BUSINESS

Reformation, the largest sustainable womenswear brand, which went public in July, is betting that shoppers still want physical fashion stores.

Another gamble: that opening new stores can help grow its online business, too.

The fashion retailer has opened four stores in the second quarter and ended the period with 70 locations globally.

The expansion is far from over.

Reformation plans to open 15 to 16 new stores during fiscal 2026, with roughly $23 million to $27 million in capital expenditures tied to the expansion.

And over the longer term, management plans to more than double the company’s store fleet during the next five years.

For Reformation, stores aren’t simply another place to sell dresses, shoes, and accessories. 

The company says opening physical locations can introduce substantially more shoppers to the brand and accelerate its digital business in the surrounding market.

Chicago provides one of the clearest examples.

New-customer growth in the market accelerated to 50% year over year during the 11 weeks after Reformation opened two additional stores, compared with 28% during the preceding 20 weeks, CEO Hali Borenstein said during the company’s first earnings call as a public company.

Reformation attracted about 2,000 new customers in Chicago in one month following the openings, while direct-to-consumer revenue growth in the market accelerated by nearly 1.5 times.

A similar pattern has emerged internationally.

Reformation opened its first Paris store in the Le Marais neighborhood in November 2025 and added another location in Passy in March.

New-customer growth in France accelerated by more than 180% during the first half of 2026, while both stores are performing above the company’s initial expectations, Borenstein said.

The company currently operates in only about half of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, and management said roughly two-thirds of the locations in its development pipeline would bring Reformation into new markets.

Reformation adds customers as sales climb

The expansion is being supported by rather strong growth for an apparel company.

Reformation’s second-quarter revenue jumped 24.1% from a year earlier to $155.2 million, marking its 21st consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth.

Direct-to-consumer revenue increased 21.2% to $135.3 million, while wholesale and other revenue surged 48.7% to $19.9 million.

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Net income climbed 79.4% to $12.4 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, compared with $6.9 million, or 13 cents per diluted share, a year earlier.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 53.9% to $25.4 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 320 basis points to 16.4%.

Gross margin also increased by 230 basis points to 66.7%, primarily driven by lower average tariff rates and higher average unit retail prices.

But more importantly for the Reformation’s expansion strategy, its active customer base increased by 22.9%.

The company said the increase reflected strength in both retaining existing shoppers and bringing new customers into the brand.

Direct-to-consumer revenue per customer declined 1.4%, but management attributed the decline largely to faster growth among new customers, who typically spend less when they first begin shopping with the company.

Reformation now serves roughly 1.2 million active customers.

About 70% of active customers live outside New York and Southern California, while approximately 20% are international.

The company is also attracting shoppers across age groups. About 20% of customers acquired last year were younger than 25, while another 20% were older than 50.

In 2025, roughly 70% of revenue came from repeat customers.

According to Reformation’s IPO prospectus, customers who shopped both online and in stores generated 3.1 times as much revenue per customer in 2025 as shoppers who used only one channel.

Its mature full-price stores generated an average of roughly $2.7 million in annual revenue per location and typically recovered their initial investment in less than two years.

That helps explain why Reformation is making physical expansion a major part of its growth strategy, even as apparel retailers take very different approaches to their store networks.

Zara’s owner, Inditex, for example, is selectively expanding in the U.S. 

All this, as it operates significantly fewer stores globally than it did several years ago, preferring larger and more productive locations.

Reformation, meanwhile, sees room to add stores because much of the country remains relatively untapped.

Reformation plans to open over 15 new stores in 2026.Alexandr Dubynin / Getty Images

Reformation uses faster production to limit risk

Reformation’s growth model also depends on avoiding one of the apparel industry’s biggest risks: making large bets on what shoppers will want months before they actually buy it.

Instead of committing heavily to inventory far in advance, the company tests products and increases production of styles that generate demand.

Reformation produces more than half of its products within 60 days or less, while approximately 90% of direct-to-consumer revenue comes from styles that have already demonstrated demand, according to the company’s earnings call.

This allows the company to react more quickly when fashion trends change and potentially reduces the amount of unwanted merchandise that eventually has to be discounted.

Inventory nevertheless increased to $81.8 million at the end of the second quarter from $65 million a year earlier.

Reformation said the increase primarily reflected new store openings and higher sales volume.

Wholesale is also becoming a larger contributor to growth.

Wholesale and other revenue jumped 48.7% during the quarter, driven by stronger demand from existing wholesale partners.

Management said it intends to remain selective about those partnerships, using wholesale partly as another way to introduce shoppers to Reformation.

International sales are growing even faster than the U.S. business.

International revenue grew faster than Reformation’s U.S. business during the quarter, rising 36.8% to $31.2 million. 

U.S. revenue increased 21.3% to $124 million.

Reformation operates stores across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and France and sells online to shoppers in more than 150 countries.

Strong growth meets a skeptical stock market

The expansion comes only weeks after Reformation entered the public markets.

The company priced its initial public offering at $15 per share on July 29.

The stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker REF on July 30.

Its first quarterly report as a public company showed accelerating customer growth, rising profitability, and plans for further physical expansion.

Investors, however, have yet to reward the company to the same degree as its customers.

Reformation shares are currently trading below their $15 IPO price, down over 6% in the past month. 

And management expects full-year fiscal 2026 revenue of $602 million to $606 million, representing growth of approximately 18.6% to 19.5%.

Reformation also expects an adjusted EBITDA margin of between 14% and 14.2%.

The next test will be whether Reformation can continue to use physical stores to bring new shoppers to the brand while preserving the profitability that has distinguished its early run as a public company.

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Bank of America just raised its S&P 500 year-end target. That is the headline. The clause attached to it is the more important part.

The new target is 7,400, up from 7,100. Based on where the market was when the note landed, that number still implies about 3% downside from current levels. A raised target that implies a decline is not a bullish call. It is a recalibration.

BofA raises the target but warns of a pullback first

In a note shared with TheStreet, Bank of America chief equity strategist Savita Subramanian also introduced a 12-month S&P 500 target of 7,800, representing only about 2% upside from current levels. “Our 12-month target of 7800 is nothing to write home about, suggesting +2% from here,” she wrote. The bank’s message is that the long-term case for U.S. equities remains intact, but it does not believe the market will get there in a straight line.

The near-term concern is straightforward, the note said. The S&P 500 has had only one pullback of at least 5% this year, in March. Historically, three such pullbacks happen in an average year. The last correction of 10% or more came in spring 2025. By historical standards, the market is overdue.

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Timing makes it worse. September and October are historically the weakest two-month stretch for the S&P 500, producing an average two-month decline of 0.56% and the largest average corrections of any two-month period in the bank’s data going back to 1928, the note said. Subramanian is not calling for a crash. She is saying the odds of a short-term pullback are higher than usual right now, as CNBC reported.

Inflation is the risk the market is not pricing in

The deeper concern in the note is inflation. Subramanian’s analysis shows the S&P 500’s current valuation is pricing in inflation of roughly 1.7%. The firm’s own economists expect inflation to stay closer to 3.3% in 2026, 2.5% in 2027 and 2.3% in 2028. That is a significant gap between what the market assumes and what the bank actually expects, the note said.

The note draws a comparison to the 1970s. That period combined dollar weakness, inflation surprises, higher interest rates and an oil shock with a stock market that fell more than 40%. The S&P 500’s price-to-earnings multiple compressed from 19 times to about 8 times. Subramanian is not predicting a repeat. She is pointing out how badly an expensive market can get hurt when inflation comes in above expectations.

The liquidity backdrop is also less supportive than it was, the note said. Central banks are cutting rates less aggressively, buybacks are slowing and new equity supply is arriving after years of muted IPO activity. Subramanian flags Fed hikes, problems in private lending and disorderly moves in long-term rates as the kinds of triggers that could push financing costs higher from today’s very tight levels.

Earnings are strong but quality is a concern

There is a real counterweight to the cautious view. Subramanian’s note projects S&P 500 earnings per share growth of 33% in 2026 and another 12% in 2027, driven by AI capital spending, manufacturing investment and productivity gains. The bank does not believe corporate earnings are about to collapse.

But the note flags two problems with that earnings picture. First, earnings quality has deteriorated. Free cash flow is not keeping pace with reported net income, which means reported earnings are increasingly less reflective of actual cash generation. Second, a growing share of the index’s earnings outlook depends on an AI buildout that is complex and rapidly evolving. Strong headline growth does not prevent a correction when valuations, inflation and financing costs are all working against the market at the same time, the note said.

The note also flags that nearly $8 trillion in cash is sitting on the sidelines at an all-time high, which represents potential buying power if and when investors decide to redeploy it.Bloomberg / Getty Images

The long-term bull case is still AI and productivity

None of the near-term caution changes the bank’s longer-term view. The firm’s core bullish argument is productivity, Subramanian wrote. Companies are replacing labor with technology and repeatable processes, and the bank believes the S&P 500 has become structurally higher quality and more asset-light as a result. About half the index is now made up of labor-light businesses in technology, media and health care.

The note also flags that nearly $8 trillion in cash is sitting on the sidelines at an all-time high, which represents potential buying power if and when investors decide to redeploy it. Financial companies could be particularly well-positioned, the note said, sitting at the intersection of deregulation and AI adoption.

But the long-term story comes with a near-term valuation problem. The bank’s fair value model puts the S&P 500’s 2026 fair value at roughly 6,700, well below the 7,400 year-end target, the note said. Its long-term valuation work implies negative 3% annualized returns for the cap-weighted S&P 500 over the next decade, compared with about positive 3% annualized returns for the average stock in the index. That gap is the core reason Subramanian prefers the equal-weighted S&P 500 over the cap-weighted version.

What BofA prefers and what it is watching

The note’s preferred areas are the equal-weighted S&P 500, large-cap value stocks and selective exposure to small and mid-cap names. Subramanian sees better long-term value in those areas than in chasing the handful of companies that dominate the cap-weighted index.

On technology, the note describes the sector as a mixed opportunity. BofA is watching leverage and off-balance-sheet commitments among hyperscalers closely and wants to see which companies can actually convert massive AI investment into sustainable returns, not just impressive revenue backlogs.

The bank’s bear market signposts currently have 50% of warning signals triggered, down from 70% in May and June, the note said. Its Sell Side Indicator remains in neutral territory rather than at the extreme levels associated with market euphoria, which historically has left room for additional gains. The long-term direction is up. The path there may not be as smooth as the market has made it look so far in 2026, according to CNBC.

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The worst money decisions rarely feel like decisions. They feel like following instructions from someone you already hired.

You pay a professional for one thing. An estate plan, a tax return, a refinance. Then the professional hands you a name for the next thing.

That handoff carries the trust of the first relationship into a room where nobody has told you how the person across the desk gets paid.

It is happening more often, because life insurance is selling the way it has not sold in years. Total individual life insurance new annualized premium rose 3% to $4.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, and the number of policies sold climbed 8%, according to LIMRA.

Middle-income families are the growth market. Carriers have widened distribution and pushed products that promise stock market upside with a floor under the losses.

One of those products received a live, unflattering review on Sept. 11. A caller named Stephanie told The Ramsey Show that her estate-planning attorney had referred her and her husband to a salesperson pitching an indexed universal life policy, known as an IUL. The couple is debt-free except for the mortgage and puts 15% of income into Roth 401(k)s, as reported by 24/7 Wall St..

Ramsey calls an IUL pitched through an estate attorney referral “the payday lender of the middle class.”Jordi Salas / Getty Images

Why Dave Ramsey compared an insurance policy to payday lending

Ramsey needed just two words to describe the product: “absolutely horrendous.” It’s “basically the payday lender of the middle class,” he said, according to 24/7 Wall St..

Co-host George Kamel asked on air whether the referral came with a kickback attached. Ramsey said he had not run into the estate planning version of the pitch before, though he has spent years telling listeners that cash-value coverage is a waste of money.

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Strip the branding and an IUL is permanent life insurance with a savings account bolted on. The cash value earns interest credits based on the movement of an index such as the S&P 500, subject to a cap, a floor and a participation rate. Your money never buys the index.

The floor is the selling point. In a losing year, the credit is zero instead of negative.

The cap is what the floor costs. In a strong year you keep a slice of the gain, the insurer keeps the rest, and you collect no dividends on shares you do not own.

Then come the charges. A large share of the first-year premium goes to commission and policy load, and cost-of-insurance charges come out of the cash value every month, rising as you age.

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The loan feature is the closer. Agents pitch tax-free retirement income drawn from your own cash value, and the mechanics are real enough. You also pay the insurer interest on that loan, and if the policy lapses while a balance is outstanding, gains you believed were sheltered can turn into a tax bill in a year you did not plan for.

What indexed universal life actually costs a young family

Stephanie’s timing is the part that stuck with me. She told the show the couple is about to drop to one income after their baby arrives.

Every dollar routed into an insurance wrapper during that stretch is a dollar not going to the mortgage or the Roth in the couple’s highest-contribution years. The premium is not the price. The forgone compounding is the price.

Run it forward. Put $10,000 a year into a capped, charge-heavy policy instead of an uncapped index fund inside a Roth 401(k), and the 30-year gap typically runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to 24/7 Wall St.

When I went through the market data behind the pitch, three numbers framed the stakes:

IUL new annualized premium was almost $1.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, down 11% and its first decline since 2023, according to LIMRA.

IUL still made up 23% of all new individual life premium sold in the quarter, according to LIMRA.

Adults 18 to 30 overestimate the cost of a $250,000, 20-year term policy by roughly 10 to 12 times, according to LIMRA and Life Happens.

That last number explains the sale. Families assume real coverage is unaffordable, so an expensive product that arrives with a referral and a glossy projection starts to look like the responsible compromise.

The referral question most buyers never ask

An attorney charging a flat fee to draft documents has no reason to steer you toward one insurance product. A referral to a commissioned agent is a different arrangement, and it is fair to ask what that referral is worth to the person making it.

Ask in writing. A fee-only fiduciary answers in one line.

Apply the same test to Ramsey. His show sends listeners to SmartVestor pros and Zander Insurance, both paid partners, which does not make the term-insurance advice wrong. It makes the question universal.

The industry’s answer is that an IUL is not an investment and should not be scored like one. Broader distribution, product changes and a strong equity market drove the category’s record run, according to LIMRA. Buyers do get a death benefit and a contractual floor, and neither disappears because a radio host dislikes the pricing.

Ramsey is also not the only voice on this side of the argument. Suze Orman used a July podcast episode to warn her own listeners about whole life coverage, as reported by 24/7 Wall St. Two hosts who agree on very little agree here.

What to check before you sign an IUL illustration

Regulators have spent a decade chasing the illustration rather than the product. Revisions to Actuarial Guideline 49-A took effect in 2026 to strengthen consumer-protection disclosures, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The disclosures improved. The math did not change.

So my analysis comes down to three requests before anyone signs anything. Ask for the guaranteed column of the illustration, not the projected column, because the projected column assumes the insurer hits its cap for decades. Price a 20-year level term policy separately, so the real cost of the death benefit sits in front of you on its own. Ask the referring professional, in writing, how they get paid on the recommendation.

If the guaranteed column shows near-zero cash value in year 10, you have your answer without needing Ramsey’s. Term coverage plus separate investing is the cheaper path, according to Ramsey Solutions.

The trust you extend to a professional is priced into the fee you already paid. Whatever lands in your lap next is priced somewhere else, and the illustration will not tell you where unless you ask.

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Jean Smart and Allison Janney both clinched their eighth Emmy Awards within minutes, tying the all-time record for most acting Emmys won.

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Keurig Dr Pepper built one company around two very different businesses: a North American beverage operation led by Dr Pepper and a coffee franchise built around Keurig.

But it is now preparing to separate them, again, since its merger in 2018.

The company plans to split into two publicly traded businesses in early 2027.

The separation will create:

North American beverage company that will include Dr Pepper and KDP’s other cold-drink brands

Global coffee company combining Keurig with JDE Peet’s

The separation follows KDP’s acquisition of JDE Peet’s and is the first step in a broader restructuring, leaving investors with two companies with increasingly different growth, margin, and debt profiles. 

Bank of America says the split remains on track for early 2027.

And this difference is why BofA thinks the breakup could unlock value.

In a note shared with TheStreet, BofA reiterated its Buy rating on Keurig Dr Pepper and its $38 price objective, around 21% upside from the $31.39 share price cited in the report.

But the bank’s valuation breakdown is more revealing than the price target itself. BofA estimates that the future beverage company alone could be worth roughly $31 per current KDP share, while the global coffee business could be worth about $7 per share.

Simply put, BofA believes the Dr Pepper-led side of the company could eventually be valued at nearly as much as all of Keurig Dr Pepper is worth today.

The reason is that KDP’s beverage business looks considerably stronger than it did when Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple merged in 2018.

Dr Pepper has become KDP’s biggest growth engine

BofA estimates that the stand-alone beverage company will generate about $13 billion in sales in fiscal 2026.

Between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2017, the legacy Dr Pepper Snapple operation averaged less than 2% annual organic sales growth.

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However, since fiscal 2020, beverage organic sales have exceeded 5% every year and are on pace to do so for a seventh consecutive year in fiscal 2026.

A major reason for this is Dr Pepper.

The brand surpassed Pepsi-Cola in 2023 to become the No. 2 U.S. carbonated soft-drink brand by volume and has continued gaining share since then, according to Beverage Digest data cited by BofA.

Dr Pepper now accounts for roughly 40% of KDP’s U.S. beverage sales, according to NielsenIQ data in the report. 

Canada Dry represents another 11%, while A&W and Ghost each account for about 6% and 7UP for 5%.

Soft drinks still account for roughly 76% of KDP’s beverage sales, but the company has also been expanding into faster-growing categories.

Its distribution network carries partner brands including C4, Bloom, Electrolit, Vita Coco, Polar Beverages, La Colombe, and Black Rifle Coffee.

Those agreements give KDP exposure to energy drinks, hydration, functional beverages, and ready-to-drink coffee without requiring it to buy every brand outright.

BofA argues that this allows KDP to put more volume through its distribution system while committing less capital than it would through large acquisitions.

Partner brands have also consistently grown faster than KDP’s owned portfolio.

BofA said partner-brand retail sales increased 36.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 2.5% growth for owned brands.

KDP has simultaneously been bringing more distribution routes in-house, a move BofA believes can improve store-level execution and margins.

Keurig Dr Pepper’s stock is up 13% year to date.Kevin Carter / Getty Images

BofA sees a valuation gap

Keurig Dr Pepper currently trades at roughly 13 times BofA’s estimated 2027 earnings, compared with about 24 times for Coca-Cola and 15 times for PepsiCo.

BofA argues that Coca-Cola deserves a premium because of its international reach, stronger organic growth, and higher margins.

But it sees KDP’s discount to Pepsi as more difficult to justify. KDP’s combined business generates an EBITDA margin of roughly 24%, compared with about 20% for PepsiCo, according to the bank.

The difference becomes more pronounced when coffee is removed. BofA estimates the stand-alone beverage company could generate about $13.67 billion in 2027 sales and approximately $4 billion in adjusted EBITDA, giving it an EBITDA margin of roughly 29%.

The bank believes a mid-teens EBITDA multiple would be appropriate, placing the business between Pepsi and Coca-Cola in terms of valuation.

At 15 times EBITDA, BofA estimates Beverage Co. would be worth approximately $31 per current KDP share. This means the majority of BofA’s $38 valuation for Keurig Dr Pepper comes from the beverage side.

Coffee remains the biggest question

The future Global Coffee Co. will combine KDP’s coffee operation with JDE Peet’s, creating a company BofA estimates could generate roughly $16 billion in 2027 sales and $3.1 billion in adjusted EBITDA.

But BofA assigns that business a much lower valuation.

Coffee remains a relatively commoditized category compared to that of branded beverages due to:

Volatile green coffee costs

Periodic margin pressure

Less predictable sales growth

BofA estimates the coffee company could command roughly six to eight times EBITDA. At the midpoint of that range, it would be worth about $7 per current KDP share.

The bank also identified three issues that could weigh on the business before the split: 

Need for a permanent CEO

Uncertainty around its post-separation leverage

Volatility in coffee commodity prices.

Those pressures come as global coffee prices remain elevated and JDE Peet’s margins trail those of several peers.

Keurig Dr Pepper debt has to come down

KDP also has to reduce a sizable debt burden before the two companies can stand independently.

The JDE Peet’s transaction includes:

$6 billion of unsecured bonds

$3.9 billion of term loans

$4.5 billion of convertible preferred equity linked to the future beverage company

KDP also assumed about $5.3 billion of JDE Peet’s existing debt.

Management reported net leverage of 4.4 times following the transaction, while BofA calculated adjusted net leverage of about 5.3 times.

KDP has been working to bring those levels down through free cash flow and asset sales, including the planned monetization of its Chobani stake.

Maintaining investment-grade ratings is particularly important because the separation cannot be completed if either KDP or the future coffee company falls below investment grade at both Moody’s and S&P under terms tied to the transaction.

That makes deleveraging one of the biggest remaining hurdles before the early-2027 split.

Still, BofA’s argument is that investors may be applying too much of the coffee business’s risks to the company as a whole.

Once the two businesses trade separately, investors will get a much clearer choice: a high-margin beverage company anchored by Dr Pepper and faster-growing partner brands, or a larger global coffee company carrying greater commodity and leverage exposure.

For BofA, this is where the opportunity lies.

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AI visibility platforms cannot see what your buyers actually ask. You can, and the answer is in a place you already pay for.

The classic streaming platforms are battling aggressive competition from free ad-supported TV (FAST) making a task of keeping old users almost as difficult as attracting new ones. 

In fact, 43% of Americans said in July 2026 that they plan to cancel at least one streaming service in the next three months, according to industry data from Reviews.org. 

As the current economic environment pressures consumers to reassess discretionary spending habits, the key debate has grown from whether to cut cables to deciding between paid streaming tiers and free ad-supported TV.  

Moreover, cord-cutters who left traditional cable for live TV streaming services are increasingly encountering familiar frustrations: steady price increases paired with shrinking channel lineups. 

YouTube TV cancels 3 channels 

Starting Sept. 30, Google’s YouTube TV will officially pull three channels from its lineup: Court TV, Tastemade (including Tastemade Español and Tastemade 4K), and political news network The Young Turks, as reported by Cord Cutters News. 

 In an email to subscribers, YouTube TV said:

“We are writing to let you know that starting September 30, 2026, Court TV, Tastemade, and The Young Turks channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV. This includes live content or content in your Library that you may have recorded from these channels.”

The streaming service added that users can continue to watch these channels directly on YouTube. 

Canceled channels detail and availability: 

Tastemade: A culinary and lifestyle network focused on global food culture, travel programming, and original recipes for home cooks.Where to watch: Available on paid services (Prime Video, DIRECTV, Fubo, Philo, Sling TV) as well as free platforms including The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, and Xumo Play.

Court TV: Founded in 1991, this legal news network is known for gavel-to-gavel live trial coverage, expert courtroom analysis, and true-crime documentaries.Where to watch: Streaming on DIRECTV and Fubo, or completely free via Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel.

The Young Turks: A flagship progressive news and commentary program launched by Cenk Uygur that analyzes daily headlines, politics, and culture.Where to watch: Free to stream on its flagship YouTube channel, as well as free FAST channels detailed on TYT’s platform guide (such as Samsung TV Plus and Xumo Play). 

YouTube TV cancels Court TV, Tastemade, and The Young Turks, causing mixed reaction from subscribers.andresr / Getty Images

Subscribers react to the news of losing 3 channels 

Across Reddit communities, subscribers’ reaction to losing Court TV, Tastemade, and The Young Turks is somewhat indifferent. 

Out of the three departing networks, Tastemade generated the most genuine disappointment in one Reddit thread, with several subscribers expressing sadness over losing comfort shows like Struggle Meals and Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen. 

Tastemade’s loyal viewers praised its niche food programming, prompting the official Tastemade Reddit account to step into the thread and reassure fans that its content remains free to stream on standard YouTube.

“We agree! You can watch our channel on most of the other free streaming platforms and many of our shows (and future episodes) are available for free on our YouTube channels,” wrote Tastemade. 

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The primary reason subscribers are largely unbothered is that all three are FAST channels. Viewers quickly pointed out that these networks are already accessible for free on standalone apps. 

Rather than being upset over losing the content, a few subscribers shared frustration that YouTube TV was using paid subscription fees to carry channels that cost nothing elsewhere.

“I just never understood why they opted to add FAST onto a paid app. All 3 channels are available free of charge on multiple platforms,” wrote user djmightybri79. 

On the other hand, another group of subscribers expressed minor annoyance, not over the content itself disappearing, but over the loss of DVR convenience (having live news or food shows under one central guide and DVR interface without needing to switch apps).

YouTube TV’s recent moves to retain subscribers 

Despite price hikes pushing its main plan to $82.99 a month, YouTube TV earlier this year launched generous, lower-priced packages to retain subscribers. 

I previously reported how the streaming service provider introduced 12 themed options allowing viewers to pay strictly for the channel genres they watch while keeping unlimited DVR.

YouTube TV tiered options:

Entertainment for $54.99

Sports for $64.99

Entertainment + Family for $62.99

News + Family for $62.99

Sports + Entertainment for $71.99

Sports + Family for $71.99

Sports + News for $71.99

News + Entertainment + Family for $69.99

Sports + Entertainment + Family for $77.99

Sports + News + Entertainment for $77.99

Sports + News + Family for $77.99

To combat churn, the platform also added sharp promotional deals. New sign-ups received intro rates from $44.99 to $67.99 per month. Existing members trying to cancel unlocked hidden retention discounts of $10 to $20 off their monthly bill.

The live TV service rolled out these choices gradually across user profiles. While unbundling offers meaningful savings, even the $55 tier faces stiff competition from free streaming alternatives. 

In an article for MakeUseOf, tech writer Bryan M. Wolfe detailed how he canceled his $82.99 monthly YouTube TV subscription after realizing his daily viewing habits didn’t justify the cost. By replacing the platform with free ad-supported services like Pluto TV and Tubi alongside standard YouTube, he successfully replicated his routine channel-surfing and news viewing at zero monthly expense.

Nonetheless, the platform is betting these customizable plans will keep viewers from canceling the service. 

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The 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards are being handed out Monday night in Los Angeles. Click in to keep up with the results of the 78th annual ceremony throughout the night.