Responding to a complaint from Charter Communications, the National Advertising Division has recommended to Google that it "discontinue" its claim that YouTube TV is "$600 cheaper than cable."
"The price calculation underlying the challenged claim includes the cost of two set-top boxes per household for 'standalone cable' services. The NAD found, however, that this comparison is not a good fit for the challenged claim comparing YouTube TV’s pricing to 'cable' generally since cable providers like Charter offer streaming options that may not require a set-top box," NAD said in a statement.
The NAD's action comes 15 months after Next TV also kicked the tires on Google's claims. In May 2022, as YouTube TV ads festooned the NBA playoffs, Google declared that its virtual MVPD service -- which hadn't bumped its price yet to the current $72.99 a month -- was a full $750 cheaper than cable TV on a yearly basis.
We also determined that Google's claims were made based on outdated, monolithic data and didn't take into account migration of cable TV services from pricey leased set-tops to over-the-counter OTT devices.
For its part, NAD said Google also isn't taking into account the "dynamic and competitive" of the current pay TV market, one in which its vMVPD might not have, say, the necessary regional sports networks available to make it so directly "comparable" with whatever cable TV service it's being sized up against in various regions.
In short, yes, there are still millions of U.S. customers overpaying for cable TV subscriptions laden with hidden fees and bloated equipment lease charges. But operators including Charter are now offering cheaper, skinnier alternatives that rely on BYO devices ... that certainly don't cost $50 more a month than YouTube TV.
In any event, Google said it “unequivocally disagrees” with NAD’s decision and its “interpretation of ‘comparable’ offerings." Google said it will appeal the NAD decision because it “believes that consumers broadly understand the difference between traditional cable and streaming and that they do not interpret ‘cable’ or ‘standalone cable’ offered via a ‘cable box’ as encompassing streaming services, regardless of who provides them.”
