YouTube TV has reached a long-term agreement with Allen Media Group, keeping The Weather Channel on the live TV service and securing several of the company’s smaller networks as well. The deal also keeps Cars.TV, Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and Justice Central available to subscribers.
The news, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter via Android Authority, comes after a year in which YouTube TV struggled to keep some of its biggest channels. Last year, disputes with major providers such as Disney ended with channels being removed from the service, a reminder that the streaming bundle that began at $35 a month can still be jolted by carriage fights even as some subscribers now pay as much as $83 a month.
For Allen Media Group, the agreement protects one of its most recognizable properties. The company has existed in several forms over time and under different names, but The Weather Channel remains among its most popular offerings. For YouTube TV, the deal adds stability at a moment when subscribers have been watching prices rise and lineups shift.
That contrast is the real story here. Two decades after Netflix launched streaming and helped reset expectations for how people watch television, YouTube TV is still in the business of cutting last-minute content battles into long-term arrangements, and this one closes with the company keeping a channel many viewers are likely to notice first when it disappears and most quickly when it returns.
The question now is not whether YouTube TV can hold onto Allen Media Group’s channels; it already has. The issue is whether it can keep doing that while defending a service that costs far more than when it started and has already shown how fast its lineup can change when negotiations break down.
