The price of the 4K Plus add-on for YouTube TV always has been a bit weird. Technically the add-on has been $20 a month since its launch in mid-2021, but subscribers have always gotten the first year of service for half that. And that will remain true come April 2023, when the YouTube TV base plan goes up to $73 a month and the add-on changes price to $10 a month, with the first year of service at $5 a month.
That’s a much more palatable price for an add-on that’s absolutely an extravagance.
You have to think of the 4K Plus add-on in a couple ways. First is that it gets you some live video in the higher resolution. That’s almost exclusively meant sports — big events like the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup, but also more regular events like the English Premier League and NFL games on Fox. Not every live game is available in 4K resolution, as some broadcasters (looking at you, CBS) don’t yet do anything in
But the simple fact is that once you watch a game of any kind in 4K — be it football or soccer or baseball — you’ll want it all in
Then there’s the on-demand content. Again, the options are pretty slim. But Discovery, FX, Nat Geo, and Tastemade all have on-demand content available in 4K on YouTube TV. That’s not what spurred me to splurge on
There are a couple more sweeteners, too. If you have the 4K Plus add-on, you also have the ability to watch simultaneously on as many devices as you want at home. Without it, you’re limited to three devices at once (I’ve only run into that limitation once or twice). You’re also able to download some content locally to your device for offline viewing.
YouTube TV also isn’t the only 4K game in town — FuboTV basically has the same live options for
The question always has been whether 4K Plus was “worth it,” and $20 a month has always been a pretty big pill to swallow. By comparison, HBO Max is $16 a month (and also has some movies in
