Key Points
- YouTube TV added all three C-SPAN channels for its more than 10 million subscribers, becoming the third streaming platform to offer the full multiplex.
- Lawmakers and C-SPAN executives pushed for wider streaming carriage, with Hulu with Live TV set to add the networks on December 11.
- Supporters say the expansion boosts public access to non-partisan Congressional coverage as streaming services increasingly replace traditional pay TV.
Google-owned streaming service YouTube TV has made good on a promise to add C-SPAN’s cable multiplex to its platform, with all three C-SPAN channels available to more than 10 million streaming pay television subscribers.
The channels rolled out to customers on Thursday, three months after C-SPAN announced its distribution partnership with YouTube TV and following an intense campaign from network executives and lawmakers for streaming platforms to carry the C-SPAN channels.
YouTube TV is the third streaming service to offer C-SPAN’s two core channels, and the second to include the spillover network C-SPAN 3 in its base programming package. DIRECTV has long offered the core C-SPAN channels in its streaming line-up, and a service called Level News offered the three C-SPAN channels over streaming for about a year.
Disney-owned Hulu with Live TV will include the three cable channels in its base programming package on Thursday, December 11, the network said in a statement.
“By adding the C-SPAN networks, YouTube TV and Hulu are making a strong — and, I hope, enduring — commitment to public service, transparency, and civic engagement,” Representative Mike Flood, one of the lawmakers advocating for streaming platforms to carry the multiplex, said in a statement earlier this week. “They now join cable and satellite providers like Comcast, Charter, Cox, DIRECTV, and Dish in supporting a treasured service that strengthens accountability and confidence in our democratic systems.”
Flood said the distribution agreements were a “big win for the American people” and will allow subscribers of YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV to have full, unfettered access to Congressional proceedings in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
C-SPAN’s three TV channels carry no commercial advertising. Instead, the broadcaster operates as a not-for-profit that is financially supported by the pay television industry. Historically, cable and satellite operators — like the ones named by Flood — paid distribution fees to C-SPAN in exchange for the privilege of carrying their channels.
With traditional pay TV churn increasing over the last few years, executives at C-SPAN have looked at other sources of revenue to support their ongoing operations. That includes inserting a limited amount of commercial ads before clips of C-SPAN’s programming when streamed via its website and apps, and asking viewers to make direct donations through those same platforms.
Streaming carriage was another strong point of focus for C-SPAN executives, though platforms were reticent to carry the networks early on. In prior statement, some streaming providers said carriage of C-SPAN was unnecessary because political news was offered on other channels like CNN and Fox News, which are widely available on cable-like streaming platforms.
Over time, that mindset has evolved, especially as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle pushed for distribution of C-SPAN on streaming. That push was supported by research that shows C-SPAN’s audience is near-evenly split across progressive and conservative viewers, an indication that the network’s approach to non-partisan political programming serves as a counter to one-sided rhetoric and commentary on larger cable news channels.
“For nearly half a century, C-SPAN has partnered with cable and satellite providers who recognize the value of our important public service,” Sam Feist, the CEO of C-SPAN, said earlier this year. “We now look forward to working closely with YouTube to bring C-SPAN’s unfiltered coverage of the democratic process to millions more Americans.”
