NBCUniversal is warning YouTube TV subscribers that its programming could soon go dark on the pay-TV service due to the latest industry tangle over carriage fees and terms.
The fight coincides with a separate standoff with TelevisaUnivision. Both companies’ current agreements with YouTube TV expire next Tuesday, September 30. If both companies were to go dark, it would mean both major Hispanic broadcast networks, Univision and NBCU-owned Telemundo, would be unavailable to YouTube’s roughly 10 million U.S. subscribers.
Hanging in the balance are notable pieces of NBCU programming like Sunday Night Football, the NBA, Big Ten football, WWE, Premier League, The Voice and The Real Housewives. The Season 51 premiere of Saturday Night Live is set for October 4.
Sports is a flash point in the NBCU-YouTube talks, which are preceding a major carriage renewal with Disney ahead of a late-October deadline. That aspect of the dispute will be closely watched across the industry, which has embraced streaming but in so doing foisted an unwieldy user experience on viewers of sports.
In negotiations thus far, YouTube TV has proposed that programming offered exclusively on Peacock (Premier League soccer, for example) would be incorporated into the main user YouTube TV interface as opposed to forcing customers to exit and pull up Peacock. While that app-hopping setup is cumbersome, it allows NBCU and other streaming operators to exercise full control.
YouTube has offered to compensate NBCU for the integration, but not as yet at an acceptable level to the media company. While Peacock has lagged some rivals, holding steady at 41 million subscribers in the April-to-June quarter, flat with the prior quarter, it scored big with viewers and advertisers with events like the 2024 Paris Olympics. It has bulked up its overall sports menu, notably adding NBA rights in a long-term deal that kicks off next month.
In a statement provided to Deadline, an NBCU spokesperson pointed to the $3 trillion valuation of YouTube parent Google. The tech giant “already controls what Americans see online through search and ads – now it wants to control what we watch. YouTube TV has refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplace – all under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer.”
A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline that NBCU is “asking us to pay more than what they charge consumers for the same content on Peacock, which would mean less flexibility and higher prices for our subscribers. We are committed to working with NBCUniversal to reach a fair deal for both sides ahead of our current agreement expiring on September 30. If their content is unavailable for an extended period of time, we’ll offer our subscribers a $10 credit.”
Asked about the idea of pulling more programming into YouTube TV from external apps, especially in sports, a YouTube spokesman replied, “We’re all about user choice and finding simpler ways for consumers to access the content they love. That flexibility is a win-win: it’s better for consumers, and it presents more business opportunities for us and our partners.”
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