Fubo, Nexstar Avoid Blackout With New Carriage Deal for 89 Channels; Does That Mean Price Increase Is Coming?
The deal will primarily cover affiliates of ABC, The CW and MyNetworkTV.
There’s a time-tested axiom in sports, “Your best ability is your availability.” Fubo clearly agrees with that statement, as the sports-focused live TV streaming service has announced a new deal with Nexstar to keep 89 channels owned by the company available on the streaming platform for multiple years.
- Fubo’s new deal with Nexstar covers 37 affiliates of The CW, 25 MyNetworkTV affiliates, 23 ABC affiliates, and four independent stations.
- By agreeing to a new deal, Fubo avoids a mass channel outage like the one gripping DIRECTV STREAM currently.
- The new carriage deal may be an indication a price increase is on the way for Fubo customers.
What Are Terms of Fubo’s New Deal With Nexstar?
Financial specifics of the new deal were not disclosed, but it will be in effect for multiple years. Nexstar is the largest owner of local TV stations in the United States, and its new pact with Fubo covers 37 stations affiliated with The CW, 25 with MyNetworkTV, 23 with ABC, and four independent channels. In addition, the deal extends Fubo’s carriage of NewsNation, Nexstar’s cable news network.
DIRECTV customers can only look on in envy as they observe the new deal between Fubo and Nexstar. More than 60 TEGNA-owned stations have gone dark for users of DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and AT&T U-Verse because of a retransmission fee dispute that cropped up in late November and still has yet to be resolved.
Nexstar and DIRECTV have had their share of troubles too; DIRECTV lost hundreds of Nexstar-owned affiliates in a retransmission dispute over the summer in 2023, and a deal between the two companies to restore the channels wasn’t brokered until September.
Does the Fubo and Nexstar Carriage Deal Indicate a Price Increase is Coming?
While Fubo users don’t have to worry about any of their local Nexstar-owned channels disappearing any time soon, they may have to contend with a price increase. TV providers frequently pass the cost of rising retransmission fees to customers, which is why DIRECTV resists such fee increases for as long as possible.
Fubo last raised prices for all new customers in January of 2023, so the timing is about right for another bump as well. At that time, Fubo added another $5 per month to its live TV plans, and a similar increase could be in the planning stages even now.
If Fubo were to raise prices again, however, it would cement its reputation as one of the most expensive live TV options. Including the regional sports network (RSN) fees that 98% of Fubo customers end up having to pay, the least expensive Fubo plan (Fubo Pro) would be $90.98 per month after a $5 increase. Customers will get a huge array of live sports for that amount, but those who watch fewer sports games would likely want to seek a less expensive way to watch their favorite cable channels.
To be clear, Fubo has not announced any such price increase, and it may not happen in the near future. However, The Streamable has reached out to the streamer for comment on whether this new agreement with Nexstar will result in a rate hike or not, but as of publishing time, a Fubo representative was not available to respond. Either way, it is likely that the streamer is now paying more to retransmit the Nexstar channels encompassed in its latest deal, and customers are likely to see that reflected in their bill at some point.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 19 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $91.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”