YouTube TV subscribers are poised to miss another week of “Monday Night Football.”
YouTube TV hasn’t had access to Disney-owned channels in over a week as carriage negotiations between the two companies drag on. So the streaming service is now offering a small reprieve in the form of a $20 refund.
“We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content and returns their programming to YouTube TV,” the platform told subscribers in an email on Sunday. “We know it’s been disappointing to lose Disney content, and we want you to know we deeply appreciate your patience. In light of the disruption, we’re offering our subscribers a $20 credit.”
YouTube TV said subscribers would receive a follow-up email in the coming days with instructions on how to redeem the credit. Once subscribers do, the credit will be applied to their next bill.
“We remain committed to working with Disney to bring their content back to YouTube TV,” the company said.
YouTube TV’s small peace offering to subscribers comes as contract negotiations between its parent company, Google, and Disney show few public signs of progress.
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The two companies have been unable to agree on a new licensing deal, so Disney pulled ESPN, ABC, National Geographic, FX, and Freeform from YouTube TV on October 30. Subscribers also lost access to recordings from those channels in their libraries.
YouTube wrote in an October blog that Disney “used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers. They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV.”
A Disney spokesperson previously told Business Insider that Google is refusing to pay fair rates.
“With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
YouTube has become a major player in the media space. A Nielsen report published in July said YouTube is the top media distributor, surpassing both Disney and Netflix.
