Free Chromecast after you pay for 1-month of YouTube TV

Cordcutter deal alert! If you live in one of the five regions that are the first to launch the new YouTube TV streaming service, you are in luck! Google is not only running a 30-day free trial, but if you stick around after the free trial and pay for one month ($35 per month), you will receive a free Chromecast device. Given the price of the Chromecast, this is almost like getting two months for free!

One sore point however is that you don’t have as much flexibility when watching on an actual television. You have to use a Chromecast or Android TV. There is no support for the wonderful Roku boxes or Apple TV or gaming platforms (XBox or PS4). I don’t know if they have plans to expand there or not.

Having to use Chromecast (the hardware device) can be annoying because it takes up one HDMI sport AND it needed to be powered, so you either have to use a USB port on your TV or attach it to wall AC to USB power, or rotate portable power bricks (like the ones that power smartphones) to keep feeding it.

I want a Roku app 🙂

Other than that, this is the best streaming service in terms of features. You get unlimited cloud DVR (that lasts up to nine months per recording), something none of the other services offer. You can link up to six Google accounts to one $35/month subscription. Three of those six subscriptions can watch live shows in parallel. That’s three live streams.

There’s plenty of sports channels of the ESPN, Fox and Comcast variety, however, the deal killer for some NBA and baseball fans is that the Turner networks are NOT part of the package at the moment.

NOTE: $35 per month is if you sign up with a computer or using Android devices. If you sign up through iTunes, Google passes YOU the “Apple tax”, you pay $40 per month instead.