Fox and YouTube TV on Wednesday agreed to an eleventh-hour short-term extension to their distribution deal, narrowly avoiding a blackout of all Fox’s content material on the platform.
“We have reached a short-term extension with Fox to prevent disruption to YouTube TV subscribers as we continue to work on a new agreement,” the Alphabet-owned firm shared in a blog post revealed on the appointed deadline. Neither Fox nor YouTube clarified how lengthy the “short-term” extension is sweet for.
If no settlement is reached, Fox will see its information, enterprise, leisure and sports activities choices, as nicely as programming from its native stations, go darkish on YouTube TV.
Fox, FS1, the Big Ten Network and Fox News Channel are among the many shops that will not be out there on the Google-owned platform.
The blackout, which was scheduled to take impact at 5:00 pm ET, would have affected tens of millions nationwide and coincided with the beginning of the school soccer season and the lead-up to the NFL’s season kickoff — each profitable sources of viewership.
Reports of a potential blackout emerged on Monday, simply days earlier than the pair’s present settlement was scheduled to expire. On Monday, each Fox and YouTube started warning prospects they may be affected as the pair sought to agree on a brand new deal.
“Our priority is to reach a deal that’s fair for both sides, as well as our subscribers,” YouTube told customers. In a Monday blog post, YouTube cited “payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive” as a serious sticking level.
In return, Fox stated on Monday that it was “disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace.”
When no deal appeared imminent on Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, a staunch Trump ally, weighed in, taking Fox’s aspect within the negotiations and urging Google to “get a deal done.”
“Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome,” Carr posted to X. “Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube to resolve this dispute so they can keep watching the news and sports they want — including this week’s Big Game: Texas @ Ohio State.”
Customers wanting to keep away from cumbersome cable offers usually flip to direct-to-consumer companies like YouTube TV, which might present skinnier bundles with focused programming at a decrease price.
Carriage offers, which span a number of years, are sometimes re-signed throughout the late summer season to early autumn interval, sometimes coinciding with a number of main sporting occasions, a supply of leverage for the networks.
While negotiations can proceed seamlessly, distributors and programmers don’t all the time see eye to eye, sparring over price and content material. Just last year, Disney pulled its ABC stations, ESPN and its cable networks from DirecTV after the 2 events failed to renew their carriage deal.
This isn’t the primary time YouTube has been concerned in a blackout: In December 2021, Disney content material was pulled from YouTube for round three days. Fox can also be no stranger to hard-nosed negotiations: In 2019, native Fox content material went darkish in 23 states and Washington, DC, after the Rupert Murdoch-owned media firm failed to attain a take care of Dish Network.
Despite the snag in negotiations with Fox, YouTube on Wednesday inked a carriage deal with Herring Network, launching the community’s pro-Trump One America News and A Wealth of Entertainment on YouTube TV.