Fubo's NBC Channels Are Back. So Is a $15-a-Month Price Hike.
Fubo just ended a months-long standoff with NBCUniversal and got its channels back. The sports-focused streaming service is now raising prices across most of its live TV plans to account for the new carriage deal, which restores NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, and the relaunched NBC Sports Network. Every English-language subscriber goes up $15 a month, pushing the entry-level Fubo Essential plan to $89 per month and the top-tier Deluxe plan to $119. The original NBC agreement had lapsed last November, and the blackout stretched across the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympic Games.
That's the headline everyone ran with. Here's what the celebratory "NBC is back" framing tends to skip:
What's not in dispute: the $15 monthly increase rolls back an $11 discount Fubo gave subscribers during the blackout, plus adds roughly $4 more in new carriage costs. Fubo did notify affected subscribers by email and posted details to its support portal.
What is in dispute: whether what subscribers are getting back actually justifies what they're now being asked to pay.
On one side, Fubo's defenders argue the math is straightforward. NBC went dark, the price dropped. NBC came back, the price went up. The sticking point, though, is that the new NBC deal doesn't cover Versant-owned channels — SyFy, E!, USA Network, and Golf Channel — which were spun out of Comcast earlier this year and remain off the platform with no clear timeline for return. Subscribers are paying more than they were before the blackout, for a lineup that is still missing channels they once had.
On the other, Fubo's critics point to the competitive math. At $65 per month, Fubo's Sports package offers fewer channels than YouTube TV Sports and DirecTV MySports at the same price — both of which include TNT, TBS, USA Network, Golf Channel, and NBA TV. Factor in regional sports fees, and Fubo's standard plans start at $102 a month — more expensive than YouTube TV at $83 per month, Hulu + Live TV at $90, and DirecTV Entertainment at $90, all of which also carry more national sports coverage. The one genuine edge Fubo holds is regional sports. For fans who need local sports broadcasts, Fubo remains one of the more affordable options for regional sports network access across a range of markets.
Fubo executives had previously told investors that NBCUniversal appeared uninterested in negotiating a new deal until its contract with Hulu was close to expiring — a reminder that Fubo, as a Disney subsidiary, was always operating inside a complicated web of competing corporate interests. During the dispute, Fubo even redirected customers to Peacock through an affiliate program, earning commissions on NBC content it couldn't carry directly. The company was, in a sense, profiting from the blackout it was apologizing for.
Which leaves the question that actually matters, and the one the price tag alone can't answer:
Is Fubo still a viable option after its recent price increase — a service worth paying a premium for if you need regional sports — or has the gap between what it costs and what it delivers finally closed the case against it?
The whole streaming world is split on it. We dropped the question into the Arena and let the models fight it out. Watch below.
Is Fubo still a viable option for sports fans after its recent price increase, or have competitors made it redundant?
Listen to the full debate ►The real question isn't whether Fubo got more expensive, but whether any rival actually replaced what it does well — and so far, none has done so cleanly.
Fair point that the interface has real weaknesses compared to rivals — that criticism lands — but a suboptimal guide doesn't make a service redundant when it's still the only place many fans can reliably watch their local team. 🏟️