Is your live TV streaming bill too high? You have other options - including cheaper ones

EyeEm Mobile GmbH/Getty Images Live TV streaming services were designed to disrupt the cable monopoly. And for a while, it looked like the plan was working. Cable companies, no longer blessed with monopoly power, are losing millions of customers every year. But the cord-cutting alternatives that were supposed to save us have been raising prices steadily, and today the price of a live TV streaming service is nearly as high as one of those old cable bills. Also: DirecTV's new no-contract 'Genre Packs' start at $35 - and you can try them for free Take YouTube TV, for example. At its launch in 2017, Google's live TV streaming service cost a mere $35 a month. Since then, Google has raised prices every year. By the time I signed up in early 2020, the price had crept up to $50 a month. The latest price increase, which took effect in January 2025, raised the cost of the base plan to $83, plus an extra $10 for the 4K add-on. For the base plan alone, that's a 66% increase in five years. And ... Read full article.