YouTube TV Diversifies Lineup By Adding Spanish Language Channels

Google’s virtual MVPD service, YouTube TV, is making an effort to diversify its programming selection by adding a new Spanish language programming tier.

The tier, which includes over 28 different channels, including ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes and Discovery en Espanol, among others.

The service will give subscribers who want Spanish language content two options. If the subscriber already has an existing YouTube TV base plan, which costs $64.99 per month, they can add Spanish Plus for $14.99 to receive the channels.

However, it is not necessary to subscribe to the base plan to receive Spanish channels. Subscribers interested in just Spanish-language content can subscribe to the Spanish Plan for $34.99, which does not require a base plan.

While over 37 million Latinos in the U.S. speak Spanish, YouTube TV largely ignored the community since the platform’s launch in 2017. YouTube TV did not offer Univision, Unimas and Telemundo, the largest Spanish language broadcast networks in the U.S., until last year. Meanwhile all three YouTube TV competitors, including Sling, DIRECTV Stream and FuboTV, all offer some level of Spanish language programming.

YouTube Inc. signage is displayed on a monitor after the company’s new television subscription … [+] service was unveiled at the YouTube Space LA venue in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017. For $35 a month, starting sometime this spring, subscribers to YouTube TV will be able to watch the top four broadcast networks and some affiliated cable channels. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Even with the additions, some followers of Liga MX, North America’s most popular soccer league, may be disappointed. TUDN, Univision’s full-time sports network, is not included in the package. In addition, Spanish Plan subscribers will not have access to Telemundo, unless they subscribe to the $64.99 base plan.

This is just the latest move from Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, to give subscribers more flexibility and choice.

“We’re also doing more around either content-vertical type bundles or even feature type bundles. You saw that with the 4K bundle on YouTube TV,” he told Nilay Patel of The Verge. “So we’re trying to bring more choice to our users. And a lot of it is, frankly, just driven by the feedback that we hear from YouTube TV users. There’s not another any price hike or anything in the near term.”