YouTube TV loses ESPN, Disney content after deal expires without agreement
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(NEXSTAR) – YouTube TV users woke up to an unfortunate surprise Saturday. While the platform’s monthly price has dropped $15, so has the amount of content available to watch.
YouTube TV’s deal to continue providing Disney content, which includes ESPN and shows like “The Bachelor,” expired Friday. The company, owned by Google, said in a blog post that if Disney offered “equitable terms,” the agreement would be renewed.
At 11 p.m. CT Friday, YouTube TV updated the blog post to say that despite “good faith negotiations,” no agreement was reached with Disney before the agreement expired. Without Disney’s content, YouTube TV said it will drop its monthly rate from $64.99 to $49.99 for as long as the content remains off the platform.
YouTube TV has an estimated 3 million subscribers, according to The Boston Globe. Many learned a new agreement hadn’t been reached while watching the FCS semifinal matchup between James Madison and North Dakota State on Friday when the channel disappeared. Others likely noticed when they tried to tune into college football games on Saturday, many of which ESPN holds the rights to, The New York Post reports.
Disney released a statement, which reads, “We’ve been in ongoing negotiations with Google’s YouTube TV and unfortunately, they have declined to reach a fair deal with us based on market terms and conditions. As a result, their subscribers have lost access to our unrivaled portfolio of networks including live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming from ABC, the ESPN networks, the Disney channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels. We stand ready to reach an equitable agreement with Google as quickly as possible in order to minimize the inconvenience to YouTube TV viewers by restoring our networks. We hope Google will join us in that effort.”
In its blog post, YouTube TV encouraged viewers to consider signing up for Disney’s streaming services like ESPN+ and Disney+. Disney also owns the streaming service Hulu, which offers live sports and other Disney-owned content.
