Contractual dispute with YouTube TV Disney Now: His customers have lost two weekends of college football and will likely miss another Monday Night Football game tonight.
Removed from all Disney-owned streaming channels, including ABC, ESPN, ACC Network, and SEC Network on YouTube TV on October 31, and not back since then.
The disagreement over the ABC and ESPN outage stems from the “carriage fee” that YouTube TV pays Disney to air its channels. Disney has faced “YouTube TV Starts,” similar stalled negotiations with other broadcasters in recent years, even before the 2021 outage on YouTube TV, which was resolved within two days.
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Disney says YouTube TV isn’t paying enough to stream its channels. YouTube TV, owned by Google, has the most customers of all “YouTube TV Starts” Internet TV providers, more than 9 million. Hulu, owned by Disney, came in second with 4.3 million subscribers through its Hulu+ Live TV offering.
YouTube TV promised to give subscribers a $20 credit for the streaming service if the Disney Channel outage “YouTube TV Starts” continues for an extended period of time, and on Sunday, the streaming service announced the credit details. Read on to learn how you can claim a $20 credit, when the outage can be resolved, and how you can watch ESPN, ABC, and other Disney channels in the meantime.
How can YouTube TV subscribers claim their $20 credit?
YouTube TV Starts
YouTube TV subscribers should receive a “YouTube TV Starts” email from the service when credits are available. After you receive your email, follow these steps to claim your $20 credit.
- Log in to YouTube.com on a web browser. Click or tap your profile picture, then select settings. You can also browse directly to the URL https://tv.youtube.com/settings/service_updates.
- At the bottom of the menu on the left, select Update.
- On the following screen that explains the Disney Channel outage, click or tap the marked blue button. Claim credit.
Emails from YouTube TV started going out Sunday night, and several Reddit posters already reported receiving a $20 credit. All credits for YouTube TV subscribers should be issued by November 12, according to diversity.
Which Disney channels have been removed from YouTube TV?
Sports fans aren’t the only audience affected by the “YouTube TV Starts” loss of Disney channels from YouTube TV. Here are all the channels that have been removed from streaming services:
- ABC
- ABC News Live
- ACC Network
- Baby TV Español (Spanish plan)
- Disney Channel
- Disney Jr
- Disney XD
- ESPN
- ESPN Deportes (Spanish plan)
- ESPN News
- ESPNU
- ESPN2
- Freeform
- FX
- FXM
- fxx
- local
- Nat Geo
- Nat Geo Mundo (Spanish plan)
- Nat Geo Wild
- SEC Network
When can Disney channels return to YouTube TV?
As with previous Disney disputes, negotiations are winding down. Disney’s contract conflicts from previous years—Sling TV in 2022, Spectrum/Charter in 2023, and DirecTV in 2024—were mostly resolved within a week or two, but Google has considerably “YouTube TV Starts”, more bargaining power than other platforms.
According to Diversity, if a deal is reached between Disney and YouTube, the missing channels will return “within hours.”
30 October, YouTube TV Posted in X “As we extend our agreements with network collaborators, we strive for equitable pricing to provide “YouTube TV Starts” to you with an optimal television experience.”
“By refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny its customers their most valuable content,” Disney said in a statement to CNBC.
A memorandum to employees on October 31 also contained the same. As reported by CNBC, Disney accused YouTube TV of “deleting previously recorded shows and events from their subscribers’ libraries.”
“YouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in reaching a fair deal with us,” Disney Entertainment vice presidents Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pietro said in the memo. Instead, they want to use “YouTube TV Starts”, their power, and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the content that helps build their services.”
Disney is asking its viewers to ask YouTube TV to bring back its broadcasts on the broadcasts on the broadcasts on the keepmynetworks.com site
In what ways can subscribers of YouTube TV view football matches while Disney is experiencing service interruptions?
YouTube TV subscribers with an aerial TV antenna can still watch Monday Night Football and college football games on ABC if they are close enough to receive an over-the-air broadcast signal from a local ABC affiliate.
Other than that, the only real option for viewers who want to watch this weekend’s college football and basketball games and Monday Night Football at home is to subscribe to ESPN+, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, or other services that offer ABC and ESPN streams, including DirecTV streams.
Sling TV offers a $5 day pass. This can be a good option for spectators who want to see a specific game, as well as the $10 weekend pass that gets you college football and basketball games for both days.
For those looking for football games at local venues, this handy app can help you find venues showing the games.
Correction, November 5: An earlier version of this story failed to note that Sling TV’s day and weekend passes can only be used to watch local ABC affiliates in certain markets.