Fox, YouTubeTV in carriage dispute
Channels could be off by Wednesday
With football season set to kick off this weekend, Google’s YouTubeTV and Fox Corporation are at an impasse over a new carriage deal.
If there is no deal by Wednesday at 4 p.m. (CT), YouTubeTV customers could lose Fox, Fox News, FS1, FS2, Fox Business, Fox Weather, Fox Nation, Big Ten Network, and 30 Fox-owned stations, including Fox 32 and Fox Chicago Plus in Chicago.
This would have implications on two fronts. For one, viewers would lose access to Fox News, the top-rated cable news channel popular with conservatives. Second, it would impact sports fans because Fox, FS1, and FS2 possess a large portfolio of sports rights, including the MLB, NFL, LIV Golf, IndyCar, and several collegiate conferences such as the Big Ten and Big XII.
Fox kicks off the college football season this weekend with Auburn and Baylor on Friday, and a huge game on Saturday – top-ranked Texas faces off against third-ranked Ohio State in Columbus. The NFL season starts for Fox Sept. 7 with a slate of regional games, and it will carry key regular-season MLB games to determine playoff positions.
Subscribers received an e-mail Monday evening describing the possible loss of Fox channels (including this person, as he is a YouTubeTV subscriber.) In the letter, YouTubeTV states, “Our current agreement with Fox is approaching its renewal date, and we are in active negotiations to continue carrying their content. Our priority is to reach a deal that’s fair for both sides, as well as our subscribers.”
Fox released its own statement, accusing YouTubeTV and Google of exploiting “its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace.”
The carriage dispute comes as Fox launched a new direct-to-consumer offering called Fox One, which carries all Fox channels, including your local Fox affiliate. In the letter to subscribers, YouTubeTV noted if they lose Fox for any length of time, they could also subscribe to Fox One, which sells for $19.99 a month and receives a $10 credit to their bill.
This also comes as broadcast groups are accusing Big Tech companies, such as Google, of having advantages that they do not have, as they are currently lobbying the FCC to abolish the 39 percent station ownership cap. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook alluded to this last week when his company announced it was purchasing Tegna for $3.6 billion, as virtual providers such as YouTubeTV are unregulated.
YouTubeTV has 9.4 million subscribers, ahead of other virtual providers including Fubo, Hulu + LiveTV, Sling, and the streaming version of DirecTV.