A pair of potential carriage disputes involving Google-owned streaming service YouTube TV could leave Spanish-speaking audiences without several major networks at the end of the month.
On Thursday, YouTube TV began notifying customers of its $83 per month service that a potential contract fight with Comcast’s NBC Universal could lead to nearly a dozen channels being dropped from the platform on September 30. Among the channels affected are NBC-owned Telemundo television stations and the national Telemundo feed in areas where the local station isn’t available.
The warning comes about two weeks after Televisa-Univision began notifying its viewers that a distribution contract with YouTube TV was set to expire on the same day as Comcast’s agreement. Fearing no new agreement will be reached in time, Televisa-Univision launched a national ad campaign this week urging Google to “do the right thing” by agreeing to a new contract that keeps channels like Univision, Unimas and sports channel TUDN in its base programming packages.
For its part, Google says both companies are demanding higher fees for continued carriage of their channels. Earlier this month, Google said Televisa-Univision’s demands weren’t justified by the performance of its channels in Google’s base subscription package. Televisa-Univision complains Google wants to relegate its channels into a standalone Spanish package, which would require a separate fee on top of YouTube TV’s base purchase, which it describes as a “Hispanic tax.”
The situation with Comcast is more perilous, because it would also involve a handful of top-tier English networks, including Bravo, USA Network, E!, SyFy, MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel and Comcast-owned NBC stations in markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other cities. It would also involve YouTube TV dropping four NBC-branded regional sports networks in Northern California, Philadelphia and Boston.
In a statement released on Thursday, Comcast said YouTube TV had “refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplace, all under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer.”
“The result: YouTube TV customers will lose access to NBCUniversal’s premium programming,” Comcast said.
If the impasse over fees continues, most of NBC Universal’s English-language and Spanish-language programming is available with a subscription to Peacock Premium, which starts at $11 per month. An upgraded version of the app, called Peacock Premium Plus, also includes live access to NBC feeds for $17 per month, and the four regional NBC Sports channels are also available for separate fees that vary by location.
Televisa-Univison’s programming is available within Vix Plus, which costs $6 per month with ads or $9 per month for commercial-free streaming of on-demand shows and movies.
For Spanish-language households, Telemundo and channels from Televisa-Univision are available in DirecTV’s new “MiEspañol” streaming package for $30 per month. The package also offers included access to Vix Premium and dozens of other Spanish-language channels, including CNN en Español, TV Chile, Telefe, Fox Deportes and Estrella TV.
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Read more:
- Televisa-Univision takes aim at Google in new ad campaign
- Televisa-Univision posts revenue dip, Vix adds subscribers during Q2 2025
- Fubo subscriber count, ad revenue dips in Q1 2024
- Televisa-Univision strikes distribution deal with Disney, Hulu
- Univision channels go dark on Fubo, distribution contract blamed
