As the impasse between The Walt Disney Company and YouTube TV approaches a week without any concrete resolution, tensions are beginning to boil over for consumers.
While the ongoing dispute is the third for YouTube TV just this fall, it is the first to deprive subscribers of live game action. Disney networks became unavailable on YouTube TV shortly before midnight ET on Thursday, preventing subscribers from watching ESPN and ABC college football and NFL programming, the start of the college basketball season, and various studio shows.
The lack of progress towards a new deal, combined with unusually prominent on-air messaging by ESPN talent, caught the attention of ESPN personality Pat McAfee, who on his show Tuesday criticized the messages that some of his network colleagues have posted or recorded directing consumers to a Disney-run website to learn more information about the dispute.
“We’re all done with it, and also, if you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multibillion dollar deal,” McAfee said. “Nobody cares what you have to say.”
ESPN distributed Saturday’s “College Gameday” for free via its app and McAfee’s feed on the social media website X. McAfee said Tuesday that the “Gameday” feed on his account drew 1.18 million unique viewers and 2 million impressions on the platform. That is not analogous to the average minute audience typically reported on this and other websites.
CBS Sports analyst JJ Watt posted on X during “Monday Night Football” that he would not be purchasing another streaming subscription, adding that he does not understand what is going on but does not care to figure it out at the moment. Watt called the entire situation frustrating and was met with a deluge of comments conveying a similar sentiment.
Even though the Week 9 game between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals was simulcast on ABC, it should be noted that the dispute has blocked access to all ABC affiliates, including those owned by third-party companies like Nexstar and Sinclair, according to John Ourand of Puck.
YouTube TV has received its fair share of criticism on social media, with some users urging the service to change its bio on X that reads, “Officially football szn.” The company has promised to offer its subscribers a $20 credit should Disney content remain “unavailable for an extended period of time,” but it has not defined the threshold for reaching such a state.
Disney-owned ESPN has been accused on social media of trying to use the dispute to funnel more subscribers to its direct-to-consumer platform. Barstool personality and Pardon My Take co-host Dan “Big Cat” Katz said ESPN was harming customers, citing its new app and Disney’s ownership of both Hulu and Fubo. ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro has previously said that the company is still committed to pay television and that its new direct-to-subscriber option is pursuing cord-cutters and cord-nevers.
Disney pitched Google on temporarily restoring access to ABC for Election Day, but the vMVPD denied the proposal. Instead, YouTube TV asked Disney to make ABC and ESPN networks available as negotiations continue and urged the company to “get a fair deal done.”
The Disney networks were previously blacked out on YouTube TV in 2021, but that conflict lasted less than two days and was resolved before “Monday Night Football.” The Google-owned vMVPD provided users with a $15 credit on their next bill, reducing what was then a monthly price of $65 to $50.
YouTube TV is estimated to have more than 10 million subscribers and projected by MoffettNathanson to become the largest pay television provider in the country by the end of next year. The company reportedly wants to be treated akin to the larger distributors and attain a “Most Favored Nation” clause, something that would safeguard it from paying more than what other providers negotiate with Disney in future years.
YouTube TV is also said to want short-term distribution deals because of its growing leverage in the business. In a statement last Thursday, a Disney spokesperson accused YouTube TV of “using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms [it has] successfully negotiated with every other distributor.”
Prior to the start of the blackout, Disney settled a lawsuit it filed against Google for hiring one of its executives, Justin Connolly, to serve as global head of the company’s media and sports divisions. In the lawsuit, which was filed in May, Disney claimed that it was “extremely prejudicial” for Google to have Connolly “switch teams when Disney is working on a new licensing deal with the company that is trying to poach him.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant rejected Disney’s motion to receive a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, citing a “lack of showing of emergency.” YouTube stated in May that Connolly would “not be involved in any capacity” in these negotiations with Disney.
