YouTube TV, Which Costs $73 a Month, Agrees To End '$600 Less Than Cable' Ads (arstechnica.com) 19
Google has agreed to stop advertising YouTube TV as "$600 less than cable" after losing an appeal of a previous ruling that went against the company. Google said it will "modify or cease the disputed advertising claim." From a report: The case was handled in the advertising industry's self-regulatory system, not in a court of law. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB) announced today that it rejected Google's appeal and recommended that the company discontinue the YouTube TV claim. YouTube TV launched in 2017 for $35 a month, but the base package is $72.99 after the latest price hike in March 2023. Google's "$600 less than cable" claim was challenged by Charter, which uses the brand name Spectrum and is the second-biggest cable company after Comcast. The National Advertising Division (NAD) previously ruled in Charter's favor but Google appealed the decision to the NARB in August.
"Charter contended the $600 figure was inaccurate, arguing that its Spectrum TV Select service in Los Angeles only cost around $219 a year more than Google's YouTube TV service," according to a MediaPost article in August. A Google ad claimed that YouTube TV provided $600 in "annual average savings" compared to cable as of January 2023. A disclosure on the ad said the price was for "new users only" and that the $600 annual savings was "based on a study by SmithGeiger of the published cost of comparable standalone cable in the top 50 Nielsen DMAs, including all fees, taxes, promotion pricing, DVR box rental and service fees, and a 2nd cable box."
"Charter contended the $600 figure was inaccurate, arguing that its Spectrum TV Select service in Los Angeles only cost around $219 a year more than Google's YouTube TV service," according to a MediaPost article in August. A Google ad claimed that YouTube TV provided $600 in "annual average savings" compared to cable as of January 2023. A disclosure on the ad said the price was for "new users only" and that the $600 annual savings was "based on a study by SmithGeiger of the published cost of comparable standalone cable in the top 50 Nielsen DMAs, including all fees, taxes, promotion pricing, DVR box rental and service fees, and a 2nd cable box."
$73/mo??? (Score:2)
I gotta go find which credit card that goes on and check it.
I thought I was paying something like $65/mo....
Still...cheaper than most all other choices I looked at, with unlimited DVR and has all the "cable channel" I like to watch live, especially here during college football season.
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Hmm...so, like you can somehow catch the LSU football game on Saturdays live that way....??
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"Still...cheaper than most all other choices I looked at..."
Which were those? What other choices did you look at?
There aren't many live TV streaming options, one cheaper than the others and it's NOT youtubeTV
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Well, it was a combo of channels offered AND unlimited DVR...which still put YouTube TV in the winner circle for me.
I looked at Hulu Live...and Sling were my top contenders at the time...
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Yeah, I switched to YT a few years ago when it penciled out as cheaper.
Then they pooped on all of us, several times.
Inertia is the only reason I haven't canceled them in the last few months.
I won't even switch to another service, it's like trying to find the used car dealer that is the least evil.
73..nah (Score:1)
Do Tesla next (Score:3)
Would be nice if they also didn't promise a savings based on a tax rebate that you may not qualify for the full amount or even at all, if your income is too low or too high, respectively. TBH, most "you'll be saving X if you buy our product or service" ads are based on a sunk cost fallacy where the assumption is made that you're already committed to making the purchase but that you're still flexible on which company be the one to earn your business. The real savings comes from actually deciding you can do without their product or service, entirely.
It's like I tell the salespeople pushing cable packages inside Walmart when they ask what am I currently paying for TV service: nothing - I have an antenna.
Cable Is Cheaper Now (Score:1)
Laughing so hard now. You really can't fix stupid.
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Was "Don't be evil." Now "OK if you get away." (Score:2)
Break them the hell up. Break them into a hundred pieces.
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Re: Was "Don't be evil." Now "OK if you get away. (Score:2)
It was tolerable when the search wasn't shit and tuned for saving money.
Least with youtube you can pay them to make the service less shit.
Of course finding pirate tv streams works just fine with the search still, its just more obscure stuff that isnt popular thats harder and harder to google
Google is just Oracle now (Score:3, Insightful)
Google has become the very thing they didn't want to be. They are this decade's Oracle. Screw every customer to the maximum amount in the name of this quarter's results. Everyone should have seen the writing on the wall then they removed "Don't be evil." from their mission statement.
Ooops! (Score:3)
Some sloppy advertise monkey forgot the magic words "up to" - you always say "up to" or "could save". Never forget the weasel-words!