YouTube TV Drops STO, Subscribers Will Not Have Access to Indians Games in 2020

If you use YouTube TV as your main provider for cable, you are going to need another outlet to watch the Cleveland Indians in 2020.

The television provider has announced that starting on Saturday, February 29 that they will no longer be carrying Sports Time Ohio or Fox Sports Ohio.

This means that you will no longer be able to watch Tribe games, or for that matter Cleveland Cavalier games.

Thursday YouTube TV stated that it could not reach a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the Fox-branded regional sports networks.

A series of tweets were sent out Thursday afternoon informing customers of the news that they would no longer have access to Sinclair owned properties.

“We purchase rights from Sinclair to distribute content to you. Despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach an agreement with Sinclair. As a result, we will no longer offer FOX Regional Sports Networks, including YES Network, beginning February 29th.

“We do not take this decision lightly. This is a reflection of the rising cost of sports content. You may have noticed several other TV services have also decided to remove FOX Regional Sports Networks from their lineups.”

The sports channels were purchased by Sinclair from Disney back in August for $10.6 billion.

The company responded to the tweets sent out by YouTube TV stating that they were lowering the fees they were charging the company, but it wasn’t enough to come to a deal.

“We offered YouTube TV the best terms under which their competitors carry our Regional Sports Networks. Unfortunately, they alone decided to drop these channels citing ‘rising costs’ despite our offer to actually lower the fees they pay us,” a Sinclair spokesman said in a statement to various media outlets.

“We also offered to continue negotiating under a short-term extension so that their subscribers could continue to watch their favorite hometown teams. They’ve not yet responded to this offer. Given the ease with which YouTube TV subscribers can drop the service and switch providers, we are surprised that they’ve chosen this course.”

For Indians fans that are looking for an alternative, Hulu + Live TV is a streaming service that is available in the Northeast Ohio area and does have Fox Sports Ohio and Sports Time Ohio.

That service, which also includes Disney’s streaming service runs $61.99 per month.