FCC grills Google over alleged faith-based discrimination in YouTube TV programming
Google offices in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York. / Credit: MNAphotography/Shutterstock Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is demanding answers from Google over concerns that its YouTube TV streaming service might be discriminating against faith-based channels in its programming decisions.
The allegations stem from YouTube TV’s refusal to permit faith-based television network Great American Family, which is owned by Great American Media, to stream on its platform. The channel, which seeks to promote family-friendly Christian values in its shows, is available on cable and satellite television providers and many other streaming services.
“These concerning allegations come at a time when American public discourse has experienced an unprecedented — and unacceptable — surge in censorship,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the agency, said in a post on X.
“I’m asking Google for answers,” he added.
Carr’s March 7 letter to Google and its parent company, Alphabet, states that YouTube TV “does not appear to have a public-facing policy against such programs.” But, he wrote, “I want to determine whether your company engages in this form of discrimination in practice.”
“Concerns have been raised alleging that your company has a policy (secret or otherwise) that discriminates against faith-based programming,” the letter adds. “As an example, Great American Media wrote a letter to me in which they claim that YouTube TV deliberately marginalizes faith-based and family-friendly content.”
Carr wrote that the Great American Family network “is the second-fastest-growing channel in cable television,” yet “YouTube TV refuses to carry them.” He expressed concerns about technology companies “silenc[ing] individuals for doing nothing more than expressing themselves online and in the digital town square.”
“Understanding the nature of carriage policies … can help inform the FCC’s approach to the broader set of regulatory issues that the FCC has been called on to address,” Carr’s letter states.
Carr asked Google to brief the FCC on the role of multichannel video programming distribution in the media marketplace and to inform the agency about YouTube TV’s carriage negotiation process and the potential role of viewpoint-based discrimination.
Great American Media has been trying to make its Great American Family network available on YouTube TV for at least several months. In November 2024, Great American Family President and CEO Bill Abbott told the Washington Examiner that he has tried “every conceivable way” to get a deal with YouTube TV.
“Well, we’ve offered YouTube TV every conceivable way to get carriage on the platform, including free, and that has not been accepted to this point, and we’ll see,” Abbott said at the time.
“We’re hopeful that they recognize the value of the audience and the strength and quality of content and the premise of being on the pillars of family, faith, and country, but we don’t know where that will go.”
Google did not respond to a request for comment from CNA.
