NBCU Believes T-Mobile Has Violated Agreement Over Packaging of NBC in TVision
A third media company has now expressed concerns over T-Mobile’s TVision streaming service.
Sources familiar with the matter has told The Streamable that NBC believes that T-Mobile’s TVision is in breach of their contract with the media company.
Earlier today, both Discovery and ViacomCBS, expressed concerns with the way T-Mobile packaged their channels on their TVision streaming service.
On their earnings call, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said, “We were very surprised with how T-Mobile decided they were going to bundle our networks, particularly because we have a clear agreement were our networks are required to be carried on all their basic tiers or OTT offerings.”
Sources told The Streamable that ViacomCBS shares the same concerns in that their channels are available on their TVision VIBE ($10) skinny bundle, but not on TVision Live ($40+) plans.
Our sources say that NBC’s concerns are a little different. According to a source, NBC feels their contract requires T-Mobile to distribute both owned-and-operated NBC and Telemundo stations, as well as local NBC affiliates to all TVision customers.
Since NBC and Telemundo is only available in their TVision Live bundle, our source says that T-Mobile is in breach of their carriage agreement. We’re told NBC has already notified T-Mobile and is exploring their options.
T-Mobile also carries NBC’s full set of cable networks like Bravo and NBCSN in their TVision Live package, but that does not seem to be at the center of the dispute.
A T-Mobile spokesperson told us in a statement, “TVision is off to a great start! The Un-carrier has always been about listening to customers and solving their pain points, and that’s what we’re doing with TVision. And clearly, the TV business has a lot of pain points to solve! We also want to be a great partner to media companies. We are of course complying with our content agreements, and we are absolutely open to evolving our services to make them even better for consumers. We are just getting started.”
TVision was officially announced on Oct. 27. The service comes with two plans: TVision VIBE and TVision Live.
TVision VIBE features 30 of the most watched entertainment channels including those from AMC, Hallmark, ViacomCBS, and Discovery for $10. The service has many of the same channels as Philo ($20), but is missing those from A&E, History, Lifetime, and select ones from Discovery.
The second service comes in three tiers: TVision Live, which starts at $40, is aimed at users who want live news and sports. It features a multitude of channels like ESPN, NBCSN, FS1, Bravo, and USA, as well as local affiliates from NBC, ABC, and Fox. They have two additional tiers, TVision Live+ ($50) which adds additional sports networks like NFL Network, SEC Network, Big Ten Network, and NBC Sports RSNs, while TVision Live Zone adds channels like NFL RedZone and MAVTV.
TVision Live includes a 100-Hour DVR and can be streamed on three simultaneous devices. Unlike TVision Live, VIBE has no DVR included, but you can add one for $5 a month. You will be able to use the service on two devices at a time.