On November 10, YouTube terminated my channel, and my YouTube TV and YouTube Premium stopped working along with it. I still can’t cancel either one online. Together they cost me $119.97 a month.
Honestly, this may be a blessing in disguise. I probably watched way too much random garbage on YouTube anyway. I love audio podcasts, and I really don’t need to watch random influencers making stupid short videos. It looks like it will save me a lot of money, too.
So I made a list of what I actually used them for. Mostly podcasts and football: Good Morning Football during the week, RedZone on Sundays, and the big games.
To watch RedZone without YouTube TV, I paid $99.99 for a year of NFL+ Premium. The rest is a $79.99 antenna, the streaming services we already pay for (Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+), and ordinary podcast apps. The one thing I lose is Sunday Ticket.
My podcasts work fine without YouTube
I watched most of my podcasts on YouTube because I like seeing the people talk. It turns out most of them post full video episodes on Spotify, and a couple on Apple Podcasts too. I checked each show’s listings and sampled recent episodes on November 14. All of them have audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and a regular RSS feed, so the table only shows where the video is.
| Podcast | Full video outside YouTube |
|---|---|
| Peter Attia Drive | Spotify |
| Machine Gods (NPR) | Spotify, Apple Podcasts |
| Plain English | Spotify |
| Two Percent (Michael Easter) | Spotify |
| FoundMyFitness | Spotify |
| Big Technology | Spotify, most episodes |
| SemiAnalysis Weekly | Spotify |
| Dwarkesh Podcast | Spotify, some on Apple Podcasts |
| Rich Roll | Audio only: Spotify, Apple Podcasts |
| Decoder (Nilay Patel) | Audio only |
Leaving YouTube doesn’t get rid of ads. A podcast app plays the same sponsor reads. Two of my shows, Decoder and Peter Attia’s, sell paid feeds if that bothers you.
How I watch RedZone and Good Morning Football without YouTube TV
Good Morning Football airs live on NFL Network on weekdays from 8 to 10 a.m. Eastern, with a replay from 10 to noon. RedZone is the Sunday afternoon show that promises every touchdown during the regular season. NFL+ Premium has both, for $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. I paid for the year. The basic NFL+ plan, $6.99 a month, includes NFL Network but not RedZone.
The NFL says Premium subscribers can watch RedZone “across all supported devices,” and NFL+ runs on TV boxes like Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV through the NFL app. So RedZone without YouTube TV still goes on the big TV.
There are two catches. Live local and primetime games on NFL+ only play on a phone or tablet. NFL Network’s seven exclusive games this season stream in the app, but the big games don’t. And RedZone has ads now. It ran its first ones in 2024 and many more in 2025, and host Scott Hanson told Front Office Sports there would be fewer 15-second commercials at the start of this season, not none.
Premium also includes full and condensed game replays. If I miss a game, I can watch the condensed replay afterwards.
Everything else: an antenna and services we already pay for
Most of the games I care about are on broadcast TV, which an antenna picks up for free if the signal reaches your house. Mine arrives Friday, so I’ll find out. Reception depends on where you live, so check yours before you cancel anything.
| Game | I watch on | Backup, per month |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday afternoon (CBS, FOX) | Antenna | Paramount+ $8.99, FOX One $19.99 |
| Sunday night (NBC) | Antenna | Peacock $12.99 |
| Thursday night | Prime Video | Only on Prime |
| Thanksgiving Eve, November 25 | Netflix | Only on Netflix |
| Monday night (ESPN; 10 of 17 also on ABC) | Antenna for ABC games; Disney+ for two | ESPN Unlimited $31.99 for the seven ESPN-only games |
| Christmas Day, three games | Netflix (two), antenna (FOX) | FOX One $19.99 |
| Saturday, January 2 | Peacock only | Peacock $12.99 |
| Super Bowl, February 14 | Disney+ | ABC on the antenna |
| Macy’s parade, November 26 | Antenna (NBC) | Peacock $12.99 |
The Super Bowl surprised me. Disney announced in October that all US Disney+ subscribers can stream it, with no ESPN plan needed. We have Disney+ for the kids, so that’s covered.
I’m counting on the antenna for the parade. If it doesn’t pick up NBC, a month of Peacock is $12.99. Peacock’s $19.99 Premium Plus tier still shows ads during live events, so it wouldn’t buy me anything here.
The playoffs start Saturday, January 16. Prime Video has a Wild Card game, which we can watch, and I’ll check the rest of the TV schedule once the league sets it.
What I give up
Sunday Ticket is still exclusive to YouTube and YouTube TV. I rarely used it, so I won’t miss it much, but if you follow an out-of-market team every Sunday, I found no way to watch those games live outside YouTube.
NFL+ won’t let me watch live local or primetime games on the big TV. For those, I need the antenna or another streaming service.
The math
At $119.97 a month, YouTube cost me $1,439.64 a year. The first year of the replacement is $179.98: $99.99 for NFL+ Premium and $79.99 for the antenna, which I only buy once. That works out to about $15 a month, and a first-year saving of $1,259.66 once Google stops billing me. One live TV service I priced, Hulu + Live TV, is $99.99 a month, and I don’t watch enough live TV to justify that.
For the way I actually watch, $99.99 a year and a $79.99 antenna should cover almost everything the $119.97 a month did. I’ll update this once the antenna is up.
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