September 30, 2025 might well be remembered as one of the most consequential days in the modern pay TV industry.
That, of course, depends almost entirely on how a number of carriage disputes play out over the coming days, weeks, and maybe even months. Right now, the statement is hyperbole. However, the sheer number of blackouts customers may face as a result of agreements that expire at midnight as the calendar turns from September to October is notable whether they have longstanding impacts on the industry or not.
The most high-profile agreement coming due, of course, is that of NBCUniversal and YouTube TV. Should a deal fail to be reached by Tuesday night, all NBC-owned properties will go dark on YouTube TV, one of the largest pay TV distributors in the country with approximately 10 million subscribers. Customers will lose access to all of NBC’s programming which, for sports fans, includes the NFL’s Sunday Night Football, Notre Dame football, and Big Ten football.
Per industry reports, the dispute centers around the normal pricing and distribution of NBC channels on YouTube TV, yes. But it also includes a new sticking point: whether or not NBC will grant YouTube TV the right to “ingest” Peacock content into its system. The “ingest” issue in these negotiations is being viewed industry-wide as possible precedent-setter. Disney, for instance, will be facing the same negotiations with YouTube TV next month over its vast library of on-demand programming.
For this reason, NBC and YouTube TV might not find a resolution as expediently as, say, Fox and YouTube TV did just last month. Ingestion, in layman’s terms, allows a pay TV distributor, in this case YouTube TV, to allow its subscribers to access on-demand content natively within its platform. This may not seem like a huge issue, but it is.
Let’s say a viewer wanted to catch last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live on Sunday morning. Nowadays, most people would go to Peacock to catch the latest episode. YouTube TV wants that content to be available within its own app, helping improve the most important metric streaming services track: minutes spent on the platform.
YouTube TV subscribers know, the service comes with unlimited DVR capabilities. Surely an SNL fan could just record the episode and watch it on YouTube TV the next day anyway, right? That’s true, but the difference is in the active decision to record an episode versus passively having access to all of NBC’s content library within the YouTube TV app.
How NBC and YouTube resolve the ingestion issue may well determine the industry standard. As such, these negotiations could drag on well beyond what we normally see.
Unfortunately for consumers, the dispute between NBC and YouTube TV is far from the only carriage battle out there. Another major content provider is also set to go dark on YouTube TV as of Tuesday night: Univision. TelevisaUnivision, the corporate parent of two major Spanish-language TV networks Univision and TUDN, finds itself locked in battle with YouTube TV as well.
Earlier this month, TelevisaUnivision revealed that YouTube TV intends to place Univision in a premium Spanish-language tier that costs customers an additional $15 per month on top of the $83 monthly price of YouTube TV. Univision has long been included in basic cable packages alongside other major American broadcast networks. TelevisaUnivision called the move a “Hispanic Tax” and advocacy groups are pushing hard for YouTube TV to keep Univision in its standard tier.
TUDN, one of the largest Spanish-language sports network in the United States, is caught in the middle. The network’s package of Liga MX games draws audiences well larger than the English-language Premier League telecasts on NBC and USA. TUDN also carries a number of other live sports properties geared towards a Hispanic American audience.
Not only are Univision and TUDN on the chopping block for Hispanic American audiences, but NBC-owned Telemundo will also go dark as part of that dispute should NBC and YouTube TV fail to reach an agreement.
But the carriage craziness doesn’t even stop there. Ironically, Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal and is fighting hard to keep its channels on YouTube TV, finds itself on the other side of a carriage dispute for its Xfinity cable systems.
Per reports, YES Network’s temporary agreement with Comcast, which was struck earlier this year amid pressure from FCC chairman Brendan Carr, is set to expire Tuesday night as well. While this will not impact live game broadcasts as the MLB regular season has come to a close, it will impact New York Yankees shoulder programming for Xfinity customers as the team begins its postseason run.
The YES Network-Comcast dispute is more standard than either of the YouTube TV disputes. Comcast, as it has done with numerous regional sports networks across the country, is looking to place YES Network on a more premium and expensive tier on its Xfinity cable systems. The company, at least temporarily, caved to political pressure earlier this year as Carr took an interest in the dispute to help Yankees president Randy Levine, a close ally of President Donald Trump. Whether YES Network will continue to hold a hard line about staying put on the more affordable tier, or get the FCC chairman involved a second time, remains to be seen.
As of now, neither side has publicly indicated a new deal has been reached. Thus, Xfinity customers in the tri-state area can expect YES Network to go dark on Tuesday night. A Comcast spokesperson did not respond to request for comment about the YES Network dispute prior to publication.
And for good measure, Monumental Sports Network, the D.C.-area regional sports network which airs Wizards and Capitals games, is also going dark on YouTube TV starting Tuesday.
All of these agreements lining up on the same night just shows how ridiculous this all has gotten. Of course, the people hurt most by these negotiations are the consumers, who are left paying for content they aren’t receiving. At one point, services like YouTube TV seemed like a saving grace for fans fed up with carriage blackouts on traditional cable or satellite providers. Now, they’re simply left in the same place.
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.