The Rising Cost of Cable Cutting

Recently, I did a trial of Showtime so I could re-watch Twin Peaks: The Return (which I highly recommend). Today, as I went to cancel my trial in Google’s YouTubeTV portal, I was offered a menu of different add-on’s.

When YouTubeTV started in 2015, it was a mere $35/mo. Today, it goes for more than double that, at $82.99. If you wanted to blame that on inflation, you’d be way off (to a magnitude of 6x).

So, I was curious, what would it cost if you added all of the available options? I took to Microsoft Copilot to help me run the numbers:

If you were to add every monthly option available on YouTube TV, here’s a breakdown of the costs:

• Base Plan: $82.99/mo
• Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: $10.99/mo
• 4K Plus: $9.99/mo
• Max: $16.99/mo
• NBA League Pass: $16.99/mo
• Hallmark+: $7.99/mo
• Entertainment Plus: $29.99/mo
• NFL RedZone with Sports Plus: $10.99/mo
• Spanish Plus: $14.99/mo
• Filipino Plus: $18.99/mo
• GMA Pinoy: $14.99/mo
• STARZ: $10.99/mo
• Crunchyroll: $7.99/mo
• ViX Premium: $8.99/mo
• Cinemax: $9.99/mo
• FOX Nation: $7.99/mo
• WNBA League Pass: $12.99/mo
• ScreenPix: $2.99/mo
• MGM+: $6.99/mo
• CuriosityStream: $4.99/mo
• STARZ + MGM+: $11.99/mo
• AMC+: $9.99/mo
• BET+: $10.99/mo
• Shudder: $6.99/mo
• Sundance Now: $6.99/mo
• Zee Family: $14.99/mo
• Here TV: $7.99/mo
• Acorn TV: $7.99/mo
• IFC Films Unlimited: $5.99/mo
• ALLBLK: $6.99/mo
• Docurama: $4.99/mo
• CONtv: $5.99/mo
• Dove: $4.99/mo
• Law & Crime: $1.99/mo
• UP Faith & Family: $5.99/mo
• Fandor: $3.99/mo
• Screambox: $6.99/mo
• Comedy Dynamics: $4.99/mo
• VSiN: $3.99/mo
• Outside Features: $4.99/mo
• The Great Courses: $7.99/mo
• MovieSphere: $4.99/mo
• MyOutdoorTV: $9.99/mo
• PokerGO: $19.99/mo
• Dekkoo: $9.99/mo
• Tastemade+: $2.99/mo
• Magnolia Selects: $4.99/mo
• atresplayer: $5.99/mo
• Gaia: $13.99/mo
• Classica: $6.99/mo
• Qello Concerts: $7.99/mo
• Hopster Learning: $4.99/mo
• Hi-YAH!: $3.99/mo
• Stingray DJazz: $6.99/mo
• RCN Total: $4.99/mo

Adding all these options together, the total monthly cost would be $522.76.

That’s quite a lineup!