Completed Disney Deal Finally Clears Way for YouTube TV Sports Bundle

One of the largest U.S. pay-TV distributors is getting into skinny bundles.

YouTube TV said Wednesday that it will offer more than 10 genre-specific programming packages, beginning early next year. Foremost among those planned bundles is a YouTube TV Sports Plan with ESPN networks, including the ESPN Unlimited direct-to-consumer service, as well as FS1, and the revived NBC Sports Network, among others.

The service’s sports-oriented skinny bundle—something long discussed and much-anticipated within the television business—became fully possible after a Google-owned YouTube TV reached a new carriage agreement with ESPN parent company Disney last month. That pact, integrating the ESPN DTC offering into YouTube TV, arrived after a difficult, 15-day channel blackout, and followed another critical distribution deal in August with Fox and one with NBCUniversal in October.

Pricing details have not been finalized, but the YouTube TV Sports Plan will likely land between the unbundled $29.99 per month price for ESPN Unlimited and the $82.99 per month base price for the full YouTube TV service. Additional services such as NFL Sunday Ticket and RedZone will also be offered as add-on options to the YouTube TV Sports Plan. 

“TV should be easy, giving viewers greater control over what they want to watch,” wrote YouTube VP and head of subscriptions Christian Oestlien in a company blog post. “Our goal is to let you tailor your subscriptions with more options.”

Race to Get Skinny

YouTube TV is hardly alone in embracing the skinny bundle trend. Elsewhere in the television business, major carriers such as Spectrum, Comcast, DirecTV, and Disney-controlled Fubo have introduced their own competing packages over the past two years. ESPN and Fox, meanwhile, are also selling their respective streaming services in a new, sports-focused bundle.

Beyond more tailored programming choices for sports fans, many of these services also offer a series of enhanced features, including multiview capabilities, statistics integration, fantasy sports-related content, and capabilities for users to quickly find their favorite teams. The YouTube TV offering will run along those same lines. 

Ironically, YouTube TV itself began in 2017 as a skinny bundle, offering about 40 channels and positioning itself as a slimmed-down and more affordable option to traditional cable and satellite TV. In the ensuing years, YouTube TV has grown into a full-service platform with about 10 million subscribers and offering access to more than 100 channels, and it now aims to pass Spectrum, Comcast, and DirecTV to become the country’s largest pay-TV carrier.