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Ahead of March Madness, YouTube TV threatens to drop CBS as part of Paramount dispute
By Andrew Olson
Published:
YouTube TV could be dealing with some unhappy sports fans.
The streaming provider emailed subscribers Wednesday alerting them that all Paramount channels, including CBS, could be removed Thursday due to a dispute.
With YouTube TV, our goal is to offer you the content you love, delivered the way you want it. To make this happen, we enter into agreements with network partners to make their content available on YouTube TV. As such, we’ve been negotiating with Paramount to reach a fair agreement that allows us to keep their channels, including CBS, on YouTube TV without compromising the value of our service. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach an agreement.
“On February 13, 2025, all Paramount channels will likely become unavailable on YouTube TV.
For sports fans, CBS and CBS Sports Network would be the notable losses if Paramount channels are removed. Other high-profile Paramount channels include BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1.
The loss of CBS is worrisome ahead of March Madness. YouTube TV says subscribers will receive an $8 credit if Paramount channels are dropped, noting the cost of a Paramount+ streaming subscription, which includes live CBS programming, starts at $7.99 per month.
One of YouTubeTV’s headlining features, however, is multiview to watch up to 4 games at once on the same screen. CBS is only one of the 4 March Madness carriers, with the other 3 channels being Turner’s TBS, TNT and TruTV, which are not part of Paramount+.
In September, DirecTV subscribers missed college football games due to a dispute with ESPN. Sports fans subscribed to YouTube TV hope that the provider is able to reach an agreement with Paramount.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
