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If you’re a fan of Tennis Channel and watch it on Youtube TV, then you may have been in for a rude awakening this morning when you woke up and found that it was missing. Not only that, but your recorded Tennis Channel content held in your Youtube TV DVR is gone too. Subscribers to Google’s cord-cutting service received an email regarding this change early this morning, but I don’t recall there being a forewarning. In fact, the content disappeared only three hours after the email was sent out.
A few months ago, the service also chose not to renew its contract with Fox Sports Networks from Sinclair, which meant that subscribers lost access to related sports content. Google stated that negotiations with content networks are difficult and take time, but Sinclair’s President of distribution and network relations put out his own statement shortly afterward that said they were disappointed in the decision and that Youtube was the one who decided to no longer carry their content.
While we’re really not sure what’s going on with Youtube TV at this time, we do know that they should provide a bit more of a heads up before they yank things if they’re going to retain the trust of their users. The email sent out this morning was also a bit short and uninformative on the reasoning behind the decision. Even though they have arguably the best sports and live TV streaming platform on the market, they seem to continue making odd choices and wavering in their commitment to the audience who keeps shelling out a constantly increasing wad of cash to them.
Either way, the Youtube team can make whatever choices they deem necessary to provide the best service according to their overall plans and while we don’t agree with the constant content removals, we’ll have to assume for now that there was some conflict with these contracts. We’ll keep you posted on future Youtube TV content issues because this probably won’t be the last time this occurs.
We’re writing to let you know that our agreement with the Tennis Channel has expired. Starting November 30, 2020, at 11 pm ET, the Tennis Channel will no longer be made available for distribution on YouTube TV. This means that you will no longer be able to watch that channel live or access any content that you have recorded from the Tennis Channel.
We regret the inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your membership.
Sincerely,
The YouTube TV team
Contents of the email sent to Youtube TV subscribers this morning
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