Well that was fast.
Disney and YouTube have reached an agreement that allows YouTube’s live TV streaming platform, YouTube TV, to resume broadcasting Disney channels and content.
Last week it looked as if Disney’s offerings, including ESPN, were gone from the platform until an “equitable” deal could be brokered. As a result, YouTube was lowering its live TV from $64.99 to $49.99 to offset the loss of Disney’s channels.
Yesterday it was announced that Disney was back on YouTube TV, and that subscribers would get a $15 credit for one month.
Disney issued the following statement on the situation…
“We are pleased to announce that after a brief disruption, we have reached a new distribution agreement with Google’s YouTube TV for continued carriage of our portfolio of networks,” Disney said in a statement. “We appreciate Google’s collaboration to reach fair terms that are consistent with the market, and we’re thrilled that our robust lineup of live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming is in the process of being restored to YouTube TV subscribers across the country.”
YouTube TV updated their blog post regarding the situation, saying that “We have already started to restore access to Disney networks like ESPN and FX, including their live and on-demand content, as well as any recordings that were previously in your Library. We will also be turning on the local ABC stations over the course of the day.”
On Twitter, many users have said that the short Disney outage pushed them over to Disney-owned Hulu’s own live TV service.
Since the issue seemed to be that Disney wouldn’t lower their asking price for YouTube, some are suggesting this might’ve been a calculated move on Disney’s part to drive more subs to Hulu.
YouTube TV couldn't agree to a new deal with Disney and is now removing ABC & ESPN on the first day of college football bowl season.
The interesting part?
Customers will cancel and switch to the next biggest platform, Hulu, which Disney owns.
This is chess, not checkers.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) December 18, 2021
Regardless of the hows and whys, Disney is back on YouTube TV… for now.
But don’t be surprised if there’s a price hike in 2022. This is the Disney way.
[Source: The Verge]
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