTube TV
Google Play gift cards have given some YouTube TV subscribers a route to getting a little-known discount.
“Here’s how to do it,” Redditor pantheman75 explained in a post. “Each holiday season there are typically HUGE sales on Google Play gift cards. I save up some cash each year in anticipation of those sales in order to buy enough Google Play credit to cover my purchases / subscriptions for the following year.”
He said he would be paying about $47 per month after YouTube TV implements the price increase.
Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart have sold discounted Google Play cards around the holiday season over the last couple of years. People have been using this method since YouTube TV launched in 2017, when the service was $35 per month.
Subscribers using the gift card method cautioned against online offers for discounted Google Play cards that sound too good to be true. The safest way to buy a discounted Google Play card is to wait for holiday sales offered through well-known retailers.
Paying for YouTube TV with Google Play
Using a Google Play gift card for YouTube TV is pretty straightforward and only requires a few steps.
- Go to the Google Play web page
- Sign in under the Google account used for YouTube TV
- Click Redeem from the menu & enter the gift card code
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Founder and Editor of The Cord Cutting Report. Before launching the site in 2016, he worked for more than two decades as a staff writer or correspondent for a number of daily newspapers, including The Boston Globe. His enthusiasm for tech began with the Atari 2600. Follow @james_kimble
RE Kids’ Shows: There’s also a fair bit of PBS educational channels, PBS kids etc. There are also 3 shows that are very balanced and sophisticated for kids Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar Korra and Steven Universe / Steven Universe even Star Vs. the Forces of Evil.
Hope that helps for the kids / others you may have in mind!
I plan to cancel youtube, I do not watch all the current channels i.e. sport, kiddy cartoons and some other stupid channels, I do not play games on tv. I do watch FOX NEWS, movies, discovery and other channels of informed interests. Current networks have to many long running reruns with time wasting shows. It’s no wonder todays children are hopeless and loosing faith in society.
Not the comment I put on this article. Where is the comment I put here?
I just spent a ton of time with youtubetv to make sure if I could set my account to take the gift card added funds balance before it pulls it from my visa card. No full resolution there. What is the procedure after I add the gift card funds to my gplay account?
Great but it may not help me much as I am planning on getting away from you boob tv, with the lousy gui, all of the dvr problems and pathetic customer service. Why didn’t they just not add these new channels or even drop some and keep the price lower. Who asked for this move at all?