YouTube Launches Sports-Only TV Package

At $65/month, YouTube calls it 'the most complete sports product on the market' — over 10 tailored bundles signal a pay-TV revolution

Podcast TV viewing tops 700 million hours as YouTube accelerates its living room takeover

Google’s YouTube has unveiled a game-changing play for the pay-TV market. Ahead of the Super Bowl, the platform announced the sequential rollout of more than 10 customized live TV bundles across sports, news, and entertainment categories. The centerpiece is a sports-only package at $65 per month — a 22% discount from the full YouTube TV plan at $83 per month.

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, Christian Oestlien, YouTube’s Vice President of subscription products, defined it as “the most complete sports product that’s put on the market to date,” declaring that “the one-size-fits-all model doesn’t work anymore.” The strategy reads as YouTube’s definitive answer to a US pay-TV industry that has hemorrhaged more than 30 million subscribers over the past decade.

Meanwhile, YouTube’s grip on the living room is expanding explosively through podcasts. According to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman, YouTube podcast viewing on TV devices surpassed 700 million hours in October 2025 — nearly double the 400 million hours recorded in the same month a year prior. Per Nielsen data, YouTube captured 13% of all TV viewing across streaming platforms in November, ranking first among all services including Netflix.

[Chart] ‘The New King’ — YouTube’s 2025 revenue of $60B tops the media industry (Source: Bloomberg, Company filings)

Pay-TV’s Structural Crisis — YouTube Offers a Solution

Pay-TV operators have long struggled with consumer frustration over paying for channels they never watch. The so-called “skinny bundle” has been a long-standing industry aspiration, but network owners such as Walt Disney and NBCUniversal resisted unbundling for years. According to research firm MoffettNathanson, the US pay-TV industry has lost more than 30 million subscribers over the past decade.

YouTube TV has been a key force in partially stemming that decline. With more than 10 million paying subscribers, it has become the third-largest pay-TV operator in the US, behind only Charter and Comcast. Once a free platform for Saturday Night Live clips and music videos, YouTube has transformed into a subscription media powerhouse generating roughly $20 billion in subscription revenue alone — larger than Spotify.

Bloomberg’s 2025 revenue comparison chart, titled “The New King,” illustrates the magnitude of this transformation. Combining advertising and subscriptions, YouTube’s annual revenue reached $60 billion, surpassing Disney’s media business excluding parks ($58.8 billion), Netflix ($45.2 billion), Spotify ($20.3 billion), and Fox ($16.3 billion) to claim the media industry’s throne.

“The One-Size-Fits-All Model Is Broken” — The New Bundle Strategy

In his interview with Lucas Shaw, Oestlien detailed the rationale and composition of the new bundle strategy. The plans are organized around three main categories — sports, news, and entertainment — comprising more than 10 individual plans, each available for standalone purchase.

He described the sports package as “the most complete sports product that’s put on the market to date.” All major broadcast partners are included, and content previously exclusive to each broadcaster’s own streaming service is being consolidated into YouTube TV. Specifically, NBC is relaunching NBC Sports Network through YouTube TV, and the entirety of ESPN Unlimited’s sports content is included.

When YouTube TV first launched, the company proposed a broadcast-only bundle at a $10 to $15 price point, but partners insisted on packaging their cable networks alongside broadcast channels, driving prices up. The price has more than doubled since launch. Oestlien explained: “We would very much want to go in the direction of smaller packages at lower price points. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to give our consumers pricing relief.”

Asked whether he would carry fewer networks if given full discretion, Oestlien was unequivocal: “Fewer than today. The one-size-fits-all model doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken. It’s one of the reasons the ecosystem has had the challenges it’s had.”

Lessons from YouTube Red

YouTube’s subscription business began in earnest roughly a decade ago with the launch of YouTube Red, which later evolved into YouTube Premium. Oestlien recalled that early investments in premium original content featuring creators produced mixed results. “It takes a lot more money than we invested at the time,” he noted.

The core lesson, he said, was that “Our audience is much better at picking success or picking the hits than we are.” YouTube Premium is now “far and away our biggest success” among the platform’s subscription offerings.

700 Million Hours of Podcast Viewing on TV — YouTube’s Living Room Takeover

If the bundle strategy targets the pay-TV market, podcasts represent another axis through which YouTube is seizing the TV screen itself. According to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman, YouTube podcast viewing on living room devices surpassed 700 million hours in October 2025, nearly doubling the 400 million hours recorded in the same month a year earlier.

Steve McLendon, YouTube’s Head of Product for Podcasts, told Bloomberg: “The living room just continues to be this amazing bright spot in terms of consumption. We knew video would be big for podcasting but it continues to surprise us how big it is.” YouTube invested in discovery and search tools optimized for the TV experience, which he credited as a key growth driver.

Per Nielsen data, YouTube captured 13% of all TV viewing across streaming platforms in November 2025, the highest share of any service including Netflix. Broadcast viewing accounted for 23% of total viewership. McLendon suggested that podcasts are replacing daytime and late-night TV: “With podcasting and YouTube and discovery on television, there is no limit to potential late night shows.”

Competitors have responded to YouTube’s living room advance. Spotify launched a new partner program for video podcasters and debuted a revamped Apple TV app. Meta’s Instagram introduced a Fire TV app for short-form clips. Netflix struck exclusive deals with podcast networks including iHeartMedia, requiring those shows to cease publishing full episodes on YouTube. McLendon framed the competitive dynamic positively: “This is not the first time we’ve seen creators look to diversify their businesses across streaming services. It’s a sign of success for both YouTube and its creators when new opportunities come up.”

Expanding Partnerships with the NFL and the Oscars

YouTube has maintained its position as the number-one streaming platform for more than three years, expanding its direct partnerships with leagues and rights holders. In his interview with Lucas Shaw, Oestlien cited the NFL game in São Paulo as an example, where integrating creators throughout the broadcast attracted a new generation to the NFL while preserving the core fan experience.

Oestlien also outlined an ambitious vision for the Academy Awards. “You don’t have to think of the Oscars anymore as constrained to a two-to-three-hour linear experience. What if it was something much bigger that lived throughout the year?” he said, emphasizing YouTube’s potential complementary role in driving audiences back to movie theaters. Asked whether YouTube would bid for the next NFL rights package, he signaled strong interest: “We really value our partnership with the NFL. Everything we’ve done with them so far has been really successful. And so we’re very excited about the idea that we could be doing more with them.”

A ‘Friendly Competition’ with Netflix

As Netflix continues to sign deals with YouTube creators and podcasters, its co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently disclosed during court testimony that Netflix has 86 million customers in the US. In response to Sarandos’s earlier characterization that YouTube is “just where people kill time,” Oestlien was measured in his interview with Lucas Shaw.

“You can literally go on YouTube and learn linear algebra, physics, cooking,” he said, treating the remark as somewhat tongue-in-cheek. He characterized other services’ investment in YouTube creators as “a real sign of the strength and success of the platform that we’ve built.”

While noting that most creators never actually leave the platform but rather pursue new opportunities alongside their YouTube presence, Oestlien cautioned that pulling programming from YouTube would be “a mistake on their part,” stressing the value of maintaining a direct relationship with their fan base. Intriguingly, he floated the possibility that “maybe one day Netflix will want to be a part of YouTube,” adding that the odds of being able to purchase Netflix via YouTube within five years are “low, but I am eternally optimistic.”

A Message to Hollywood — ‘Think of YouTube as a Distribution Platform’

Oestlien also extended a clear invitation to Hollywood’s creative community. “How can we evolve the platform to really be a place where anybody who’s taking a movie to Sundance might look at us as a potential distribution platform or an opportunity to go direct to consumer?” he asked, proposing a range of business models including YouTube Premium exclusives, advertising revenue sharing, subscriptions, and rentals. With more than 2 billion daily users, YouTube’s strategy is to embrace content creators of every scale, from major studios to independent productions.

Industry Landscape — ‘Legendary February’ and the Media Shakeup

Ahead of this year’s Super Bowl, Comcast’s NBCUniversal declared a “Legendary February,” broadcasting the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend all within a two-week span. The initiative is part of a massive sports investment strategy led by Comcast co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh.

Disney named Josh D’Amaro as its new CEO following Bob Iger’s retirement. The New York Times approaches nearly 13 million subscribers, while the Washington Post laid off approximately 300 journalists — underscoring the deepening polarization in the media industry. Four of the world’s largest technology companies have earmarked $650 billion this year for AI infrastructure investments.

Conclusion — From ‘Home of All Video’ to ‘Hub of All Media’

YouTube’s strategy unfolds along two converging axes. The first is the dismantling and reconstitution of the pay-TV ecosystem through customized bundles. The second is the direct capture of the living room TV screen through podcasts and creator content. The former tears down the pricing barriers of traditional pay-TV; the latter rewrites the grammar of television viewing itself. In a world where podcasts replace late-night talk shows and creators participate in NFL broadcasts, television is no longer the exclusive domain of broadcast networks.

As Bloomberg’s chart demonstrates, with $60 billion in annual revenue surpassing both Disney and Netflix, YouTube is already “The New King” of the media industry. The numbers reinforce the narrative: $20 billion in subscription revenue, 700 million hours of podcast viewing on TV per month, the number-one streaming TV share per Nielsen, and more than 2 billion daily users. As Oestlien styled himself “eternally optimistic,” YouTube’s ambitions appear to have no ceiling in sight.

For the Korean content industry, the implications are significant. As YouTube lowers the barriers to content distribution through customized bundles, podcasts, and diverse business models while simultaneously dominating the living room, new windows of opportunity are opening for K-content’s global direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies and the international expansion of K-podcasts.

Sources:

1. Bloomberg, Lucas Shaw, ‘YouTube’s Pitch to Football Fans: A Sports-Only TV Package’ (Feb 2025)

2. Bloomberg, Ashley Carman, ‘People Watched 700 Million Hours of YouTube Podcasts on TV in October’ (Dec 2025)