Beyond cat videos: YouTube will offer its own pay-TV service
Online alternatives such as Dish's Sling TV, AT&T's DirecTV Now and Sony's PlayStation Vue had about 1.5 million customers combined in 2016.
[...] companies like YouTube believe a substantial number of people could be persuaded to pay for TV online.
Many of these potential customers are younger people who have never had cable and watch shows and movies primarily through online services such as Netflix.
YouTube's service will cost $35 a month, similar to the cheapest deals from AT&T's DirecTV Now and Sony's PlayStation Vue, but more expensive than Dish's Sling TV.
In addition to the no-shows in its channel lineup, it will launch only in cities where it can offer live feeds of the major broadcasters, which tend to be larger metropolitan areas.
(YouTube says it will work on expanding to other markets, although that will require cutting deals with the owners of network affiliate stations in those cities.) It will work on a TV only via Google's Chromecast streaming gadget.
DirecTV Now and Sling don't carry CBS, and live feeds for ABC, CBS and NBC are available only in some big cities, as most network stations are owned by third parties.