Under a comprehensive contract, the streaming service will carry Sinclair's ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates within their markets. The deal also includes carriage of the Tennis Channel and possibly later CW and MNT affiliates and the Comet TV diginet. Terms were not disclosed.
YouTube TV To Carry All Sinclair Big 4 Affils
Sinclair Broadcast Group today announced an agreement by which all of its ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates will be carried in their respective markets by YouTube TV, one of the proliferating OTT streaming services, also known as skinny bundles or virtual MVPDs.
As part of the agreement, YouTube TV will also deliver Tennis Channel to all of its subscribers.
The companies also expect YouTube TV to expand its offering to include Sinclair’s CW and MNT affiliates as well as its multicast channel Comet TV.
Terms were not released.
“We are excited to announce this agreement with YouTube TV which is quickly expanding to cover more cities across the country and includes popular local, network and sports programming,” said Barry Faber, Sinclair’s Executive Vice President for Distribution and Network Relations.
“We believe that our viewers want the ability to access content on any screen and having this relationship with YouTube will provide value to not only our viewers, but our advertising relationships as well. We appreciate that Google, the owner of YouTube TV, recognized the importance of carrying all of the local broadcast affiliates in their effort to attract subscribers to this new service.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
The securities analysts at Wells Fargo saw the announcement as a positive, especially since it includes the Fox affiliates.
“This suggests to us that the two companies are working together on the OTT front,” they said in a note to clients.
Comments (5)
Matt Hortobagyi says:
August 17, 2017 at 5:57 pm
WOW cable and sat operators will not like that.
Teri Green says:
August 18, 2017 at 2:45 am
Well to be fair, cable has done nothing at all to endear themselves to the public and has always had the attitude, “We’re a monopoly, deal with it. HA HA HA” ala Ernestine the phone operator (Lily Tomlin)
Thomas Hubler says:
August 18, 2017 at 8:17 am
The more streaming services that carry OTA’s the better.
Matt Hortobagyi says:
August 18, 2017 at 8:29 am
The story about new company Layer 3 TV us very interesting.
Darrell Brotherton says:
August 18, 2017 at 11:24 am
One small step for TV. A giant leap for the death of affiliates….