YouTube TV has restored access to Disney content after a dispute between the two firms which led to an interruption of service over the weekend.
Live streaming service YouTube TV over the weakened removed Disney channels including ESPN, FX, National Geographic, and local ABC stations after parent company Google and the Walt Disney Co. failed to reach a new deal.
According to Associated Press, YouTube told viewers on Sunday that they were restoring service so customers could once again watch networks provided by Disney such as ESPN, FX, National Geographic, and local ABC stations.
During the outage, viewers lost access to all live Disney content including recordings they had saved to their libraries.
The outage stemmed from a breakdown in negotiations between YouTube and Disney over the contract between the companies, which expired late Friday. YouTube had wanted Disney to charge the company the same rate to carry its content that it charged other TV providers of similar size. The companies reached an agreement Sunday.
YouTube apologized for the disruption and said it would provide a $15 credit to impacted customers.
The two companies were negotiating a new contract during the week and Disney had told USA TODAY it was “optimistic” a deal could be reached. This rift comes as the college football bowl season heats up with many games scheduled to be broadcast on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN 2.
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YouTube TV posted a note on Twitter early Saturday and on its website alerting subscribers that Disney’s channels were no longer available.
In a statement sent to USA TODAY, Disney said, “We have 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. 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.”
YouTube TV said it would “continue conversations with Disney” on a new carriage agreement.
In the meantime, the service is lowering its monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99, while the Disney channels are off.
Subscribers looking to stream Disney channels can opt into the Disney+ bundle (starting at $13.99), which includes the ESPN networks, Disney+, and Hulu.
However, Disney might also gain some subscribers from YouTube TV defectors moving to its Hulu + Live TV streaming service, which has more than 75 channels including ABC, ESPN, and FX and is majority-owned by Disney. Subscribers can get Hulu + Live TV with ESPN+ and Disney+ for $72.99 – not much more than the lowered cost of YouTube TV without the Disney channels and the cost of the Disney bundle with Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu on-demand.
