NBCUniversal’s channels have been dropped from Fubo in the latest carriage spat in the U.S.
Fubo maintains it has been engaged in good faith negotiations with NBCUniversal to renew their carriage deal. NBCUniversal pulled its networks on November 21.
Fubo addressed the upcoming spinoff of NBCUniversal’s cable networks into Versant, noting: “Despite them not being worth the cost to Fubo subscribers, Fubo offered to distribute Versant channels for one year. NBCU wants Fubo to sign a multi-year deal—well past the time the Versant channels will be owned by a separate company. NBCU wants Fubo subscribers to subsidize these channels.”
Fubo also maintains that NBCUniversal wants it to add expensive, non-sports channels to the company’s Fubo Sports skinny bundle.
It also accused NBCUniversal of discrimination in not allowing integration of Peacock into its channel store. “They allowed YouTube TV and Prime video to integrate Peacock directly into their channel store, but refused to give Fubo the same rights. Fubo’s goal is to make Peacock available directly in our channel store so subscribers can access all of their content in one place and seamlessly pay on one bill.”
Fubo concluded: “We hope NBCU reconsiders their stance, or we’ll be forced to move forward without them.”
NBCUniversal issued its own statement, noting, “Fubo has chosen to drop NBCUniversal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors. 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.”
