YouTube TV Completely Kills The Vibe By Announcing Price Increase Right As March Madness Begins

Google announced two changes to YouTube TV this week. One was great, one was not.

The timing of the latter could not have been more frustrating.

Earlier this week, YouTube TV announced that it was finally rolling out its new multiview feature. Certain members were granted early access to the game-changing (literally) way of streaming.

The feature is not overly complicated, but it changes the way in which YouTube TV subscribers can watch sports. It allows more than one game to fit on the same screen in a dual screen or quadbox form.

That announcement, on March 14, was great. Two days later, Google completely killed the vibe.

West Virginia and Maryland tipped off at 12:15 p.m. EST on Thursday morning. The game between the Mountaineers and Terrapins marked the start of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, one of the best times of the year for sports.

Perhaps it goes unsaid, but to watch March Madness, a television provider is necessary— whether that be a cable service like DirecTV or Xfinity/Comcast, or streaming like Hulu or YouTube TV. For those who decided to cut the cord, part of the reasoning may have been because of the price.

YouTube TV used to cost $64.99 per month. Until Thursday.

Shortly after the first game of the NCAA Tournament began, Google announced a price increase. Current subscribers were sent the following email (with their names, not mine):

Subject: "YouTube TV price update"

As sports fans everywhere were riding the high of all-day basketball, Google completely bummed it with a 12% price bump. Talk about a buzzkill!

To put the $72.99 price tag in perspective, YouTube TV launched in 2017 for $35 a month. This new bump marks a staggering 108% increase over the last six years. Oof.