Fobo TV blasts NBCUniversal for pulling channels

Subscribers of sports streaming service Fobo TV have lost access to NBCUniversal-owned channels in recent TV shows.

Fubo blamed NBCUniversal for its stance during the broken contract negotiations, which resulted in the blackout of NBCUniversal’s channels just days before Thanksgiving when hundreds of viewers turned out for turkey and football. NBC airs the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Dog Show and Thursday night’s NFL game pitting the Cincinnati Bengals against the Baltimore Ravens. Events will also be held in Peacock.

The blackout, which also includes Bravo, CNBC and Spanish-language Telemundo, affects about 1.6 million Fobo customers.

The dispute comes a month after NBCUniversal’s rival, The Walt Disney Company, took control of Fobo and folded its smaller sports-focused offerings into Disney’s Hulu+ Live TV. (Hulu+ subscribers still have access to NBCUniversal channels because they are covered by a separate distribution contract.)

Fobo customers can also miss the NBC broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

(Eduardo Munoz Ovars/Associated Press)

In its statement Tuesday, Fobo alleged that NBCUniversal had refused to pay Fobo a levy for offering several of its channels — rather than its entire portfolio. Fobo is looking to control costs and has designed its product to be a slimmed-down version of the Big Bundle – but one with a more complete complement of sports networks.

Fobo also took issue with NBCUniversal’s negotiations on behalf of cable channels that NBCUniversal plans to spin off as part of a corporate divestment in January.

Legacy cable channels including MS Now (formerly MSNBC), Syfy, CNBC, USA Network and The Golf Channel will form a new publicly traded company, Versant.

“Fobo has offered to distribute Versant’s channels for one year,” Fobo said in its statement, adding that it viewed many of the networks as “not cost-effective.”

“NBCU wants Fobo to sign a multi-year deal – the time has passed when Versant’s channels will be owned by a separate company.” Phobo said. “NBCU wants Fobo subscribers to subsidize these channels.”

NBCUniversal, which is owned by cable and broadband giant Comcast, responded that it had offered Fobo similar terms in deals it negotiated with other pay-TV distributors — but Fobo refused.

“Unfortunately, this is par for the course,” NBCUniversal said. “They’ve lost a lot of networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who are losing content.”

The Nov. 21 blackout comes a week after Disney settled a separate, high-profile dispute with Google’s YouTube TV. The dispute, which led to a two-week ban on Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, for about 10 million YouTube TV subscribers, is related to a fee increase requested by Disney.

The two companies also clashed with YouTube TV’s request to offer its subscribers an ESPN streaming app at no additional cost.

They reached a settlement, and YouTube came away with the authority to make some ESPN streaming content available.

In September, YouTube TV avoided a similar blackout of NBC channels by making a deal just hours before the deadline.

Disney acquired 70% of Phobo TV in October 2025.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Fobo pointed to NBCUniversal’s recent deals with YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video, which allow those companies to offer NBC’s streaming app Peacock as part of their channel stores. Fobo claimed that NBC refused to grant Fobo such rights.

“Fobo is committed to bringing its customers a premium, competitively priced live TV streaming experience with the content they love,” said Fobo. “This includes multiple content options, including a sports-focused service that can be accessed directly from the Fobo app. We hope NBCU reconsiders its position, or we will be forced to move forward without them.”