Disney-owned networks, including ABC and ESPN, have gone dark on YouTube TV.
The blackout follows the expiration of YouTube TV and Disney’s carriage agreement at midnight ET on Friday after the two sides failed to negotiate a new deal. If the outage continues, it could impact coverage of college football, NBA, NFL, and NHL games. Other notable channels impacted include FX, the Disney Channel, and Nat Geo.
In a blog post, YouTube wrote that Disney “used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers. They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV.”
“We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content on YouTube TV,” the company continued. “Disney is proposing costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices, while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products — like Hulu + Live TV and, soon, Fubo.”
YouTube TV said it will offer subscribers a $20 credit if Disney’s channels remain unavailable “for an extended period of time.” The base subscription costs $82.99 per month.
In response, Disney claimed that YouTube TV is seeking a better rate than its larger competitors, including Comcast and Charter. “Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels,” a statement reads. “Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sports — anchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend.”
“With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor.”
As the largest streaming television platform in the US, YouTube TV is estimated to have more than 10 million subscribers. Disney ranks second, with Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combining for nearly 6 million subscribers in North America.
This isn’t the first standoff between Disney and Google. The two sides reached an agreement in December 2021 after a two-day blackout.
