YouTube Loses and Then Regains Disney Channels
YouTube and Disney had a whirlwind of a weekend, filled with negotiations about the latter’s suite of networks.
Disagreeing at First
On Friday, Disney announced that YouTube has refused a fair deal, based on market terms and conditions.
“As a result, their subscribers have lost access to our unrivaled portfolio of networks including live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming from ABC, the ESPN networks, the Disney channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels,” the company elaborated.
As a result, Disney-owned channels went missing from the streaming service on Friday and throughout Saturday.
So, users lost access to:
- Disney Channel
- Disney Junior
- Local ABC channels
- ABC News Live
- Disney XD
- National Geographic
- National Geographic Wild
- Freeform
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)
- ESPNU
- ESPNEWS
- FX
- FXX
- FXM
- SEC Network
- ACC Network
YouTube announced that it will lower the monthly price of its service to $50 a month, while the channels are unavailable,
Both sides, however, stated that they will continue with the negotiations.
A New Deal
On Sunday, YouTube announced on Twitter that both parties have reached an agreement.
We’re happy to announce that we’ve reached a deal with Disney and have already started to restore access to channels like ESPN and FX, and Disney recordings that were previously in your Library. Your local ABC station will also be turning on throughout the day.
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) December 19, 2021
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Devoted my whole life to words - reading, writing and trying to be original on social media. Got certified in digital marketing - still not cool enough to be an influencer. Finished a master’s degree focused in Literature, Publishing, Mass Media. Hobbies include traveling, reading and hoping that yoga will be the thing to finally teach me some patience. Would like to take over the world at some point, but that’s an optional dream. Maybe modern tech can help me do that?
