Over the weekend, both YouTube and NBC warned YouTube TV subscribers that they risk losing 14 channels from their streaming service. In an ongoing contract pricing dispute, YouTube has confirmed that the company will lower its price by $10 per month if the channels get removed.
Amid a tight Sunday Night Football game airing on NBC, with the Green Bay Packers playing the 49ers, NBC posted a banner roughly every ten minutes a the top of the screen. And while it was obnoxious for this Packers fan, the message was received. If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, come September 30th, you could lose NBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, Bravo, CNBC, NBC Sports, and several other channels.
It’s a story cord-cutters are all too familiar with lately. One service or company doesn’t want to pay a certain amount of money for said product. We’ve seen this with almost every other service, several channel lineups, and earlier this year, Google and Roku had a similar dispute. One which never got resolved.
Essentially, if YouTube TV and NBC can’t come to some sort of agreement, customers lose. According to YouTube, the dispute is due to NBC Universal asking for too much money, which NBC claims it’s just the opposite. In a statement on Sunday, Google said, “For the duration of our agreement, YouTube TV seeks the same rates that services of a similar size get from NBCU so we can continue offering YouTube TV to members at a competitive and fair price.” In return, NBC claims it’s seeking “fair rates” from Google’s YouTube TV division and that if nothing changes, the contract will expire on September 30th, and NBC will remove the channels.
As you can see from the image above from Sunday Night Football, NBC is clearly trying to get viewers on its side. Asking fans to tweet at YouTube TV, and even went as far as posting a link to the website youneedchannels.com suggesting users switch providers.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing customers can do at this point but wait and see how things play out. If the two are unable to agree on a deal, 14 channels will disappear. As a result, Google will lower its YouTube TV streaming service by $10, cutting the price from $64.99 to $54.99 per month until (and only if) the channels return.
In the meantime, check out our roundup of the best streaming services for live sports.
Source: YouTube
