Fresh off its carriage-war peace accord with YouTube TV, and the closure of its deal to combine and control Hulu + Live with rival vMPVD Fubo, Disney finds itself in another pay TV carriage conflict, this time as owner of the distributor.
Since 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 21, all NBCUniversal channels, including NBC local broadcast affiliates, NBC Sports regional sports channels, NBCU cable channels CNBC, Bravo, and Telemundo, as well as channels from spinoff Versant including MS NOW and Golf Channel, have been blacked out for Fubo’s 1.63 million subscribers.
“NBCU has offered terms regarding pricing and packaging that are egregiously above those offered to other distributors. There is no basis for this discrimination and, as a result, Fubo subscribers would either be denied important content or be forced to pay what we believe to be exorbitant costs,” Fubo said in a customer support page message. (This page also has a full list of the affected channels.)
NBCU released the following statement on Monday morning: “Fubo has chosen to drop NBCUniversal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo — they’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content.”
It's worth noting that Fubo has engaged in at least 10 carriage disputes resulting in channel drops from its lineup since 2020. It should also be noted, however, that a large portion of those impasses involved operators of entertainment channels — Discovery Networks, AMC Networks and A+E Networks included — from which live-sports-focused Fubo seems to have strategically and permanently moved on from.
As it has in a number of recent pay TV content distribution negotiations, the issue of content “ingestion” has come up. According to analyst Phil Swann, NBCU has let the channel stores of other streaming companies “ingest” Peacock content into their servers, so that these companies don’t have to redirect their users to Peacock. Swann, however, reports that NBC will not extend this permission to Fubo for its channel store.
Fubo said that if the impasse lasts for an “extended period of time,” it will credit customer accounts with $15.
The impasse affected two college football games Saturday — an afternoon matchup between College Football Playoff contender Notre Dame and Syracuse, and primetime game between two Big Ten also-rans, UCLA and Washington. On Sunday evening, NBC’s Sunday Night Football contest between NFL playoff contenders the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will also be impacted. And on Thanksgiving, NBC and Peacock are scheduled to broadcast an AFC showdown between the desperate Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens.
All of these games were and are available direct-to-consumer via Peacock, which simultaneously streams them alongside NBC’s broadcasts.
Disney closed its deal to take 70% control of the Hulu-Fubo vMVPD standalone entity late last month. Disney already owns a vMVPD, Hulu + Live TV, but will keep its two virtual pay TV services distinct but operating in the same business unit. Combined, Fubo and Hulu + Live TV form the nation’s sixth largest pay TV company and the second-largest virtual MVPD company.