Greater than 20 Disney-owned channels, together with ESPN, ABC, and Nat Geo, have been pulled from YouTube TV after Google and Disney failed to succeed in a brand new content material distribution settlement. The earlier contract expired at 11:59 PM ET on October thirtieth, and it’s unclear when, or if, the 2 firms will attain a brand new deal.
The blackout was prompted by disagreements over carriage charges, with Google saying in a blog post published last week that Disney was “proposing expensive financial phrases that might increase costs on YouTube TV prospects.” That very same put up was up to date at 11:15PM on Thursday, claiming that Disney had adopted by means of on threats to tug its channels from YouTube TV, which Google described as a “negotiating tactic.”
“We all know this can be a irritating and disappointing consequence for our subscribers, and we proceed to induce Disney to work with us constructively to succeed in a good settlement that restores their networks to YouTube TV,” Google stated within the assertion. “If their content material stays off YouTube TV for an prolonged time frame, we’ll provide subscribers a $20 credit score.”
The complete record of eliminated Disney-owned channels consists of: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, SEC Community, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, ABC Information Dwell, ACC Community, and Localish. For YouTube TV subscribers on the Spanish plan, ESPN Deportes, Child TV Español, and Nat Geo Mundo have additionally been pulled. The removals impression recordings and on-demand content material saved to YouTube TV customers’ libraries.
The Verge has reached out to Disney for remark. In a statement to Variety, Disney stated that YouTube TV “has chosen to disclaim their subscribers the content material they worth most by refusing to pay truthful charges for our channels, together with ESPN and ABC,” and claims that Google is “utilizing its market dominance to eradicate competitors and undercut the industry-standard phrases.”
An identical breakdown between Google and Disney occurred in 2021 on the finish of their earlier contracts. In the meantime, NBCUniversal announced earlier this month that it had reached a renewal cope with Google, following an settlement to a brief extension that prevented its channels from going darkish on YouTube TV.