Today, the carriage deal between YouTube TV and various Fox networks expires. If a new agreement isn’t reached, the Fox networks could be pulled from the service soon.
It would impact Week 1 of the NFL season. Before that, it would keep Saturday’s Texas-Ohio State game from being televised to the 9.4 million YouTube TV subscribers.
On Wednesday, FCC chairman Brendan Carr entered the fray on social media, with a message to YouTube’s parent company, Google.
“Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome,” Carr said, via Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com. “Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube so they can keep watching the news and sports they want — including this week’s Big Game: Texas at Ohio State. Get a deal done Google!”
It’s not just Google, it’s Fox. In situations like this, each side paints the other as being unreasonable. For an agreement to be reached, the two sides need to bend a little. Or maybe a lot.
Regardless, the administration has weighed in on the matter. And it has put its thumb on the Fox side of the scale.
We’ll see whether that gets a deal done — and whether it leads to repercussions for Google if the Texas-Ohio State game isn’t available on YouTube TV.
