With Google and NBCUniversal left with just over a day to make a deal before their carriage agreement expires, YouTube TV is alerting subscribers that they might soon need to find a new way to watch NBC channels.
If Google and NBCUniversal are unable to make a deal by Thursday, September 30, subscribers could lose NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, Telemundo, The Olympic Channel, Universal Kids, Universo, and USA Network, as well as NBC Regional Sports Networks.
This is what YouTube TV told subscribers in an email today:
We know that you love watching the wide variety of live sports, news, and shows available to you on YouTube TV. That’s why we’ve been working so hard to renew our deal with NBCUniversal to continue carrying their content on YouTube TV.
However, since our agreement expires on Thursday, September 30, and we haven’t yet been able to reach an equitable agreement, we wanted to give you an early heads up so you understand your choices.
Our ask is that NBCU treats YouTube TV like any other distributor. In other words, for the duration of our agreement, YouTube TV seeks the same rates that services of similar size get from NBCU so we can continue offering YouTube TV to members at a competitive and fair price.
If NBCU offers us the equitable terms we are asking for, we’ll renew our agreement with them. However, if we are unable to reach a deal by Thursday, the NBCU lineup of channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV and we will decrease our monthly price from $64.99 to $54.99 (while this content remains off our platform).
At that time, you could consider signing up for NBCUniversal’s own streaming service, Peacock Premium, which NBC currently offers starting at $4.99/month to continue watching NBCU content, such as live football.
While we would love every member to continue to stay with our service, we understand that you may still choose to pause or cancel your membership. We want to make YouTube TV flexible, so members can pause or cancel anytime. We will give you updates as negotiations continue, and going forward, please continue to check this webpage for additional updates.
Please know that NBCU is an important partner for us and as you can imagine, this is not the outcome that we want. We’re still in active conversations with NBCU and are hopeful we can keep their content available on YouTube TV.
If the channels are removed from YouTube TV, subscribers can watch some sports and shows from NBC’s networks including NBC, USA, Bravo, and Oxygen with a subscription to Peacock. To get all of the 14 channels that will be removed, subscribers can switch to Hulu with Live or fuboTV.