A recent carriage dispute involving Google-owned YouTube TV and several national broadcasters has generated new fodder for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) during its year-longs campaign of demonizing large technology companies.
On Wednesday, the NAB complained about the “unchecked dominance of Big Tech companies like Google and its ability to dictate what millions of households can and cannot watch through its YouTube TV platform” by exercising its rights in the free market to distribute or not distribute certain channels from certain broadcasters.
“These behemoths have the upper hand to not only lock out independent, news-leading local stations from their lineup, but also to push around companies like NBC Universal and Televisa-Univision,” Alex Siciliano, a spokesperson for the NAB, said in a written statement e-mailed to reporters.
Siciliano specifically called out YouTube TV’s decision to pull channels from Televisa-Univision late Tuesday evening. The decision came after Google was offered a new distribution contract to carry Univision, sports network TUDN and Galavision, only if it paid higher fees for the channels.
Google responded to the demand by offering to relegate Televisa-Univision channels into a higher programming package, one filled with other Spanish channels, which the broadcaster characterized as a “Hispanic tax.” Google also offers a Spanish-only tier that costs substantially less than its $83 per month base programming package.
NBC Universal channels, which include Telemundo, were set to disappear from YouTube TV on Tuesday evening, but the companies forged a temporary extension that allowed the networks to remain on the platform for a few more days while negotiations over a new agreement continue.
Disputes between broadcasters and TV distributors have increased in frequency over the year — they’re almost always driven by demands for higher fees charged to cable, satellite and streaming companies, which are passed on to consumers in their bills.
YouTube TV is the largest streaming cable TV replacement on the market, and one of the largest pay TV platforms in its own right. The service has more than 10 million paying customers, according to some analysts. It isn’t clear how many of those subscribers are Spanish-language consumers; Google does not release regular data on its YouTube TV business.
Siciliano’s comments come as the NAB pushes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to eliminate a federal rule that limits the number of licensed, local TV stations a company may directly own at any given time. The NAB has justified the push over the years by saying its member broadcasters need consolidation in order to scale their operations to better compete against streaming services and TV products from large tech companies like Google.
Opponents of consolidation warn that allowing broadcast companies to grow even larger will lead to more programming-related blackouts as TV station owners seek higher distribution fees from pay TV partners. Executives at broadcast companies like Nexstar, Sinclair, TEGNA and Fox Corporation have already affirmed plans to do just that, even without the ability to acquire more stations.
The NAB further justifies the need for consolidation in the broadcast space by saying local TV station owners need the ability to recoup their significant investments in local news programming. While some broadcasters have increased their investments in local news resources those investments have been concentrated in areas where returns can be justified — in other parts of the country, journalists have faced layoffs, and newsrooms at radio and TV stations have shrunk or shut down entirely, with news and weather reports outsourced to centralized editorial hubs.
