Key Points
- Google says Disney’s offer to restore ABC for a single night will lead to subscriber confusion.
- Disney didn’t say if Google would have to pay anything to carry ABC through Election Night.
- Google offered a counter-proposal: Allow it to carry ABC and ESPN while negotiations continue.
Google-owned streaming service YouTube TV has rejected an offer by the Walt Disney Company that would have allowed the cable television alternative to offer local ABC stations and affiliates for Election Night coverage on Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday evening, Google said restoring ABC stations and affiliates for a single day was likely to cause confusion among its subscribers, because Google does not have a long-term deal to offer ABC and other Disney-owned channels like ESPN.
Executives at Disney said they were open to an arrangement where YouTube TV restored local ABC stations and affiliates, so its 10 million subscribers could watch local broadcasts of Election Night returns. Disney characterized the move as a public service, but didn’t say if YouTube TV would have to pay anything for the privilege of carrying ABC for a single day, or whether other channels like ESPN were part of the deal.
Disney-owned channels have been unavailable to YouTube TV subscribers since early Friday morning. In addition to ABC stations and affiliates, the situation also affects ESPN, the Disney Channel, FX, National Geographic and the streaming channel ABC News Live.
As typical in disputes like this, the issue centers largely around the per-subscriber fee that Disney is entitled to in exchange for Google’s permission to redistribute its channels on YouTube TV. Disney wants more money for its core channels — a hearty demand at a time when ESPN has lost UFC, Formula 1 and other sports to rival networks and platforms — and Google is trying to keep the price of its $83 per month service stable for all customers, whether they watch live sports and news or not.
According to some reports, Google is also holding out hope for more-favorable terms, including the ability to distribute ESPN in a future lower-cost plan, similar to what competitors like DIRECTV, Fubo and Charter’s Spectrum TV have launched in recent years. Google is also hoping that Disney will agree to a one-year or two-year distribution term — far less than the customary three-year term that pay TV providers typically forge with broadcasters. (Disney’s most-recent contract with YouTube TV covered four years.)
Google said the offer is similar to one Disney made to DIRECTV during a similar dispute last year — a strategy that was meant to generate the perception of public goodwill, but which would only have served Disney’s interests at a time when it was otherwise playing hardball with a distribution partner.
“Publicly resorting to the same tactic that Disney relied on in past disputes fails to acknowledge the distinction between YouTube and other distribution platforms,” Google said in an open letter to Disney executives Monday evening.
Google said the offer came at a time when YouTube TV subscribers have a number of options to stay on top of Election Night coverage — it continues to offer CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NewsNation, Newsmax, One America News, Scripps News, BBC News, NBC News Now, LiveNow from Fox and local stations affiliated with CBS, Fox and NBC — and that the ABC News Live stream remains available on the main YouTube platform, where it has nearly 20 million subscribers.
“To truly achieve what is best for our mutual customers, we propose immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate,” Google said in its letter. “Those are the channels that people want.”
Google said the affected Disney-owned channels can be restored to YouTube TV in a matter of a few hours if Disney agrees to its counter-proposal.
