00:00 Speaker A
Well, Disney is pulling its content from YouTube TV as the two companies failed to agree on a new carriage deal. Joining now with the details is Ally Canal. So, Ally, you know, we got used to these sort of carriage arguments with the cable world. Now we we’re bringing it to streaming.
00:15 Allie Canal
Bringing it to streaming just goes to show the economics are changing. a little spooky if you’re a Disney fan and a YouTube TV subscriber. How to get it in there. It’s Friday, Happy Halloween. But the two sides failing to reach that new carriage agreement before the midnight deadline. So, uh subscribers losing access to channels like ABC, ESPN uh at last night. It really happened about a half hour early around 11:30 p.m. So that means if it heads into the weekend, those consumers and subscribers are not going to be able to access NFL, NBA games or those college day games. Now, at the heart of the dispute is what else, money. Disney is pushing for higher carriage fees while Alphabet’s YouTube TV says it won’t agree to what it calls unreasonable price hikes. You YouTube is saying that it will offer subscribers a one-time $20 credit if Disney channels stay offline for an extended period of time. They didn’t necessarily say exactly what that time frame would be. My guess it would be through the end of the weekend. Uh YouTube TV also encouraged folks to sign up directly for ESPN in the meantime, which I thought was interesting. But in a statement, Disney did argue that YouTube TV, which has roughly 10 million subscribers, is refusing to pay fair market level rates that other distributors like Comcast and Charter have already agreed to. and then YouTube TV fired back and accused Disney of using blackout threats to pressure negotiations while benefiting its own streaming bundles and that includes Hulu plus Live TV, which as we know is a competitor to YouTube TV. So just the latest in a string of these high profile battles. Disney has been in quite a few of these blackouts before with Charter, Direct TV, others and really it just coincides with the rising cost of sports and then at the same time, the changing economics within uh you know the TV viewing landscape of large.
01:57 Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. The distribution channels may be different but the rhetorical playbook remains the same.
02:01 Allie Canal
You you still got to watch your shows somewhere and access your content.
02:04 Speaker A
But I think it will get resolved.
02:05 Allie Canal
Eventually they’ll figure it out.
