Subscribers of sports streaming service Fubo TV have lost access to channels owned by NBCUniversal in the latest TV distribution dust-up.
Fubo blasted NBCUniversal for its stance during collapsed contract negotiations, resulting in a blackout of NBCUniversal channels just days before Thanksgiving when scores of viewers hunker down for turkey and football. NBC is set to broadcast the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Dog Show and Thursday night’s NFL game featuring the Cincinnati Bengals battling the Baltimore Ravens. The events also will stream on Peacock.
The blackout, which also includes Bravo, CNBC and Spanish-language Telemundo, affects Fubo’s nearly 1.6 million customers.
The dispute comes a month after NBCUniversal’s rival, Walt Disney Co., acquired the controlling stake of Fubo and folded the smaller sports-centric offering into Disney’s Hulu + Live TV. (Hulu + subscribers still have NBCUniversal channels available because they are covered by a separate distribution contract.)
In its Tuesday statement, Fubo alleged that NBCUniversal had refused to give Fubo leeway to offer just a few of its channels — rather than its entire portfolio. Fubo is looking to control costs and designed its product to be a slimmed-down version of a bulky bundle — but one with a heavy complement of sports networks.
Fubo also took issue with NBCUniversal negotiating on behalf of the cable channels that NBCUniversal plans to cast off in January as part of a corporate split.
Legacy cable channels including MS Now (formerly MSNBC), Syfy, CNBC, USA Network and Golf Channel will be form the new publicly traded company, Versant.
“Fubo offered to distribute Versant channels for one year,” Fubo said in its statement, adding that it views most of those networks as “not being worth the cost.”
“NBCU wants Fubo to sign a multi-year deal – well past the time the Versant channels will be owned by a separate company,” Fubo said. “NBCU wants Fubo subscribers to subsidize these channels.”
NBCUniversal, owned by cable and broadband giant Comcast, countered that it had offered Fubo similar terms to those contained in deals struck with other pay-TV distributors — but Fubo balked.
“Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo,” NBCUniversal said. “They’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content.”
The Nov. 21 blackout came one week after Disney resolved a separate, high-profile dispute with Google’s YouTube TV. That dispute, which resulted in a two-week blackout of Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, for about 10 million YouTube TV customers, hinged on fee increases sought by Disney.
The two companies also tussled over YouTube TV’s desire to offer the ESPN streaming app to its customers at no extra cost.
They reached a compromise, and YouTube came away with authorization to provide some ESPN streaming content.
In September, YouTube TV avoided a similar blackout of NBC channels by making a deal just hours before the deadline.
Fubo pointed to NBCUniversal’s recent deals with YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video, which allows those companies to offer NBC’s streaming app Peacock as part of their channel stores. Fubo alleged that NBC refused to give Fubo the same rights.
“Fubo is committed to bringing its subscribers a premium, competitively-priced live TV streaming experience with the content they love,” Fubo said. “That includes multiple content options, including a sports-focused service, that can be accessed directly from the Fubo app. We hope NBCU reconsiders their stance, or we’ll be forced to move forward without them.”
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