YouTube TV premieres today in five markets, including LA, NY, SF

A little more than a month after it was announced, YouTube’s paid TV-streaming service is ready for prime time (or whatever time people may choose to stream TV shows on their phones and computers).

On Wednesday, YouTube made YouTube TV available to people in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area. The US-only internet TV service will be made available in more markets “soon,” according to YouTube.

Starting today, people in the initial five markets can sign up for a 30-day free trial to see if they’d like to stream ESPN’s “SportsCenter” live, catch up on E!’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” on demand or watch their recording of last night’s “The Late Late Show With James Corden” over the internet, rather than through their cable box. If they like what they see, they can pay $35 a month to keep their subscription for up to six individual accounts and have a chance of receiving a free Chromecast after their first month of payment.

Those who are able to tune into YouTube TV on Wednesday won’t find anything different from what was unveiled in late February. That means “The Walking Dead” fans won’t be able to rewatch Sunday’s season finale on YouTube TV. But they should be able to watch next season’s premiere.

YouTube TV will soon add several AMC Networks channels to the service’s programming lineup. AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, IFC, Sundance TV and We TV will be made available on the standard tier, and people will have the option of subscribing to Sundance Now or Shudder for an extra fee.

About The Author

Tim Peterson

Tim Peterson, Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat’s ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar’s attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon’s ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube’s programming strategy, Facebook’s ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking’s rise; and documented digital video’s biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed’s branded video production process and Snapchat Discover’s ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands’ early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo’s and Google’s search designs and examine the NFL’s YouTube and Facebook video strategies.