C-SPAN marked a milestone on Monday by renewing its push to gain carriage on streaming cable TV alternatives.
The push was spearheaded by Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who introduced a non-binding resolution on the floor of the U.S. Senate calling on YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV to carry the three C-SPAN channels.
The effort coincided with the 39th anniversary of C-SPAN 2, which offers gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Senate, as well as key Senate committee hearings and meetings. The flagship C-SPAN channel carries proceedings from the U.S. House of Representatives.
C-SPAN is funded by a consortium of cable and satellite companies, including Comcast, Charter, Dish Network, DirecTV and Cox Cable. The multiplex has carriage on nearly all cable and satellite platforms in the U.S., and is funded through a fee collected by the pay TV companies that offer the channels.
As more cable and satellite customers “cut the cord” for cheaper streaming alternatives, C-SPAN has faced numerous business challenges. The company doesn’t offer traditional advertising on its linear networks, and ad revenue collected from some online video hasn’t offset subscriber fee declines over the past decade.
To address this, C-SPAN executives have been lobbying support in favor of carriage on streaming services like YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV, the two biggest streaming cable alternatives in the country. Executives at YouTube TV say there isn’t a sizable demand for C-SPAN, noting that much of the channel’s programming is available for free across dozens, if not hundreds, of YouTube channels for free. Disney, the owner of Hulu, has not commented on the matter.
Grassley and Klobuchar’s effort is the latest to involve lawmakers pressing for streaming carriage of C-SPAN. Earlier this year, Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon sent letters to the CEOs of Fubo, Disney and YouTube urging them to consider carrying the C-SPAN multiplex on their services.
