Just when I think everything is smooth with my television watching, more contract disputes are announced earlier this week by YouTube TV and Disney. Earlier this week, Disney was warning of loss of Disney channels and at the same time YouTube TV was warning of loss of Disney channels. The agreement was due to expire on Friday, December 17. As Friday approached and expired, I still had all of the affected channels, so I thought perfect, they got it figured out. Then about 11 Saturday morning, I read the update from YouTube TV via Twitter that they did not come to terms with Disney for the channels.
Members, we worked hard to avoid this but were unable to reach a fair deal with Disney. We regret to share that as of December 17, all Disney-owned channels are unavailable on YouTube TV. While Disney content remains off our platform, we’ll decrease our price by $15/month.
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) December 18, 2021
The channels that are removed include local ABC station, ABC News Live, The Disney Channel, FX, ESPN (all versions), and many others. As noted in the above tweet from YouTube TV, while the contract is being disputed, the cost of YouTube TV goes down $15/month.
YouTube TV recently resolved another contract dispute that had been going on for months between Roku and YouTube TV. Roku and YouTube had been disputing for months to the point where Roku had removed YouTube app (and YouTube TV) from the the Roku store. Earlier this year (January 2021), contract disputes between YouTube TV and Bally Sports caused us to lose our regional sports network (see January 2021 post) and it does not appear that contract will ever be renewed with Bally Sports going a different direction to the streaming market.
The crazy things is that I already subscribe to Disney+, ESPN+, and many other streaming services, yet, I cannot watch any of the Disney channels live with this recent contract dispute between YouTube TV and Disney. No telling how long this dispute will last. Unlike the Bally Sports contract negotiations, I think this will be a short time where the two sides do not come to terms. With fifteen plus channels gone from YouTube TV which includes all of the sports stations, I see this not taking long to resolve. How long is relative though, as parent company Google has stated many times that they do not intend to raise prices for YouTube TV customers after various price increases the past few years, so I appreciate their holding fast to not pay more for Disney channels if it is going to cause a price increase for us the customers. We could be without the channels for a few weeks but hopefully it does not mean months.
Yes, I have thought about changing providers. We really enjoy the features of YouTube TV and the unlimited DVR capabilities, so I am not interested in leaving at this time. Depending on how long this goes on, I might look at other options for live television, but there is no way I would go back to cable or satellite. The contract disputes are an old foe of television watching. I recall when we were Cox customers for television, they fought contract disputes too where at times service would be lost to channels while they worked through the contracts. It seems that for YouTube TV this is a regular occurrence and it is getting old.
This is the state of my television viewing as of today. Do not be surprised if I am grouchy while this dispute continues, but I am hopeful both parties will resolve this and I will have my sports channels back in my YouTube TV guide.
YouTube TV announces today that they have come to terms. We will have Disney channels back before the end of the day. What will be the next contract dispute to occur to cause us to lose channels? I am sure there will be another one…. That is a given!
ReplyDeleteI have found this negotiation refreshing compared to when I was with Cox and there were similar carriage rights disagreements. First, YouTube giving the $15 credit as recognition of the reduction in service. Second, YouTube never seriously blamed Disney or encouraged users to contact Disney and request the channels be returned on YouTube’s terms. Makes me happier with my decision to switch to YouTube TV.
ReplyDeleteShawn, yes, I agree. The refund was a good change to see YouTube TV do on this one. I am happy it did not take long at all. I did not figure it would with it involving sports channels, but then again, we still have no Royals. That all appears to be going a different direction though, so I can see why that agreement has not been completed.
DeleteHow long have you been with YouTube TV? I think we are coming up on two years. Been happy with their service. Love the unlimited DVR. I wish the changing between channels was a little faster or provided more information than just the spinning circle, but happy with their service. We subscribe to HBO Max through YouTube TV too, so that makes our bill a little higher, but still much less than what we were paying for Dish or Cox for TV.