According to Deadline, YouTube TV declined Disney’s request to air Tuesday’s election coverage on the live TV platform. The two media companies are currently in carriage dispute, which has blocked Disney’s various channels. YouTube TV recently had similar disputes with NBCUniversal.
According to Deadline, YouTube stated in blog post: “We agree that the right priority here is to give customers what they want. As you know from the many content disputes you’ve been part of, customers don’t want companies fighting and content blockers. But unfortunately, your proposal would permit us to return Disney’s ABC stations only for a day and will cause customer confusion among those who may briefly see ABC on YouTube TV, only to lose it again shortly after.” The impact of the blackout has already forced Disney to pivot for programming. ESPN made College Gameday available for free on its mobile app and on X.
Deadline mentions that last Thursday, a few major networks under Disney’s name, including ABC and ESPN, went “dark” in response to the talks between the two companies. Over 10 million YouTubTV subscribers were affected. It also notes that ABC News has over 19 million subscribers on YouTube TV. ABC News runs live 24/7, and can be accessed on Hulu, which is outside the YouTubeTV bundle.
Despite this blackout, Disney had requested that YouTube TV restore the ABC coverage for the election on Tuesday, November 4th, according to Deadline. According to the YouTube blog post, “There are plenty of other options for customers – elections news information is very widely available across other broadcast stations and news networks on YouTube TV, as well as the main YouTube TV, for free. In fact, on the last two TV subscribers chose not to watch ABC.”
Disney responded to Deadline in a statement saying, “Despite the impasse that led to the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so subscribers have access to the information they rely on. We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for their customers while we continue to work toward a fair agreement.”
Deadline reports that for several years, Disney has aired ABC World News Tonight and other news programming on Hulu for viewers to have access to the news.