from the go-fox-yourself dept
One of the more frustrating things about content streaming has been how quickly we went from having a conversation about cord-cutting to the realization that all of the streaming services that enabled said cord-cutting have morphed into the very cable providers that people wanted to escape. You can see this in a variety of ways. More packaged bundles that include content people don’t actually want. Stupid local blackouts of content, particularly when it comes to live sports. Subscription fees that rapidly shift higher with no value add for the customer. And, of course, carriage disputes.
I could write up an explanation as to what these kind of disputes are, but Karl Bode put it together so beautifully that I’ll just borrow his words instead.
For years cable TV has been plagued by retrans feuds and carriage disputes that routinely end with users losing access to TV programming they pay for. Basically, broadcasters will demand a rate hike in new content negotiations, the cable TV provider will balk, and then each side blames the other for failing to strike a new agreement on time like reasonable adults. That repeatedly results in content being blacked out for months, without consumers ever getting a refund. After a few months, the two sides strike a new confidential deal, your bill goes up, and nobody much cares how that impacts the end user. Rinse, wash, repeat.
The only thing I’d really want to add to that is how the blame game that gets played by both sides is typically directed at the actual customer. The goal typically is to at least threaten the other side’s goodwill with the public by calling them greedy or whatever, or sometimes to get the public to engage in the pressure campaign themselves by calling one side or the other to complain. It’s a rather remarkable thing to watch two wealthy entities use their own customers as pawns in a chess battle with one another over just how much money each side will make from those same pawns.
Well, we’re at it again it seems, this time as YouTube TV and the Fox network are at odds over carriage fees. And the timing, on the eve of the NFL season beginning, isn’t lost on anyone.
YouTube TV could soon lose access to Fox channels, it announced on its official blog, mere days before the 2025 NFL season begins. It warned users that it’s actively negotiating with Fox now that the renewal date for their partnership is approaching, but Fox is allegedly asking for an amount “far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive.” YouTube TV says it’s aiming to reach an agreement that “reflects the value of their content and is fair for both sides” without the service having to raise its prices to be able to offer Fox channels.
If both sides aren’t able to come to an agreement by 5PM Eastern time on August 27, subscribers will no longer be able to access all Fox news and business programs, as well as all sporting events (like NFL games) broadcast on Fox channels. The content from the channels saved in their library will also disappear. In case YouTube TV fails to reach a deal with Fox and the network’s channels become unavailable for “an extended period of time,” it will give subscribers a $10 credit.
Who knows what an “extended period of time” means, but I’ll say that the offer of any kind of a credit is better than what usually occurs. As for how out of whack the ask from Fox is, I don’t have those details, but I’m not terribly surprised that it’s unpalletable to YouTube. Between the leverage the network has as football season is about to start, the stranglehold Fox News has on about a third of the country’s cable news viewership, and the fact that Fox is probably still feeling the pain of a nearly $800 million dollar settlement over its defamatory news content, well, I imagine the ask is quite large.
But not so large that YouTube couldn’t absorb it if it wanted to. Instead, both sides are doing some mild public sniping and PR campaigning against each other, while the customer is left to await their fate.
If we were going to keep doing this sort of thing, what was the point of cutting the cord to begin with?
Filed Under: broadcasters, football, retrans disputes, retrans feud
Companies: fox, google, nfl, youtube
