Sports fans were caught in the middle of the dispute between YouTube TV and Disney.
In a bit of news that had been out there for a few days, YouTube TV dropped all Disney platforms at midnight on Saturday. That’s because the streaming service and media conglomerate are in the midst of negotiations that could not get resolved as of Dec.17, which led to YouTube TV putting out this statement: 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 We know how frustrating it is to lose channels like ESPN and your local ABC station, and will continue conversations with Disney in hopes of restoring their content for you. For the full list of removed Disney-owned channels and live updates, check out https://t.co/R7MzaOMBNF — YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) December 18,2021 As that second tweet mentions, ESPN was caught in the crosshairs of all of this. Because the Worldwide Leader is a Disney property, there are now a grand total of zero ESPN channels on the platform, in addition to local ABC channels that will carry things like NBA games, college football games, and the occasional Monday Night Football broadcast. These sorts of disputes have become increasingly common as streaming has become a more popular option for consumers — YouTube TV, in fact, was pulled from the Roku store earlier this year before that got resolved — but that doesn’t make these any less frustrating.
