YouTube TV subscribers on the verge of losing Fox channels

Say what you will about Fox & Friends, but YouTube TV subscribers looking for their daily fix of Fox News, Fox Sports, and even local Fox stations might soon need to turn in elsewhere unless the two sides strike a deal.

According to a post on the official YouTube blog, Fox News, Fox Business, and Fox Sports will all go dark on YouTube TV if Fox and YouTube owner Google can’t resolve their differences by 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday August 27—tomorrow.

On a website presenting its own side of the dispute, Fox adds a few more channels that may fade out on YouTube TV, including FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox Desportes, the Fox News Channel, and local Fox channels, which carry (among other shows) Sunday NFL matchups.

The short version of the dustup is that Fox and YouTube TV can’t agree on the terms of an upcoming carriage renewal, with each side accusing the other of being greedy, stingy, a bully, or some mixture therein.

For its part, YouTube claims that Fox is “asking for payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive,” while adding that YouTube wants to “reach a deal that reflects the value of their content and is fair for both sides without passing on additional costs to our subscribers.” So yes, YouTube is raising the specter of price increases if Fox gets it way.

On the flip side, Fox says it’s “proposing a fair, comprehensive deal” while accusing Google of “continually exploit[ing] its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace.”

It’s bellicose language, all right, but also familiar to anyone who’s followed similar carriage disputes in the past—and when contract disputes happen, they frequently go down to the wire.

Most recently, YouTube and Paramount got into a tit-for-tat that could have seen local CBS stations being pulled from YouTube TV. But at the eleventh hour, the two sides agreed to a short-term extension, and a deal was eventually struck.

Another memorable carriage dispute erupted in 2021, when YouTube TV and NBCUniversal got in each other’s faces over renewal terms—and again, a last-minute agreement allowed local NBC channels to continue streaming.

If the deadline in the current YouTube-Fox dustup passes without a deal and Fox channels do get yanked for “an extended period of time,” YouTube TV says it will give each subscriber a $10 credit for their trouble.

Will it get that far? If history’s any guide, this disagreement will end like most of the others: with a brief extension just as the clock winds down, followed by a deal. But we’ll have to wait and see.