By Liam Reilly, CNN

(CNN) — Fox and YouTube TV reached a distribution deal late Thursday night, allowing Fox’s content to remain on the platform.

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Fox to keep their content on YouTube TV, preserve the value of our service for our subscribers and offer more flexibility in the future,” the Alphabet-owned company shared in an update on its blog.

This means news, business, entertainment and sports content, as well as programming from its local stations, will continue to be offered on YouTube TV. This includes Fox, FS1, the Big Ten Network and Fox News Channel.

“I’m very pleased that Google and Fox have now reached a deal,” Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a social media post Thursday evening. “This is great news for college football fans and avoids blackouts.”

Thursday’s deal came one day after the companies agreed to an eleventh-hour short-term extension to their distribution deal, narrowly avoiding a blackout of all Fox’s content on the platform.

The blackout, which was scheduled to take effect at 5 pm ET on Wednesday, would have affected millions nationwide and coincided with the start of the college football season and the lead-up to the NFL’s season kickoff — both lucrative sources of viewership.

On Monday, both Fox and YouTube began warning customers they might be affected as the pair sought to agree on a new deal.

“Our priority is to reach a deal that’s fair for both sides, as well as our subscribers,” YouTube had told customers. In a Monday blog post, YouTube cited “payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive” as a major sticking point.

In return, Fox said on Monday that it was “disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace.”

When no deal appeared imminent on Tuesday, Carr, a staunch Trump ally, weighed in, taking Fox’s side in the negotiations and urging Google to “get a deal done.”

“Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome,” Carr posted to X on Tuesday. “Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube to resolve this dispute so they can keep watching the news and sports they want — including this week’s Big Game: Texas @ Ohio State.”

Customers looking to avoid bulky cable deals often turn to direct-to-consumer services like YouTube TV, which can provide skinnier bundles with targeted programming at a lower cost.

Carriage deals, which span multiple years, are typically re-signed during the late summer to early autumn period, typically coinciding with several major sporting events, a source of leverage for the networks.

While negotiations can proceed seamlessly, distributors and programmers don’t always see eye to eye, sparring over cost and content. Just last year, Disney pulled its ABC stations, ESPN and its cable networks from DirecTV after the two parties failed to renew their carriage deal.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has been involved in a blackout: In December 2021, Disney content was pulled from YouTube for around three days. Fox is also no stranger to hard-nosed negotiations: In 2019, local Fox content went dark in 23 states and Washington, DC, after the Rupert Murdoch-owned media company failed to reach a deal with Dish Network.

Despite the snag in negotiations with Fox, YouTube on Wednesday inked a carriage deal with Herring Network, launching the network’s pro-Trump One America News and A Wealth of Entertainment on YouTube TV.

The-CNN-Wire
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