{"id":8089625,"date":"2026-10-02T07:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=8089625"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:33:18","slug":"versant-verizon-distribution-renewal-deal-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/versant-verizon-distribution-renewal-deal-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Versant Completes 2026 Distribution Renewal Cycle With Verizon Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Versant has completed its 2026 distribution renewal cycle, striking a multi-year agreement with Verizon that keeps its portfolio of cable networks available to Fios customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal closes out Versant\u2019s first round of distribution renewals since becoming a standalone public company earlier this year, as subscriber losses continue to pressure the traditional pay-TV business. Versant\u2019s linear distribution revenue fell 6.3% year over year in the second quarter<\/a>, primarily due to subscriber declines, though contractual rate increases partially offset the losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the agreement, USA Network, MS NOW, CNBC, Golf Channel, Oxygen True Crime, E! and SYFY will remain available to Verizon customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVerizon is a valued distribution partner, and this long-term renewal reflects the clear value our portfolio delivers to distributors and audiences,\u201d Versant chief revenue and business officer Dave Pietrycha said in a statement. \u201cWe are pleased to continue bringing Verizon customers the premium live news, sports and entertainment programming they value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Verizon pact follows two other multi-year renewals with large pay-TV distributors, one in the U.S. and one in Canada, that Versant CEO Mark Lazarus disclosed during the company\u2019s second-quarter earnings call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the latest deal, Versant has renewed every distribution partnership that was set to expire in 2026. The company completed its spinoff from Comcast in January<\/a>, taking control of a collection of cable networks at a time when cord-cutting continues to shrink the traditional television bundle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVersant offers an iconic portfolio of brands and we\u2019re pleased to continue bringing their popular lineup of news, sports and entertainment to Verizon customers,\u201d Verizon SVP of consumer growth Matt Coakley said. \u201cWe look forward to continuing our partnership alongside a diverse array of premium programming available to Fios customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completing those renewals gives Versant some stability as it confronts the broader decline of the cable bundle. Lazarus acknowledged that pressure during the company\u2019s second-quarter earnings call, saying Versant was \u201cnot blind to the normal headwinds that everyone in the industry is facing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The multi-year agreement keeps MS NOW, CNBC, USA Network, Golf and other channels available to Fios customers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10255,"featured_media":8058001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":516552,"post_id":8042599}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"","nb_breaking_template":"","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":0,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-10-02T14:33:16Z","apple_news_api_id":"fa73f218-2001-45e7-8e22-568ccae62e39","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-10-02T14:33:16Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A-nPyGCABReeOIlaMyuYuOQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[279383,514407,411758,280144,13950],"tags":[560,3017,8676,9620,512912,5192,1215,1752,511777],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[516552],"class_list":["post-8089625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-deals-ma","category-streaming","category-tech","category-tv","tag-cnbc","tag-e","tag-fios","tag-golf_channel","tag-ms-now","tag-oxygen","tag-syfy","tag-verizon","tag-versant"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"A.J. Katz","is_pro_article":false,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/","text":"Business"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8089625"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8089641,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089625\/revisions\/8089641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8058001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8089625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8089625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8089625"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=8089625"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=8089625"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8089625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}