Sports-centric streaming service Fubo has lowered the monthly price of two programming packages as its dispute with Comcast’s NBC Universal drags into another week.
On Friday, the company reduced the cost of its Fubo Pro and Fubo Elite plans by $11, with the base Fubo Pro package now priced at $74 per month before taxes and regional sports fees. The cost of Fubo Elite, which offers more channels, is now $84 per month before taxes and fees.
The new prices are available to current and future customers alike, so long as NBC’s channels remain off the platform.
Additionally, Fubo has begun issuing automatic bill credits to customers who had access to NBC Universal channels before they were dropped in mid-November. Those customers will be charged the older prices for the Fubo Pro or Fubo Elite plans, but will see a $15 reduction in their bill when their subscription renews in December; the lower prices of Pro or Elite will kick in the following month.
Disputes between programmers like NBC Universal and distributors like Fubo are not unusual — and, in fact, have become more common over the years as channel owners seek more money from pay TV companies for the rights to offer their networks to subscribers.
In this instance, the two companies are also feuding over whether Fubo should be allowed to integrate Comcast’s streaming service Peacock into its newly-launched subscription marketplace, which sells access to other services like Paramount Plus with Showtime and FanDuel Sports Network. (Fubo sells Peacock subscriptions through a third-party affiliate marketplace, The Desk reported in November.)
NBC Universal has offered terms that are similar to an agreement it reached with Google-owned YouTube TV one month earlier, which will allow it to sell Peacock subscriptions as an add-on to YouTube TV, but won’t natively integrate Peacock’s on-demand catalog or live events into the service.
That arrangement is different from a pact Comcast forged with Amazon, which sells Peacock subscriptions through Prime Video and allows streamers to access Peacock’s content through the Prime Video app.
NBC Universal characterized the ongoing dispute with Fubo as part of the pay TV provider’s normal course of business, noting Fubo has dropped channels owned by Televisa-Univision, AMC Networks and Warner Bros Discovery over the past few years.
“Fubo has chosen to drop NBC Universal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors,” a spokesperson for the entertainment giant said last month. “Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo — they’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content.”
