YouTube TV is no longer carrying the Yes Network, the TV home of the New York Yankees, and Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket due to a carriage dispute with their ownership, Sinclair Broadcasting.
However, it’s unclear this morning if the live streaming service is also losing the remainder of the 20 Sinclair-owned, but Fox-branded regional sports networks. YouTube’s Twitter customer support team tweeted at 3 a.m. ET today that it has an agreement to carry some of them.
Update: Sinclair confirmed this morning that YouTube TV will carry 19 of the 22 regional sports networks; Yes Network, Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket will no longer be available on the live streaming service. It’s unclear if YouTube TV will carry the Marquee Sports Network, which is co-owned by Sinclair and the Chicago Cubs.
“We still carry FOX Regional Sports Networks in select areas (based on our agreement with Sinclair),” tweeted @TeamYouTube. “If your area is impacted by a channel loss, you’ll be notified in the YouTube TV app soon.”
In responses to subscribers, @TeamYouTube acknowledged that it was no longer carrying Yes or Fox Sports West. The two channels carry the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels games respectively, among other pro and college games.
YouTube did not say which channels it will still carry, or if they have a permanent agreement to carry them. Since Saturday, the streamer has been operating on a temporary extension to carry all of the Sinclair-owned regional sports networks.
The temporary agreement was signed after YouTube TV announced it would remove the Sinclair-owned channels on Saturday because it could not reach a new carriage agreement with the broadcaster.
At YouTube TV’s web site, the Yes Network and Fox Sports West are no longer listed in its channel lineup. However, other Fox Sports regionals such as Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Florida and Fox Sports San Diego are still listed.
It would be unusual for Sinclair to permit YouTube TV to carry some regional channels, but not all. Sinclair has yet to issue a statement on the situation.
Meanwhile, the Yes Network issued a blistering statement attacking YouTube TV for failing to carrying it.
“YouTube TV, for its own selfish reasons and total disregard for its Yes customers, has refused to pay the market rate and accept market rates and conditions that other Yes distributors have agreed to,” the Yes Network said today.
The Yes Network statement also suggests that Sinclair is allowing YouTube TV to carry some, but not all, of the sports regional networks.
“Sinclair, for its own reasons, elected to make a deal for some but not all of its programming services which excluded large-market RSNs featuring iconic franchises and star players,” the statement read.
Unlike the other regional sports nets, the Yes Network is owned by multiple companies, including the Yankees, Amazon and Sinclair.
The TV Answer Man will update this story later today when more details become available.
Update: At 7:22 a.m., YouTube today tweeted the following:
“We’ve reached an agreement with Sinclair and we’ll no longer be able to offer FOX Regional Sports Networks in select areas as of March 5th. If your area is impacted by a channel loss, you’ll be notified in the YouTube TV app soon.”
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Maybe YouTube TV reached an agreement to keep some of the smaller market less expensive Sinclair Regional Sports Networks.
I believe the Regional Sport Networks need to start taking a good look in the mirror and realize that not all viewers are interested in their product. The fees some of them are asking are cost prohibitive to many providers, especially the YES Network which has long had issues with other local NY/NJ providers. Dish Network carries very few Regional Sport Networks and has not carried any of the NY/NJ based (YES, SNY, MSG) for many years. The best way to handle the Regional Sport Networks is to make them a-la-carte which will probably never happen because the Sport Networks would then lose advertising dollars due to less exposure.
Good Comment.
ALL Sports NEEDS to be “a-la-carte”
If they Don’t, Cable & Satellite are going to KEEP Loosing Customers
I’m gonna miss YouTube TV but no YES network is a deal breaker!
These sports channels must charge huge fees to pay off the huge contracts of these players. You reach a point where they are just to expensive to carry.
No yes goodby youtubetv hello hulu