In the latest round of heated negotiations, YouTube TV is now at risk of losing channels from Disney including the likes of ESPN and ABC.
As hinted at recently, Disney’s current broadcast deal with YouTube TV is set to expire on October 30. If a new deal isn’t reached, channels such as ESPN and ABC will go dark on YouTube TV, and it again sounds like negotiations are quite heated.
In a statement to CNBC, Disney says:
This is the latest example of Google exploiting its position at the expense of their own customers. If we don’t reach a fair deal soon, YouTube TV customers will lose access to ESPN and ABC, and all our marquee programming — including the NFL, college football, NBA and NHL seasons — and so much more.
If that sounds familiar, it’s a pretty similar argument to the one NBC made recently when it was dealing with its own contract expiration.
Disney is taking things a step further, though, with viewer-facing messages being broadcast on YouTube TV informing customers of the deadline. Those messages started being shown last night.
Google, though, says that Disney is “proposing costly economic terms” that would end with a YouTube TV price hike. Google says:
We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content on YouTube TV. Unfortunately, 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. Without an agreement, we’ll have to remove Disney’s content from YouTube TV and if it remains unavailable for an extended period of time, we will offer subscribers a $20 credit.
Who’s “right” here? As always, it’s impossible to say, but as a customer it’s understandbly frustrating to be running into this threat of lost channels every couple of months. Google does say, though, that it will offer customers a $20 credit on their bill if Disney content is removed from YouTube TV “for an extended period of time.”
In recent months, YouTube TV’s deals with NBC and Fox have both come down to the wire, with negotiations continuing through last-minute extensions and ultimately being renewed under new terms. Hopefully, the same will happen here.
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