Comcast And Paramount Reach Carriage Renewal, Averting Blackout

deadline.com:

Top U.S. cable operator Comcast has reached a carriage renewal with Paramount Global, averting a potential blackout of service around the New Year’s holiday.

The deal, confirmed to Deadline by a Paramount spokesperson, comes before the expiration of the current pact at the end of the year.

In January 2022, Paramount (then known as ViacomCBS) and Comcast announced a “multi-year” carriage renewal. Talks proceeded quietly in recent days, without any of the consumer-facing warnings about looming deadlines that often accompany carriage negotiations.

A blackout would have been ill-timed for both parties, given that Paramount carries the NFL and other marquee programming. The company’s flagship broadcast network, CBS, is slated to broadcast the Super Bowl in February, with cable sibling Nickelodeon providing an alternate telecast.