Wherever you are in the US, YouTube TV is now available to you.
The live TV streaming service made the announcement via Twitter stating “we can now officially say that YouTube TV is available in every television market in the U.S.”
It would also seem that Glendive, Montana was the final building block needed in the YouTube TV availability wall, as it was following activation of the service in this location that promoted the latest confirmation.
For most consumers in the U.S. this is unlikely to mean that much as back in January the service did confirm it had gone nationwide and was capable of serving “98-percent of households in the United States.”
However, for those who are part of that leftover 2-percent it looks like Google’s take on live TV has been hard at work in the past few months to expand coverage and fully complete the U.S. rollout.
Getting to this stage has taken its time though. The service was first launched back in 2017 with very few places supported. By December of the same year the coverage had expanded to include 34 new markets.
Come August of 2018 and the number of markets supported finally passed the 100 milestone. When the company announced the nationwide expansion in January of 2019 this included availability in an additional 95 markets. Now, with full market support in effect, the number has climbed above 200.
This will be good news for the service itself as it also now opens up the door to more new subscribers and at a time when some might be feeling a little resentful towards their existing providers, especially considering YouTube TV has already proven more than capable of picking up new customers.
In spite of the slow rollout (by streaming standards), the latest reports have suggested the service has surpassed one million subscribers. The only service that seemingly had a better 2018 than YouTube TV was Hulu – due to its with live TV option now understood to have overtaken DIRECTV NOW, and only second to Sling TV.
For those in a market that has recently gained support, YouTube TV is not majorly different to the various other similar solutions that are available now.
Where it does differ somewhat is in the DVR support as YouTube TV provides what is effectively unlimited cloud-based DVR at no additional cost – although recordings do expire after a given time period. Many other competing services also offer DVR features but they are typically either limited in capacity, or offered as an optional add-on that you have to pay for.
Another useful feature is the multi-user support with YouTube TV offering subscribers the ability to add an additional five family members to a plan (6 people in total). Each member can experience live TV in their own way, have their own DVR, and so on. This again, comes at no additional cost.
YouTube TV currently costs $39.99 in the US and this is largely the only plan option available. Those looking for a more robust experience can choose from a number of popular premium networks and add them to their existing plan at an additional monthly cost.