YouTube negotiates temporary extension to keep Indians and Cavs games on service

Regional Fox sports outlets ran by Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached a temporary extension to keep Indians and Cavs games on YouTube.

You may not even know this but Sports Time Ohio and Fox Sports Ohio, the regional networks that air the Cleveland Cavs and the Cleveland Indians respectively are available to watch on YouTube but they may not be for long. YouTube announced that the owner of Sports Time Ohio and Fox Sports Ohio, Sinclair Broadcast Group, had failed to reach a new deal with YouTube TV, forcing YouTube TV to remove those channels and all other SBG regional networks from their service.

YouTube TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group are both claiming it’s the other’s fault for the contract issues with YouTube TV claiming Sinclair raised the cost, but Sinclair claiming they offered the content at a lower rate than they wanted to. Sinclair made major waves a few months ago when they pounced on the Fox sale (where Disney got most of Fox’s assets) and claimed all of Fox’s regional networks, making Sinclair Broadcast Group the largest regional television distributor in the nation.

Since they’ve taken over all of these regional cable outlets, more and more outlets are dropping their programming due to the rising cost of sports. Outlet’s like Dish, Sling, and fuboTV have not carried any of Sinclair’s regional sports networks for months due to the rising cost. A ray of hope is shining through though.

Right now, there is a stay of sorts as YouTube and Sinclair Broadcast Group have come to some sort of momentary extension. They’ll keep the channels on the YouTube TV service while they negotiate the new contract but if the deal can’t be made, it’s unlikely another temporary deal will be made to keep the channels on the service.

Sinclair Broadcast Network owns networks like Charge, Comet, the Tennis Network, and Stirr. The national pro wrestling company, Ring of Honor is one of their subsidiaries and airs their content on Charge. They’re also known for being the network that had all of their regional television anchors read a scripted decry of ‘fake new’s that was slammed nationally for being nothing more than propaganda.