Good news, YouTube TV subscribers: Sunday Night Football isn’t going anywhere. After a contentious public face-off over a contract dispute, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have finally worked out a deal that will keep NBCU’s programming on the platform.
“We’re thrilled to share that we’ve reached a deal to continue carrying the full NBCUniversal portfolio of channels,” the Google-owned streaming service announced Saturday. “That means you won’t lose access to any of their channels, and YouTube TV will continue to offer 85+ networks for $90. We appreciate NBCUniversal’s willingness to work toward an agreement, and we also appreciate your patience as we negotiated with them on your behalf.”
The fate of NBCU’s 14 channels on YouTube TV, which include NBC, Bravo, E!, and several regional sports networks, remained uncertain as the two companies clashed over carriage terms in the days leading up to Sept. 30, when their existing contract was set to expire. The two agreed to a “short extension” of the contract in a midnight-hour arrangement on Thursday, but whether that short-term fix would end in a final deal or NBCU’s channels going dark on the platform was anyone’s guess.
Like YouTube, NBCU also had good things to say about these drawn-out negotiations finally coming to an end.
“We are thrilled to have reached a deal with YouTube TV and can continue to offer our full network portfolio, without interruption,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to PFT, an affiliate of NBC Sports. “YouTube is a valued partner and we never want to involve our fans in a dispute, but we felt obligated to let them know what was at stake. We thank our viewers for their loyalty and promise to continue bringing them the networks and programs they love.”
Neither company went into further detail about the terms of the agreement. We’ve reached out to both YouTube and NBCU to learn more and will update this blog when we hear back.
Reportedly hamstringing negotiations was NBCU’s request for YouTube TV to bundle its streaming service, Peacock, as a condition for its offerings to remain on the platform. YouTube TV pushed back against these terms, arguing that NBCU should treat it “like any other TV provider” and that it “seeks the same rates that services of a similar size get” from the media giant.
If the two companies had failed to reach an agreement, YouTube TV initially offered to lower the service’s monthly price by $14, from $90 to $76, to appease customers inconvenienced by losing access to those 14 channels. But with a new deal hammered out, that price will stay the same.