The war of words between Disney and Google continues — four days after ESPN, ABC and other Disney networks were suspended from YouTube TV amid a pricing dispute.
Disney on Monday asked Google to make ABC available to YouTube TV customers on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to provide election night coverage. Google said no, and instead suggested that Disney allow YouTube TV to resume broadcasting as ABC and ESPN work to come to a new agreement because they are “channels that people want.”
Disney’s network went dark on YouTube TV just before the companies’ pre-agreement expired at midnight ET on October 30th. Google said Disney demanded unprecedented price increases across its network. Meanwhile, Disney said the tech giant “refuses to pay a fair price for our channels.”
YouTube on Monday afternoon shared an email purportedly from executives to “Disney executives” about the media company’s request for ABC to be restored 24 hours a day.
The email said, “We agree that the correct priority here is to give the customer what they want. As we’ve seen from the many content disputes you’ve been involved in, customers don’t want companies fighting and content being blacked out. Unfortunately, however, your proposal would allow Disney’s ABC stations to be returned for just one day, and YouTube “This will cause customer confusion among people who briefly watch ABC on TV and may not be able to watch it again immediately,” the email began.
“Customers have many other options,” YouTube said in an email. “Election news information is very widely available for free on the main YouTube service as well as other stations and news networks on YouTube TV. In fact, on the past two U.S. election days, the vast majority of YouTube TV subscribers chose not to watch ABC.”
The email went on to say, “Disney’s public resort to the same tactics it has utilized in past disputes does not recognize the distinction between YouTube and other distribution platforms. As you know, Disney can continue to live stream news information on the ABC News YouTube page, which has 19.1 million subscribers, and ABC’s local stations can also live stream on their YouTube pages.”
“In order to achieve what is truly best for our mutual customers, we are proposing to immediately restore the Disney Channel, ABC and ESPN networks that our customers watch. In the meantime, we will continue to negotiate. These are the channels that people want,” the YouTube email to Disney concluded. “If you agree and approve our proposal, we can assemble an operations team and have these channels live in a matter of hours. Let us know how you would like to proceed.”
Asked for comment, Disney said it has sent a proposal to Google to revamp YouTube and is awaiting a response.
Here’s a complete list of Disney networks that aren’t currently available on YouTube TV. ABC Local, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, SEC Network, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, ABC News Live, ACC Network, Localish. It was broadcast on the Spanish program ESPN Deportes, Baby TV Español and Nat Geo Mundo.
