For those that consume Pro Football Talk content through YouTube, that avenue will close off while NBC and YouTube TV negotiate a new distribution agreement.
Mike Florio, the founder of Pro Football Talk, revealed in a blog post on Tuesday that his site’s video content, which he licenses to NBC Sports, will no longer be uploaded to the NBC Sports YouTube channel amid a carriage battle between NBC and YouTube TV.
The deadline for an agreement comes at midnight tonight, at which point NBC-owned channels will go dark for YouTube TV customers. Should the two sides fail to reach a new deal, YouTube TV customers risk losing out on key NBC Sports content including Sunday Night Football and numerous college football games.
“For reasons I don’t fully understand, the expiration of the deal that places NBCUniversal content on YouTube TV will result in the suspension of the placement of PFT videos on YouTube,” Florio writes. “Whether I like that or not (I do not) doesn’t matter. I simply want you to know about it, so that you won’t send emails asking why new PFT content hasn’t landed on YouTube.”
The NBC Sports YouTube channel is populated with numerous clips of PFT Live and PFT PM. Prior clips will remain on the platform, but new clips will not be uploaded.
Some analysts have speculated that YouTube’s appetite for an elongated blackout of NBC content is higher than that of other pay TV distributors because those that watch less YouTube TV are likely to supplement their content consumption by watching standard (free) YouTube. Pulling PFT clips from its YouTube channel seems to be a small response from NBC, suggesting that the network won’t further help YouTube by populating the platform with content it licenses.
As of Tuesday afternoon, both sides remain in active negotiations, per CNBC reporter Alex Sherman.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.