It’s the seventh day since ESPN, ABC, and other Disney networks went out on YouTube TV, but the patience of Internet TV service subscribers is wearing thin.
Just before midnight ET on Thursday, October 30th, Disney’s internet went dark on its YouTube TV service, as Disney and Google had a wide gap in their previous contract before it expired. What matters is the price. Google says Disney is demanding unprecedented price increases for all its channels, including the ESPN channel and the local ABC station, while Disney says the tech giant “refuses to pay a fair price for our channels.”
YouTube TV subscribers are growing increasingly frustrated with each day the power goes out, having missed a week of coverage of ESPN’s college football and Monday Night Football, which aired last Saturday.
When YouTube TV subscribers were asked what they have done or plan to do in response to the Google-Disney conflict, 24% said they had already canceled or planned to cancel their YouTube TV subscription because “the core content they subscribed to is no longer available,” according to a new survey. This is according to a survey of approximately 1,100 U.S. consumers conducted this week by market research firm Drive Research.
Additionally, 30% of YouTube TV subscribers said they directly subscribe to or plan to subscribe to ESPN Unlimited or Hulu + Live TV to continue accessing the sports events and networks they want to watch. About 22% said they use or will (expect to) use someone else’s login for ESPN or Hulu + Live TV, and 15% admitted they have used or may use illegal streaming.
If the power outage lasts longer, YouTube TV’s cancellation rate is expected to spike dramatically. 82% of survey respondents said they were “likely” to cancel their subscriptions if the dispute between Disney and Google wasn’t resolved soon (though the survey didn’t ask about a specific time frame). However, please note that there is a difference between someone who says they are “cancelling your service” and someone who actually cancels your service.
Commenting on the study’s findings, a YouTube spokesperson told Variety, “We don’t know the company well, so we can’t speak to its reliability or methodology. What we can say is that subscriber churn, while always disappointing, is manageable and is inconsistent with the findings of this study.”
Meanwhile, when asked who was to blame, 58% of those surveyed said both Disney and Google were equally responsible, with 37% blaming Disney and 5% blaming Google. The bottom line is that YouTube TV customers are fed up. They’re tired of being used as a bargaining chip in a fight between two giant corporations.
YouTube TV is estimated to have more than 10 million subscribers and ranks as the largest virtual pay TV provider in the United States. Next up is Fubo, which recently merged with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV and has about 6 million subscribers in North America.
Most YouTube TV customers (56%) said they signed up for the service primarily to watch live sports, followed by access to the entire channel lineup (43%) and ABC (33%). Approximately 27% said YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket also had an impact. You can purchase Sunday Ticket from YouTube without subscribing to YouTube TV. Price and features are also important. 51% said YouTube TV was cheaper than cable or other pay TV options, 47% valued the ability to share the service with family or use multiple streams, and 40% signed up for quality and reliability.
According to YouTube, YouTube TV customers will receive a one-time $20 credit if the Disney Network is unavailable for an “extended period.” (A YouTube representative said the company did not provide any specifics regarding the timing of the credits, but said subscribers will receive an email as soon as the credits are available.)
However, many YouTube TV customers say the $20 credit isn’t enough to prevent cancellation. According to the survey, only 30% agree with the cancellation, 44% are against it and 26% are neutral. According to Drive Research, this shows that “the one-time credit does not match the emotional and real costs of ESPN and ABC for most subscribers.”
The results are based on an online survey of 1,107 consumers of streaming and live TV services conducted by Drive Research. The company said the sample size has a margin of error of approximately +/-3% at a 95% confidence level.
