- Fubo accuses NBC of offering pricing “egregiously above” other distributors
- Fubo-NBCU dispute comes weeks after Disney’s blackout on YouTube TV
Fubo TV subscribers were unable to watch games from the National Football League (NFL), college football and the Premier League this past weekend after NBCUniversal’s channels were blacked out on the virtual multichannel video platform distributor (MVPD).
Fubo and NBCUniversal had been in talks around a new carriage agreement however the former alleged the latter “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 added.
The MVPD subsequently confirmed that all NBCU networks would be blacked out, including NBC local affiliates, regional NBC Sports channels and national networks such as Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, and USA Network.
Fubo said that the company is “diligently working with NBCU in good faith to bring these channels back”, and did not suggest when a potential deal would be agreed.
In a statement, NBCUniversal said: “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 meant that Fubo’s 1.63 million subscribers were unable to watch NBC’s slate of college football, the National Football League’s (NFL) Sunday Night Football clash between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Ramsand Premier League games held over the weekend.
Fubo noted that fans could watch NBCU content if they had access to the Peacock streaming service. However, several Premier League games, such as Chelsea’s away game at Burnley and Leeds United’s home match against Aston Villawere not broadcast on Peacock, meaning fans were unable to watch a number of matches.
The blackout drew a strong reaction online from fans, with one writing on X: “Woke up this morning at 5:30 to watch Chelsea play only to find out @Fubo no longer has Universal/NBC channels. Literally the only reason I pay for this service is to watch soccer games. Time to cancel the subscription, I suppose.”
The dispute could further impact viewership for NBC’s weekday coverage of the National Basketball Association (NBA) should the blackout continue.
Fubo’s carriage dispute with NBCU comes weeks after Disney channels were blacked out on YouTube TV as part of a two-week dispute. A new multi-year carriage agreement was finally reached on 14th November, which restored access to ESPN and ABC for YouTube TV’s estimated ten million subscribers.
