YouTube TV subscribers face prospect of losing Disney channels - including ESPN

By now it’s a familiar refrain for those who subscribe to a live television service in any form be it cable, satellite or streaming.

Yet another carriage negotiation is coming down to the wire. After having just wrapped a testy dispute with steaming device manufacturer Roku, which salvaged YouTube TV and YouTube on that platform, YouTube TV now and its parent company Google, now finds itself in negotiations that are intense enough that they merited YTTV’s email of doom:

More: Roku warns users they might lose YouTube TV on streaming platform; similar to Spectrum impasse

Hi George,

In order to make 85+ channels available to you on YouTube TV, we partner with content owners. From time to time, our partnerships need to be renewed to ensure we continue to offer a strong lineup at a competitive and fair price.

We are now in negotiations with Disney to continue distributing their content on YouTube TV. Our deal will expire on Friday, December 17, 2021. We have not yet been able to reach an equitable agreement, so we want to give you a heads - up so that you can understand your choices.

Disney is an important partner for us. We are in active conversations with them and are working hard to keep their content on YouTube TV. Our ask of Disney, as with all of our partners, is to treat YouTube TV like any other TV provider — by offering us the same rates that services of a similar size pay, across Disney’s channels for as long as we carry them.

We welcome a renewed agreement provided we can reach equitable terms with Disney. However, if we are unable to reach a deal by Friday, the Disney - owned channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV starting December 17, and we will decrease our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99 (while Disney content remains off of our platform).

We would love every member to stay with our service, but we give you the flexibility to pause or cancel your membership at any time. If you want to continue watching some of Disney’s content, consider signing up for their own service, The Disney Bundle, which they offer for $13.99/month and which is subject to its own terms and restrictions.

We will share any further updates on this webpage as we seek a resolution for you, our members.

Thanks for your patience and for being a YouTube TV member.

Sincerely,

The YouTube TV team

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That greeted me Monday evening and it wasn’t necessarily welcome. Disney is not only the home to assorted family channels, but the Mouse House also owns the ESPN family of networks, losing ESPN during the height of the playoff race in the NFL would make a lot of folks – even casual sports fans – a wee bit ticked off.

The stations Northeast Ohio subscribers can expect to be without: The list of affected channels include: ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app), ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ACC Network and the SEC Network.

And ESPN and its sister networks continue to be the 100-ton elephant in the room. Those stations, depending on which a television provider airs, cost more than $9 combined, thus the massive drop in YTTV’s price if negotiations falter.

There is a silver lining in this dark, ominous cloud, however.

There exists a stark tonal difference in town with this email when compared to other instances related to YTTV.

When their battle with Roku looked as if it would result in no deal, Google played hardball and offered some subscribers a TiVO Stream 4K, an alternate streaming device that would allow them to continue their service uninterrupted.

There’s no such animus anywhere in that communication. In fact, YTTV takes the friendly step of telling its customers how to continue their service in some form by subscribing to the Disney bundle.

Some might say: "Yes, but YouTube TV still doesn't have the Bally regional sports networks."

That would be correct, but this is different primarily because of the other Disney channels included in this list. Think the Disney Channel, FX, FXX and others. That's a lot of programming for YTTV to have to make up for and even with a $15 price cut, folks who value those other channels

Bottom line: I suspect a deal will ultimately be made. Of course, it could get interesting if Disney does play hardball. After all, they run Hulu with Live TV, YTTV's primary competitor.

Reach George M. Thomas at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com or via Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ESPN, Disney channels could go dark on YouTube TV