YouTube TV has grappled with carriage-contract showdowns in recent weeks with Fox Corp. and TelevisaUnivison. Next up: NBCUniversal.
NBCU on Thursday evening started telling YouTube TV subscribers that its networks may be pulled off the service because the two companies cannot reach an accord on terms of a new distribution contract. NBCU and YouTube last negotiated a new deal in 2021, and had to agree to a short extension when talks went down to the wire. The companies’ current agreement expires on Tuesday, September 30 — the same day a separate pact between YouTube TV and TelevisaUnivision also expires.
In years past, such arguments were largely held between more traditional companies, with big content outlets like Disney, Paramount and their rivals scrapping with cable and satellite distributors ranging from Altice to Charter Communications. In 2025, however, YouTube TV has become a seismic force because it is not hemmed in to specific regions of the U.S., unlike traditional cable carriers, and its technology is not falling out of favor in the streaming era. Many traditional cable and satellite companies are wrestling with subscriber declines as more consumers migrate to broadband streaming.
YouTube TV had 9.4 million subscribers as of April, and its service has been boosted in recent years not only by its ease of use — no physical installation is required — but also by its acquisition of rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in 2023. NBCU, meanwhile, operates not only the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, but cable outlets including MSNBC, Bravo, CNBC and USA. The company is slated to spin off the bulk of its cable holdings into a new entity called Versant around the end of 2025.
In recent discussions with NBC, YouTube TV, part of Google parent Alphabet, has sought terms that the broadcaster felt were markedly better than those already negotiated with other carriers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
YouTube TV could find itself navigating the loss of the nation’s two biggest Spanish-language programmers, since NBCU owns Telemundo. TelevisaUnivision has already started running promotions and ads telling consumers that YouTube TV plans to pull the large Univision broadcast network from its basic tier and offer it instead as an add-on option. YouTube TV has suggested Univision’s “performance” on YouTube TV doesn’t warrant the terms it seeks and said that it can no longer carry Univision unless the two sides reach a “fair deal.”
YouTube TV has also tussled with Fox Corp. in August, with Fox starting to warn subscribers that the Fox broadcasting network, Fox stations, Fox Sports 1 and Fox News Channel, among other properties, might be blacked out. The two sides came to terms.
Such disputes have been a feature of the pay-TV business for decades, and occasionally erupt into the public sphere. In recent years, the companies have bickered about the rise of streaming services, in which the media companies are investing billions of dollars and which lure away cable and satellite customers. In some showdowns, the solution has been found in the pay-TV carrier offering some of the new streaming services as part of their programming package.