Key Points:
- YouTube TV and Fox Corporation reached a short-term extension keeping Fox stations and national networks on the service through Friday evening.
- The dispute centers on rising carriage fees, with Fox accusing Google of leveraging its market power and Google saying Fox is demanding steep increases.
- Fox recently launched its own $20-a-month streaming service, Fox One, and it remains unclear if YouTube TV subscribers will keep bundled access under a new deal.
- Other streaming providers offer Fox News, Fox Sports and local Fox stations, including DirecTV (starts at $35 per month with this promotion), Fubo (starts at $55 per month with this promotion) and Hulu with Live TV (starts at $83 per month, includes Disney Plus and Hulu).
- Sling TV offers Fox News in its “Sling Select” package, which includes NFL Network at $20 per month.
Google-owned streaming service YouTube TV and Fox Corporation have reached a short-term extension that will keep local Fox stations and national networks on the platform for a few more days.
The extension allows YouTube TV to continue offering the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports and Fox broadcast stations through Friday evening, according to a source who spoke on background to The Desk.
Officials at YouTube TV and Fox Corporation sent separate statements around 5 p.m. Eastern Time affirming the extension, without providing a timeframe on when it will expire. The prior deal was set to lapse Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
Like most broadcasters, Fox charges pay TV providers for the privilege of distributing its local and national channels. That cost has increased over the few years, spurring some pay TV providers to resist efforts to pay more for the same set of channels.
Cable and satellite companies say higher distribution fees have a direct influence on the price of their services, and as distribution costs increase, bills for their subscribers are required to go up as well.
In this instance, Fox has accused Google of exerting its market dominance to force the broadcaster into an unfair deal. Google says Fox is demanding an outrageous fee increase for its channels, which will influence what all of its customers pay for the service, even if they do not watch Fox programming.
Fox recently launched its own streaming service, Fox One, that offers access to its broadcast and cable channels for $20 per month. Under their current contract, YouTube TV subscribers have access to Fox One as part of their pay TV package. It isn’t clear if that access will be included in a new agreement, or if YouTube TV will gain the flexibility to offer Fox channels in differentiated packages as peer services like Sling TV and DirecTV currently make available to their customers.
