YouTube rejected Disney’s offer to reposition ABC for election coverage

Millions of YouTube TV subscribers are likely to miss out on ESPN and ABC News’ Election Day coverage of “Monday Night Football” as blackouts on Walt Disney-owned channels extend into a second week.

“Monday Night Football” pits the Dallas Cowboys against the Arizona Cardinals. In addition, several key political contests are on the ballot on Tuesday, including New York City’s mayoral election, gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, and California’s Proposition 50 to decide whether officials can redraw the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats.

Disney on Monday called for a temporary easing of tensions with Google after the two sides failed last week to sign a new distribution deal covering Disney’s television channels on Google’s YouTube TV.

“Despite the disruption that caused the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so that customers can access the information they rely on,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement Monday. A Disney spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We believe in putting the public interest first and hope that YouTube TV will take this small step for our customers as we continue to work toward a fair settlement.”

Google turned down YouTube’s offer.

“We agree that the right priority here is to give customers what they want,” the tech giant wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, your proposal would only allow us to return Disney’s ABC stations for one day and cause confusion among customers who may briefly watch ABC on YouTube TV only to lose it again shortly thereafter.”

More than 10 million YouTube TV subscribers lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels late Thursday after negotiations over distribution fees for Disney channels collapsed, causing the largest recent blackout in the television industry.

The two major television companies have been arguing for weeks over how much Google should pay to carry Disney channels, including FX, Disney Junior and National Geographic. YouTube TV — now one of the largest pay TV services in the U.S. — ignored Disney’s price demands, leading to the shutdown.

YouTube TV does not have the legal right to distribute Disney Networks after the final distribution agreement expires. In its post, YouTube offered another option:

“We are offering an immediate restoration of the Disney channels our customers watch: ABC and ESPN Networks, while we continue to negotiate,” YouTube said. YouTube said. “These are the channels that people want.”

YouTube said it would offer its customers a $20 credit if it was blocked for an “extended period.”

Channels owned by Spanish-language broadcaster Univision have been blocked by YouTube TV in a separate dispute that has lasted more than a month. Televeza has asked top political officials, including President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.

Last year, after Disney-owned channels were mired in a dispute over separate car fees, Disney offered to provide DirecTV subscribers with ABC’s coverage of the only presidential debate between President Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

DirecTV saw ABC’s offer as something of a surprise, given that the debate would continue. DirecTV asked Disney to provide all of its channels instead.

This fee dispute led to a 13-day shutdown at DirecTV.

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Moyer” is one of the highest-rated programs on television. However, YouTube noted that there are other options for election results.

“Disney may continue to provide news information on the ABC News YouTube page,” YouTube said. “Its local ABC stations can also do this on their YouTube pages.”

High pressure in the television industry has led to many accusations.

In 2023, Disney and Charter Communications were unable to sign a new agreement by their deadline, resulting in a 10-day ban on Disney channels on Charter’s spectrum service. A decade ago, Time Warner Cable subscribers went almost a month without CBS-owned channels.

Programming companies, including Disney, have demanded higher fees for their channels to help with the rising costs of sports programming, including NFL and NBA contracts. But pay-TV providers, including behind-the-scenes YouTube, are trying to draw a line to slow their customers’ constant monthly bills.

According to industry data, more than 40 million pay TV subscribers have been disconnected from their homes in the past decade. Many have switched to smaller streaming packages. YouTube TV also benefited by attracting disgruntled customers from DirecTV, Charter Spectrum and Comcast. YouTube TV is now the third largest television channel distributor in the country.