Fubo accuses NBCUniversal of 'egregious' demands amid carriage dispute
Fubo has issued a statement on its latest row with NBCUniversal over a carriage dispute involving NBC's most popular channels. This past Friday, NBCU networks went dark on Fubo across both live and on-demand services. Fubo subscribers trying to watch NBC content were met with a message that read, “We are working hard to bring this channel back. We are currently negotiating with NBCUniversal and are hopeful that we’ll bring this channel back to you soon.”
Today, Fubo said it has been engaged in good-faith negotiations with NBCUniversal to renew a content agreement for its networks. Fubo said that NBCU's demands, however, would harm its customers, and that the streaming company has not agreed to the proposed terms.
"NBCU is spinning off some of their cable networks into a new company called Versant on Jan 1, 2026. 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," the statement reads.
The statement goes on to accuse NBCU of discriminating against Fubo and its subscribers by allowing YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video to integrate Peacock into the popular streaming services, while not extending the same rights to Fubo. In a blog post yesterday, Fubo said the terms on pricing and packaging being offered by NBCUniversal were "egregiously above those offered to other distributors."
"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," an NBCUniversal spokesperson told Engadget when asked to comment on Fubo's accusations.
The company also pointed to ten major drops that Fubo has incurred over the past five years including Discovery networks and AMC. A full list of channels that are still dark on Fubo can be found here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/fubo-accuses-nbcuniversal-of-egregious-demands-amid-carriage-dispute-193515241.html?src=rss
