SAN BRUNO, Calif.—YouTube TV has announced that it reached the milestone of five million subs and people with trial subscriptions in June of 2022, a little more than five years after it launched in February 2017.
The five million milestone makes YouTube TV larger than any of the other internet-based pay TV providers (a.k.a. vMVPDs) and would rank YouTube TV as the fifth largest pay TV provider.
A report from Leichtman Research Group found that in the first quarter of 2022, Comcast was the largest pay TV provider with 17.66 million video subs (down 512,000 in Q1, 2022), followed by Charter (down 112,000 subs to 15.72 million), DirecTV (down 300,000 to 14.3 million), Dish TV (down 228,000 to 7.99 million), Hulu + Live TV (down 200,000 to 4.1 million), Verizon FiOS (down 78,000 to 3.57 million), Cox (down 80,000 to 3.31 million), and Altice (down 73,600 to 2.66 million).
In a blog post celebrating the milestone, Christian Oestlien, vice president of product management, YouTube TV and Connected TV, reported that “When we launched YouTube TV five years ago, we wanted to make watching TV even more enjoyable — featuring a modern product experience without all the commitments, equipment fees and hassle. Today, we’re humbled that five million of you are currently on this journey with us.”
Oestilen added that “When YouTube TV started out, a group of engineers climbed onto the roof of YouTube headquarters while holding an antenna in order to build a prototype. Based on this experience, we almost settled on calling the YouTube TV you know and love today as `YouTube Air.’ And within the team that worked on this product, our project codename was `Unplugged.’ (Watching TV without a cable box — get it?).”
