New carriage agreement avoids a blackout of NBCU channels, but reportedly does not require YouTube TV to bundle in the Peacock premium streaming service.
NBCUniversal and YouTube TV forged a new carriage deal over the weekend that sidestepped the need to blackout NBC's local broadcast feeds and its stable of national and regional cable networks on the Google-owned OTT-TV service.
The previous NBCU-YouTube TV deal expired on September 30, but the two sides struck an extension that maintained carriage while the two sides ironed out a new multi-year deal. The new deal came together prior to NBC's broadcast of Sunday night's matchup between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed, though the two sides publicly bickered about whether the price being negotiated was fair. For now, there's no change to the pricing on YouTube TV's core package, which continues to start at $64.99 per month. YouTube TV said last week it was prepared to knock $10 off the monthly price if it lost access to NBCU's content.
Of note, the new agreement does not include a requirement that YouTube TV bundles in Peacock, NBCU's relatively new premium streaming service, according to multiple media outlets.
An NBCU source told Ars Technica that Peacock was not a "major part" of the talks with YouTube TV, but acknowledged that the streaming service is "a part of the conversation" in all negotiations with distributors. Richard Greenfield, analyst with LightShed Partners, contended last week that Peacock was one of the big sticking points of the negotiations.
As it always is in these types of high-profile negotiations, past issues that were testy at times, are now water under the bridge.
"We are thrilled to have reached a deal with YouTube TV and can continue to offer our full network portfolio, without interruption," an NBCU spokesperson said in a statement. "YouTube is a valued partner and we never want to involve our fans in a dispute, but we felt obligated to let them know what was at stake. We thank our viewers for their loyalty and promise to continue bringing them the networks and programs they love."
The post-deal love-in extended to YouTube TV's Twitter feed:
We're thrilled to share that we have now reached an agreement with NBCUniversal. You'll continue to have access to 85+ channels, including all NBCU channels, their Regional Sports Networks, and your local NBC station, with no change to our current monthly price.
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) October 2, 2021
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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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