If you’ve had satellite or cable services for a few years, you’re probably familiar with the carriers and networks squabbling and fighting over contracts. Comcast doesn’t want to pay more to carry Viacom’s channels, Viacom threatens to pull everything, Comcast caves, and your monthly price goes up by $6 per month. Switch out those two companies for your favorite cable companies and you get the gist of it.
Up until now, though, the cord-cutting solutions to live TV, like YouTube TV, Sling TV, and others have managed to avoid a lot of the drama that goes with those negotiations. Sure, we’ve seen Google square off with Roku and Amazon, but this is one of the only times that we’re getting to see them bump heads with a company like NBC Universal.
Updated October 1st: Just as the dispute went to the brink, Google and NBC took a step back and agreed on an extension on the current deal. It’s a temporary thing, mind, and there are no details on how long the status quo might hold but at least for now, no decision has been made either way. The pair issued a statement to Protocol and Vulture, saying the following:
“NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have agreed to a short extension while parties continue talks NBCUniversal will not go dark on YouTube TV at midnight eastern tonight.”
Hopefully, YouTube TV and NBC can take a breather and remember that it’s the consumers that are set to miss out, as they do every time corporations have spats and remove their services. We’ll keep you updated as and when any further announcements are made.
YouTube TV NBC channels
This fight is almost exactly like the example we used earlier. NBCU wants more money for their subscription packages, but Google says they want to pay the same price as other similarly sized services. Both companies are probably stretching the truth just a little bit.
The deadline for this deal to come through is September 30th, and could cause several channels to be dropped from YouTube TV. These channels include NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, Telemundo, The Olympic Channel, Universal Kids, Universo, and USA Network, which definitely includes some higher profile channels that some subscribers will be really unhappy with.
Google’s trying to hammer out these negotiations, but if they fall through, they did say they’d drop YouTube TV’s pricing by $10 and they’re encouraging subscribers to use the savings to get Peacock for $5 per month. But in the meantime, both companies are running smear campaigns on social media trying to paint the other company as the bad guy. They’re both bad guys, honestly, and ultimately the consumer is the one that’s going to get the short end of whatever stick shakes out.
Personally? I’m gonna recommend you just ditch the live TV services and fill out your streaming stick with on-demand services and call it a day.
