NBCUniversal said it will black out its service on Charter cable systems if a new carriage deal isn’t signed by December 31.
“NBCUniversal values its partnership with Charter Spectrum, our third largest distributor. Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors,” NBCU said in a statement.
“Given this position, we feel the responsibility to inform viewers that Charter Spectrum may drop NBCUniversal’s networks at the end of the year, including NBC, Telemundo, USA, Bravo and hit shows including the #1 show on TV—Sunday Night Football, WWE, the Golden Globes, This Is Us and more.”
Charter reps had no comment for FierceCable.
Charter significantly increased its footprint with the acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks this year. But the operator is still smaller than Comcast and DirecTV — a fact that Comcast-owned NBCU took pains to point out.
RELATED: Charter sued by Univision, which says MSO is improperly leveraging TWC carriage deal
Charter roiled media companies over the summer, attempting to use TWC’s superior rate card in its programming deals. Univision and 21st Century Fox took the MSO to court about that.
News of the NBCU/Charter dispute comes as Altice USA and AMC Networks reached harmony on a new long-term distribution, according to Multichannel News.