NBCUniversal and YouTube TV prolonged negotiations to keep away from a programming blackout for the latter’s roughly 10 million subscribers, as they proceed negotiating for a brand new carriage deal.
“We’ve reached a short-term extension to keep away from disruption to our service whereas we work towards a brand new settlement with NBCUniversal. We recognize our subscribers’ endurance whereas we negotiate on their behalf,” a YouTube spokesperson instructed TheWrap. A spokesperson for NBCU shared an identical assertion. Neither occasion would touch upon the length of the extension.
Upcoming programming that might’ve been impacted by the blackout beginning Wednesday embrace Sunday Night time Soccer and new seasons of “The Voice” and “Saturday Night time Dwell,” which is about to return on Saturday, Oct. 4.
The replace comes after YouTube averted a programming blackout of Fox’s content material by hours after hanging a brand new deal in August. The identical can’t be stated for TelevisaUnivision programming, which went darkish on the service earlier on Tuesday after each events failed to return to phrases on a brand new settlement.
The extension comes lower than per week after NBCUniversal first warned of a doable blackout of its programming on YouTube TV.
“Google, with its $3 trillion market cap, already controls what People see on-line by means of search and advertisements — now it desires to regulate what we watch. YouTube TV has refused the most effective charges and phrases available in the market, demanding preferential remedy and in search of an unfair benefit over rivals to dominate the video market,” an NBCU spokesperson instructed TheWrap, “all beneath the false pretense of combating for the patron.”
A YouTube spokesperson stated on the time that the Comcast-owned leisure firm was “asking us to pay greater than what they cost customers for a similar content material on Peacock, which might imply much less flexibility and better costs for our subscribers.”
Telemundo Enterprises chairman Luis Fernández additionally shared an open letter amid the dispute, signaling how a shutdown would go away Spanish-speaking YouTube TV customers with out entry to each of the main networks for Spanish audio system within the U.S.
When requested about Fernandez’s letter, a YouTube TV spokesperson instructed TheWrap that its carriage renewal choices are “primarily based on viewer consumption and pricing, and any suggestion on the contrary is fake.”
