NBCUniversal went on the offensive Sunday night, alerting viewers and the media that its stable of cable and broadcast TV channels could soon go dark on YouTube TV as the two sides near the end of their current carriage deal. Google's YouTube TV quickly countered that it would cut the price of its service by $10 if a new deal is not reached.

In an apparent warning to YouTube TV's sports fans, NBCU timed the announcement with NBC's broadcast of the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers.

Time is running short on a new deal, as the existing agreement expires on Thursday, September 30. Without a deal, YouTube TV, a virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) that had about 3 million subscribers as of October 2020, will lose access to local NBC feeds, as well as a batch of cable channels that include USA, Golf, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, NBCSN, E!, Oxygen and Syfy. YouTube TV also stands to lose access to certain NBCU-run regional sports networks.

Figure 1:

NBCU's campaign tied to the carriage impasse with YouTube TV points viewers to several pay-TV alternatives, including DirecTV Stream, FuboTV, Hulu, Dish Network and, of course, corporate cousin Comcast.
(Source: NBCUniversal)

NBCU launched a campaign linked to the carriage issue on Sunday night, claiming that it is seeking "fair rates" for continued carriage, but that Google "is refusing to make a deal at these fair rates and is willing to withhold entertainment, news and sports programming from their paying customers." NBCU added that it has a "near perfect record of completing carriage agreements without network drops."

YouTube TV responded in a blog post to give subs "an early heads up so you understand your choices," noting that customers can sign up for Peacock, NBCU's direct-to-consumer streaming service starting at $4.99 per month, to continue to watch NBCU content, including NBCU's broadcast of Sunday Night Football.

"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 get past this impasse to keep their content available on YouTube TV," YouTube TV added.

The two sides may ultimately find common ground, but the impasse represents a potentially major carriage dispute in the streaming era and the emergence of vMVPDs that, thus far, have not raked in enough subscribers to offset the number of consumers who are cutting the cord on traditional cable, telcos and satellite pay-TV services.

But vMVPDs have likewise struggled to keep costs down amid rising programming costs. YouTube TV raised its baseline price last year by $15 per month due to a programming lineup expansion. More recently, YouTube TV launched "4K Plus," a premium, $19.99 per month add-on that adds 4K streaming of select channels and the ability to download content for offline viewing.

The NBCU dustup adds to recent clashes involving YouTube TV. The Google-run OTT-TV service saw its app removed from the Roku Channel Store after YouTube TV and Roku failed to strike a new distribution agreement. Google's temporary workaround was to provide access to the YouTube TV service from within the core YouTube app.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading