Normal service between Paramount and Comcast will reportedly continue interrupted.
Per the Sports Business Journal, Paramount and Comcast have renewed their carriage deal, which will keep Paramount programming (including that airing on CBS Sports) on Comcast’s Xfinity cable systems without interruption.
SBJ reports that the deal “is expected to be similar” to the previous deal between Comcast and what was then ViacomCBS in January 2022. That deal kept Paramount’s cable networks on Comcast, and this deal is expected to do the same.
That would be a change from a big carriage deal involving two different companies in September. Disney’s new pact with Charter, which came after several days of networks being pulled from the air, resulted in several cable networks getting dropped and Disney streaming services being made available to Charter customers at various levels.
Getting a deal done, presumably without major losses to cable network carriage, is naturally a big deal for Paramount. CBS Sports Network, Paramount’s lone sports cable channel, is heading into a busy time of year with plenty of college basketball games airing over the next three months. Those games aren’t available to stream on Paramount+, so Comcast subscribers would be out of luck watching those games if a new deal didn’t include CBS Sports Network carriage.
CBS will also air Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, which includes an alternate broadcast on Nickelodeon.
Back in October, Paramount decided to discontinue the Showtime Sports brand. The company is also discontinuing the Showtime streaming app, which will be fully absorbed into Paramount+.
