YouTube boosts TV offering with Discovery, Epix and OWN, hikes up price

YouTube has boosted its US TV offering by adding eight new channels from Discovery to its line-up, in addition to offering streaming service Epix for an extra charge and promising to bring on board and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) later this year.

YouTube has added Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend to its offering, enabling subscribers to view content including Deadliest Catch, Property Brothers and Say Yes to the Dress.

Epix, the premium TV network owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), will bring four live TV channels (Epix, Epix 2, Epix Hits, Epix Drive-In) and on demand access to the network’s roster of original series and its full catalogue of over 2,000 movies.YouTube TV users will be able to stream the network’s original series Get Shorty, Berlin Station, Deep State, Elvis Goes There and PUNK as well as upcoming premieres of original series Godfather of Harlem, starring and executive produced by Forest Whitaker. YouTube TV will offer Epix as an add-on for US$6.00 per month.

“2019 has already been an incredible year of growth for Epix,” said Michael Wright, President of Epix. “We’re thrilled to partner with Google and bring our full slate of premium programming to a new and rapidly growing audience on YouTube TV.”

The latest additions bring to over 70 the number of channels on the YouTube TV offering, following the addition of 10 new channels.

YouTube TV now offers six accounts per household, each with access to recommendations and cloud DVR, with the right to access three streams concurrently.

The service providers coverage of US local network affiliate stations, with local feeds from all of the four largest broadcasters in over 90% of the markets where YouTube TV is available, and three of four stations in the rest, according to a blog posting by YouTube TV VP of product management Christian Oestlien.

Oestlien said that YouTube was upping the price for its subscription offering to US$49.99 a month, with Apple-billed customers charged an even more hefty US$54.99, effective from yesterday for new subscribers. Existing customers will face the new charges from May 13.

YouTube’s subscription over-the-top offering became available nationwide in the US in January. The expansion saw YouTube TV roll out to 95 new markets, making the service available to roughly 98% of US households, with the remainder due to “follow shortly”.

With the move, YouTube announced that it would be providing local affiliate feeds from the four largest broadcasters in more than 90% of the markets where YouTube TV is available.