KANSAS CITY, Mo. — YouTube TV announced Thursday that “despite best efforts” they’ve been unable to reach an agreement with Sinclair. As a result they will no longer be offering FOX Regional Sports Networks starting Saturday.
“It had all the sports channels, which was big for us. It included FOX Sports Kansas City,” Josh Sitzer said of his reasons for originally switching to YouTube TV.
Youtube TV said the decision to remove FOX Regional Sports Networks from their lineups is a reflection of the rising cost of sports content. Sinclair said it offered to actually lower the fees and to continue negotiations under a short-term extension.
“Given the ease with which YouTube TV subscribers can drop the service and switch providers, we are surprised that they’ve chosen this course,” Sinclair spokesman Ronn Torossian said.
Sports fans FOX4 spoke with agreed the parent company of the sports network, not the streaming service, seems to be holding the upper hand.
“I saw today we are going to lose it, and I will be scrambling the next few days to watch the Royals on TV,” John Taylor said.
“I can’t speak for the other markets this affects but as far as Kansas Citians, we love our sports teams. We love the Chiefs, we love the Royals and a decision like this is just going to cause Kansas Citians to drop the service and find another one,” Sitzer said.
Sporting KC is already helping fans on its website find alternative ways to watch it game, with the season opener less than 48 hours away. The team has posted alternative ways to view and watch party details.
Fans left in a lurch said they wish they could get just get Royals game directly from the MLB.tv app, but unfortunately Major League Baseball blacks out local broadcasts of Royals games in the Kansas City market.