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During a panel discussion at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said YouTube TV has already reached 5 million subscribers and “trialers” in just five years.
This number appears to put the service ahead of its closest competitor, Hulu + Live TV, although Hulu does not include trial users in its calculation like YouTube does.
When Disney released its most recent quarterly earnings report, it revealed that Hulu Live TV’s subscriber base had decreased by 200,000, bringing it to 4.1 million.
Both services are far ahead of their main rivals, Sling TV and fuboTV, which had 2.49 million and 1.13 million customers, respectively, as of the end of 2021.
Mohan said with the updated subscriber count, “Five years ago, we launched YouTube TV to rethink how we watch live TV, give users more choice, and unlock a new revenue stream for our partners.”
“Today, we’re thrilled that YouTube TV has become a thriving business of more than 5 million subscribers and trialers. This milestone is a testament to the amazing work the team has done to build a best-in-class experience,” he added.
Since its inception, YouTube TV has added more than 100 channels, introduced add-ons like 4K Plus and Sports Plus, and rolled out new features to set itself apart from competing services.
Kickoff alerts, real-time stats, critical play data, and a fantasy view that enables one to link a fantasy football account to YouTube TV to track performance are just a few of the sports-related features the service introduced.
It also launched a “no spoiler” mode which prevents one from seeing sports scores for specific teams.
Meanwhile, viewers of news programs can go right to specific segments of a broadcast by using a “segments” feature.
As it has introduced additional programming, YouTube TV’s costs have also frequently increased, as have those of its competitors, from a start price of $35 per month to a current price of $65 per month.
It has also become mired in contractual conflicts, having warned consumers last year that they would eventually lose access to 18 Disney-owned channels before reaching a last-minute arrangement to keep them available.
You may also want to read: YouTube Shorts is catching up to rival TikTok – Google (commsroom.co)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
