YouTube TV is raising rates 25-43%, depending on your existing package.

Effective today, the company is raising the price of its YouTube TV package to $49.99 a month and is notifying customers it is ending grandfathered pricing arrangements that allowed some customers to pay as low as $35 a month for service.

The price change comes at a time when many of YouTube TV’s competitors have announced or implemented rate increases to cover the rising costs of programming. To reduce the sting, YouTube TV will coincide its rate hike with the addition of eight new channels from Discovery: Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, ID, MotorTrend, TLC, and the Travel Channel beginning today.

All existing customers will be billed at the new $49.99 rate beginning May 13. New signups will be billed the higher rate immediately. Customers billed by Apple will be penalized the most, with a new rate of $54.99/mo.

The company argues its new package price is still a good value because it now includes more than 70 channels, including robust carriage of local stations in more than 90% of the country. YouTube TV also offers unlimited cloud DVR service and up the three simultaneous streams.

The CEO of Fox News told Variety in an exclusive story that 85% of consumers who sign up for a free one-week trial of Fox Nation, the company’s new paid streaming video service, convert to a paid subscription by the end of the trial.

The streaming service Fox News launched last fall claims to offer thousands of hours of video, including live shows, documentaries, short-form video, and commentaries designed to appeal to the average Fox News viewing fan. Current Fox News personalities are also on hand with additional material. Sean Hannity, the network’s biggest star, is contributing the opening monologue from his weekday radio show as well as other features.

“Media is changing fast,” Hannity told Variety, “and I especially think that traditional television viewing has changed forever. Netflix and Amazon and all of these other options that people are offering – there are so many choices now. The safest two businesses to be in are live sports and live news, and I really think they are the ones people will go to for appointment viewing. Otherwise, you can just watch on demand any time you want, and people will just choose that.”

The service is priced at $5.99 a month or $64.99 annually.

‘UN-PC’ co-hosts Tyrus and Britt McHenry interview Fox Nation hosts about their new streaming shows. (3:38)

Discovery has announced an exclusive agreement with BBC’s Natural History Unit that will open up decades of natural history and wildlife programming for on-demand viewing on Discovery’s forthcoming subscription streaming platform, planned for a 2020 launch.

“This is our largest-ever content sales deal,” said Tony Hall, BBC director general. “Global subscribers are in for a real treat — the best content on a great new platform.”

The BBC Natural History Unit is the world’s largest producer of radio, television, and online content dealing exclusively with natural history and wildlife programming. Launched in 1957, the department produces around 100 hours of television and 50 hours of radio programs annually. Some of that programming comes from well-known naturist Sir David Attenborough, himself responsible for hundreds of hours of award-winning BBC nature documentaries.

A limited amount of programming produced by the unit is already available on other platforms, like Netflix, usually branded as BBC Earth. But only a limited catalog of content is on offer, typically licensed for streaming for one year. The new agreement between Discovery and BBC will make Discovery’s forthcoming subscription video service the exclusive streaming home of all BBC nature and wildlife programs, except in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and China. More importantly, Discovery can make the full BBC catalog of nature programming available for viewing.

Discovery’s plans for its subscription streaming platform have quickly evolved since first announced last year. The original plan was to offer a $5-8/mo service showcasing programming from over 30 networks already operated or owned by Discovery worldwide. The well-known cable network announced its plans for a streaming service after completing its $14.6 billion acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive in 2017. The acquisition allows Discovery to blend its own nature and history programs with lifestyle content from Scripps’ networks like HGTV, Food Network, and DIY.

Now, Discovery is planning several different tiers of its streaming service, each offering subscribers a very deep catalog of non-expiring content. The BBC Natural History programming add-on is expected to cost under $5 a month. Other planned add-ons may feature a rich catalog of educational videos for do-it-yourself home projects, a video cooking school, and others to teach people sports like golf or tennis.

Zaslav

Discovery CEO David Zaslav sees the opportunity for Discovery to launch the “Peloton of food,” a reference to the stationary bike manufacturer that also sells exercise routine subscriptions to owners. In such a scenario, a celebrity chef like Bobby Flay could host hundreds of hours of cooking content, teaching subscribers how to cook everything from a turkey to a complete cajun-style meal.

Discovery has already put its wheels in motion, launching streaming services with sports programming including cycling and golf which may feature products such as the SkyTrak+.

Zaslav envisions the future of Discovery’s streaming service to be the Netflix of factual content programming. He noted most of the huge entertainment companies are clashing head to head by competing with scripted entertainment programming. Discovery will differentiate itself with documentaries, education, sports, and nature specials.

“The scripted movie packagers are big boats, and they’re banging into each other,” Zaslav said. “They’re fighting over who can be the widest and who can be the fastest. Right now, we have some great lanes.”

Zaslav admits Discovery’s earlier forays into streaming, including its participation in TV Everywhere — offering a limited number of shows for streaming to authenticated cable or satellite subscribers — has not been very successful. Contract restrictions often limited how long series can remain available for viewing, and the catalog of options was never particularly deep. With the new ad-free streaming platform, Discovery envisions releasing a massive menu of content, frequently updated with new shows from its own production unit and its partners. Most of Discovery’s own programming was produced for its cable networks, but nothing stops Discovery from creating content specifically for its streaming platform. Discovery’s new agreements should also allow it to keep content available indefinitely.

Discovery plans on spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and market its new services. It will face the challenge of convincing customers that subscribing to yet another streaming service is worthwhile. A 2018 survey from Magid Research found consumers were willing to spend up to $38 a month on a combination of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. Discovery hopes to launch its new platform in time to grab subscribers before new competitors from Disney, WarnerMedia, and Apple take hold and possibly tap out would be customers.

The deal with the BBC is part of a larger transaction between the two programmers over their European networks. The BBC is spending $225 million and assuming $90 million in debt to acquire Discovery’s share of several UKTV networks, including Alibi, Dave, Drama, Eden, Gold, W, and Yesterday. In turn, Discovery assumes full control of lifestyle channels Home, Good Food, and Really.

STIRR, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s new free-to-stream, advertiser-supported service, this week added Dan Abram’s Law and Crime Network to a growing lineup of second-tier networks airing off-network shows, YouTube videos, movies, oddities like drone footage, and local news content produced by Sinclair-owned television stations around the country.

As of today, STIRR features 29 streaming linear TV networks, most you’ve never heard of before. The primary draw for most will be access to live streaming news from dozens of Sinclair stations around the country. STIRR asks users to pre-select the city and station nearest them, which then allows access to STIRR CITY, a channel that carries complete coverage of local news and features produced by that Sinclair station. In between live newscasts, the channel features a small handful of off-network shows like Highway to Heaven (commercial free for some reason) and live carriage of Cheddar, a business news network. Users can choose and change any Sinclair station they like anytime, useful during breaking news stories several cities away.

Although STIRR incorporates plenty of its cohesive platform branding messages across its lineup, it is clear most of the included networks are a motley crew of independent thrown-off-cable misfits, low-budget oddities that feature little more than drone footage or a queue of YouTube videos, and several digital subnets you probably have encountered on over the air channels. Most of the latter air old off-network shows from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, similar to Me TV. But none seems compelling enough to replace a cable TV or streaming TV subscription.

STIRR is only a few months old, and lineup additions and changes are forthcoming as the service grows to around 50 live/linear TV channels by the end of 2019. Streaming quality is good, but older programs show their age. Sinclair likely bought a range of cheap syndicated series to scatter across its own STIRR-branded channels, and many inexplicably run without commercials, which means viewers are often treated to several minutes of “we’ll be right back” billboards between shows. Sinclair presumably would like to sell its own advertising on the service, but so far the vast majority of commercials are unpaid promos for different STIRR shows and channels.

A rudimentary program guide offers viewers the titles of shows, but few descriptions. STIRR does not offer a record option at this time.

Current STIRR Lineup

1. STIRR CITY
2. Stadium
3. Cheddar News
4. Law & Crime Trial Network
5. Futurism
6. Dust
7. Comet
8. Charge!
9. CONtv
10. Buzzr
11. Dove Channel
12. Shout TV
13. Pet Collective
14. TBD
15. FailArmy
16. The T from The Tennis Channel
17. WPT – World Poker Tour
18. STIRR Sports
19. Outdoor America
20. STIRR Life
21. BigLife TV
22. GustoTV
23. MovieMix
24. STIRR Movies
25. Gravitas Movies
26. Mobcrush
27. ESR eSports Channel
28. NASA TV
29. SOAR (Drone Footage)

STIRR is available from iOS and Android apps, on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku, and on desktops through the STIRR website.

Xfinity Flex

Comcast today announced the launch of Xfinity Flex, a $5/month service targeting Comcast’s internet-only customers with a streaming set-top box capable of accessing Comcast-approved apps including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, and other services.

Subscribers must have a Comcast-supplied internet connection, no video package, and an xFi Gateway (a cable modem/router combination that costs between $10-13 a month to lease). After the new service becomes available nationwide next week, those enrolling will receive a small set-top box comparable to a Roku capable of streaming 4K HDR video. Comcast also supplies its own voice remote, and bundles access to Comcast’s apps that manage in-home Wi-Fi, mobile, security, and automation services for easy access.

“Xfinity Flex will deepen our relationship with a certain segment of our Internet customers and provide them with real value,” said Matt Strauss, executive vice president of Xfinity Services for Comcast Cable. “For just five dollars a month, we can offer these customers an affordable, flexible, and differentiated platform that includes thousands of free movies and shows for online streaming, an integrated guide for accessing their favorite apps and connected home devices, and the ease of navigating and managing all of it with our voice remote.”

A closer look at the device and the fine print suggests customers may want to carefully evaluate whether Flex offers good value for money. Instead of buying a traditional streaming set-top box like Roku, customers can only lease the Flex box for $5 a month… indefinitely. Comcast is not including any programming with the box, just hardware to access streaming content already available, often for free, on other streaming or desktop platforms. Flex’s search function is supposed to make it easier to find programming across a wide number of services, but you will have to subscribe to each service independently.

Comcast also warns that using Flex will count against your monthly data cap.

The 4K capable Roku 3920R can be purchased from Best Buy for $39.99.

Comcast has also carefully designed the box to protect the cable company from any competitive threats. Competing streaming services like DirecTV Now, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu Live, and other services are intentionally blocked, another example of life without net neutrality. The only available path to cable TV programming using Flex is to visit the ‘easy upgrade’ app that will sign you up for Comcast’s X1 cable TV service, presumably the one you cord-cut before you signed up for Flex.

The service is also designed to protect other cable companies from competition from Comcast. Only Comcast internet customers can purchase Flex service, so it is not available to customers of Charter Spectrum, Cox, Altice, or other cable operators.

The $5 subscription fee is also misleading, because you will also have to rent Comcast’s own xFi Gateway, which costs between $10-13 a month, instead of using your own cable modem. That suddenly makes Flex a $15 a month service that essentially just gives you access to a walled garden of the services Comcast approves of for around $180 a year (including the Gateway).

Comcast probably won’t attract a big audience for Flex because of all the restrictions it comes with.

Consider buying a streaming set-top box outright instead of living with Comcast’s restrictions and mandatory gateway fees. Shoppers can find basic Roku devices for purchase under $30, with more capable 4K-compatible devices starting at around $40.