ARTICLE: YouTube TV & Paramount Dispute Could Impact Launch of ‘Beyond the Gates,’ Access to CBS Soaps

[Errol]

Soap fans are in danger of losing access to “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Young and the Restless” and even the brand new soap opera “Beyond the Gates” due to a contract dispute between YouTube TV and Paramount, owner of CBS and Paramount+, among other media networks.

In a statement released on Wednesday, YouTube TV  said on X (formerly Twitter), “For our members: We work hard to bring you the content you love, delivered the way you want. Despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach a fair deal with Paramount to keep their channels on YouTube TV and their channels may be unavailable tomorrow.”

“We understand how frustrating and disruptive this is for our users,” the service added. “We’re committed to continuing conversations with Paramount to advocate for you and hope to keep their channels on YouTube TV. If no agreement is reached for an extended time, we’ll offer members an $8 credit. You can watch Paramount shows/movies on the Paramount+ streaming service, starting at $7.99/mo.”

The dispute would impact subscribers after February 13, should an agreement not be reached in time with Paramount, with networks/services like CBS and Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, no longer being available to subscribers of YouTube TV beginning Friday. It would also impact fans of March Madness should the matter reach that level.

Additionally, with YouTube TV recently raising its monthly subscription fee from $73 to $83, many current customers are sharing their frustration with the service, leading to many contemplating switching to other TV streaming services such as Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, Sling and DIRECTV STREAM, among others. Ultimately, the dispute is just another ongoing round where customers are directly impacted in contract discussions between service providers and media companies, with costs increasing as a result.

During the week of February 17-21, CBS in particular will be providing a sneak peek at its new daytime drama series, “Beyond the Gates,” with the daytime special “Beyond the Gates: Welcome to the Neighborhood.” A loss in coverage could see millions of potential viewers without a chance to preview what’s to come on the series.

All Paramount-owned or co-owned media networks that will go dark if an agreement isn’t made are listed below.

Affected channels

National

BET BET Her CBS CBS Sports Network CMT Comedy Central Comet TV Dabl MTV MTV Classic MTV2 MyNetwork TV

NewsNation Nick Jr. Nick Toons Nickelodeon Paramount Pop Smithsonian Channel Start TV Teen Nick Tr3s: MTV, Musica y Mas TV Land VH1

Note: *Paramount-owned or co-owned media networks are listed in bold.

Local stations

Atlanta 69 (WUPA) Boston TV38 (WSBK) Dallas-Fort Worth KTXA New York (WLNYDT ) Philadelphia 57 (WPSG)

Pittsburgh KDKA+ (WPCW) Sacramento KMAX 31 (KMAX) San Francisco KPIX+ (KPYX) Seattle 11 (KSTW) Tampa Bay 44 (WTOG)

Affected plans & add-ons

Plans

• Base plan
• Spanish plan

Add-ons

• BET+
• Entertainment plus
• Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
• Spanish plus

“Beyond the Gates” is the first brand new soap opera set to debut on a broadcast network in more than 25 years, since the launch of “Passions” in 1999, and the first-ever one-hour Black-centric daytime drama series. The series premieres  Monday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT on CBS, and will be available to stream Live and On Demand on Paramount+.

Note: The post YouTube TV & Paramount Dispute Could Impact Launch of ‘Beyond the Gates,’ Access to CBS Soaps appeared first on the Soap Opera Network website.

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[Liberty City]

Is it worrisome? Only in the slightest. I know here that TV38 (WSBK) only airs soaps if WBZ-TV is in the middle of a major news break (and we get noted ahead of it's going to be on the affiliate channel).

[janea4old]

@Errol  Do I understand correctly:
It's not those channels you've listed that might have issues in themselves.  You're talking *only* about youtubetv possibly being blocked from streaming the content from those channels?

[Maxim]

That's how I perceive it too. 

[Errol]

Right. Any channel or network you can watch on YouTube TV, that is owned or co-owned by Paramount, even those that are available because of Paramount having some sort of involvement, could go dark for subscribers of the YouTube TV streaming service. 

The channels themselves aren't going dark. 

YouTube TV is just another cable/satellite provider like DIRECTV, Spectrum, Cox, Comcast, DISH, et al. They just provide their services through a streaming platform where you can watch on the go, on any device.

If it goes dark, of course, it is worrisome. Disputes don't usually last that long, although Disney's dispute with DIRECTV last September lasted for two weeks.

[Liberty City]

If this lasts two weeks, it'd go pretty into the majority of the opening week for the serial. Oy vey.

[BetterForgotten]

The Disney situation was unusual, these disputes typically only last a few days. I’m hopeful it won’t impact the launch of BTG. 

And if it does, hopefully the show launches with a solid head start on Paramount+ to compensate for it. 

[Contessa Donatella]

This is a very short-sighted plan on the part of Paramount Plus!!!! They should NOT be doing this especially NOW.

 

[Taoboi]

Grrrrr

[edgeofnik]

YouTubeTv has 8 million subscribers out of 125MM households.

As been pointed out, it doesn't impact OTA.

[Soapsuds]

A temporary agreement has been reached!

Short agreement extension

[Taoboi]

Yay!!

[Errol]

Which could be for a day, to be clear. 

Sadly, many people who pay for cable/satellite service don't remember how to change the input on their TVs to watch programming without their subscription. 

[edgeofnik]

You're absolutely right. I'd bet most don't know OTA is an option. They just assume the channel is gone. Hopefully this will be settled soon.

The bigger impact for BTG will be if CBS airs UEFA again this year. Last year, there were at least 8 partial/full pre-emptions (Mountain and Pacific Time Zones) on during April and May. That would be far worse for BTG than this potential outage.