YoutubeTVs deal with Disney expires Friday, December 17th. I received the below email.
We are now in negotiations with Disney to continue distributing their content on YouTube TV. Our deal will expire on Friday, December 17, 2021. We have not yet been able to reach an equitable agreement, so we want to give you a heads-up so that you can understand your choices.
Disney is an important partner for us. We are in active conversations with them and are working hard to keep their content on YouTube TV. Our ask of Disney, as with all of our partners, is to treat YouTube TV like any other TV provider — by offering us the same rates that services of a similar size pay, across Disney's channels for as long as we carry them.
We welcome a renewed agreement provided we can reach equitable terms with Disney. However, if we are unable to reach a deal by Friday, the Disney-owned channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV starting December 17, and we will decrease our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99 (while Disney content remains off of our platform).
This would mean that ESPN channels (including the ACC network) and ABC are also going to be pulled if no deal is reached by Friday. Streaming services are now becoming more of a hassle than cable packages were.
Comments
I already hated Disney before this additional nonsense.
From what I have seen, this is now the norm for every provider on any platform. Dish Network has more negotiations related drops than any other provider eith the least being on DirectTV. But it seems it is just business as usual and all co summers are at risk of having to make choices to switch mid season to see the games they want and/or carry multiple subscriptions
If you give me an easy way to pay to stream and watch what I want I'll gladly pay
But at a certain point when it becomes easier to pirate this shit, that's what I'm going to do. It absurd that it is becoming this difficult to choose a service and know that you're going to get what you pay for. I'm so done with this bullshit. It's getting to the point where the government needs to step in and actually regulate this.
And the cost keeps going up and up with each negotiation. I wonder if it's because with streaming services you really aren't limited to what gets to your house like before with cable so it gives Disney more negotiating power because they know the consumer can just change to a different service. Before with cable consumers couldn't switch when Disney or one of the other companies pulled channels.
1984 this shit for us, government! /s
Eventually, there's gonna be a company out there that finally manages to bring everyone together onto the same sheet of music and form an alliance of sorts so that everyone can pay one person to watch everything under the sun. This will even come with the options of paying per single view of something in big time live events and overall channel purchases for wilder streaming options. I think I'll call it DirectCast-ish-Network TV...Spectrum. Idk...just workshopping it
All I want is the ability to reliably stream all of the teams I care about, live, without blackouts, from one single place / subscription. I don't care about which network is carrying the games. I don't care about "additional content". I don't care about bundles. I don't even really care about the cost (within reason). None of that matters. FFS.
I'm still rating for a 'pay-per-view' - esque service where I can pay $1 or 2 and watch a single game.
For those who rarely watch ESPN unless VT is playing, would be great and I'd gladly drop a few bucks to watch a game once or twice a month.
Bowl season starts December 17th as well :(
But so many of these YTTV emails "miraculously" end up getting worked out around the last minute so I'm not going to worry about it much yet.
Yes, this, but at the same time the only reason I purchased youtube tv to begin with was because it carried sports, specifically all the channels i could want to watch college football on. I sign up for it the day before the season starts and I cancel it the day after the national championship game. So not having the ESPN/ABC family of networks is an absolute dealbreaker for me.
Having the Disney brands for $65 a month, I'm getting my monies worth
Not having the Disney brands at $50 a month, I'm wasting $50
I'd go with Disney over YTTV.
YouTubeTV sends these emails out to get angry customers to contact Disney/ESPN or whatever network they are negotiating with. It is an attempt to gain a little leverage but mostly it's just transparency. They have the data on how much their users watch these channels (it's probably a lot less than sports-minded people think) so they know the risk. This isn't the first time it has happened and they usually work it out before the deadline. I'll worry when the channels actually disappear.
What I am grateful for is the fact that they will actually reduce your bill if they lose channels. When has a cable company ever done that?
Without the ESPN/Disney channels I will probably switch to HuluTV. I love YouTubeTV's unlimited dvr (you can tell it to record "football" and it will record every single game), but you do what you gotta do.
But the Disney package also includes FX FXX ABC Freeform and Disney Channel. All in all you're taking away a significant portion of YTTVs total channels. Shows like The Bachelor, Always Sunny, Archer, and a lot of Simpsons reruns. A $15 decrease might not be enough.
Oh no, not The Bachelor, how will we as a society ever overcome such injustice?
You laugh but that it the only live television show that my wife watches and many of her friends or girls I know are also into it.
The same way that sports is a thing for guys to talk about, the bachelor is a "hey did you see? I can't believe it" thing for women (and probably some men)
funny thing is ABC is free over the air in HD
YTTV without ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACCN, SECN, local ABC, FX, FXX, Disney, ABC Freeform, etc is worth a lot less than the $50/m they are going to be charging us.
If and when this goes down, YTTV is basically going to be devoid of sports programming. Yeah, they'll have CBS and Fox for NFL games, but ESPN has the major broadcast rights to the NBA, NHL, college basketball, almost all the college football bowl games, the college football playoff, Monday Night Football, etc. And that's before considering that YTTV refused to work with Bally Sports, preventing >50% of the local markets from streaming their own teams.
And on top of all this other bullshit, I would just gladly pay for ESPN+ and just bypass all the bullshit, but Disney, in their efforts to nickel and dime the hell out of everyone, doesn't have a single option that includes everything, and it wouldn't include live programming of their regular networks.
At a certain point, the hell with this shit. Bring on the fucking piracy
I think this IS the piracy.
Ha, exactly right. We aren't the pirates, we're the merchant vessels getting plundered.
Exactly. But YTTV needs Disney more than Disney needs YTTV
Especially because Disney conveniently owns 2/3s of YTTV's primary rival (Hulu Live). People have been leaving Hulu Live for years because YTTV was the better value with more content. So Disney now is just taking away the content.
"YTTV without ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACCN, SECN, local ABC, FX, FXX, Disney, ABC Freeform, etc is worth a lot less than the $50/m they are going to be charging us."
Agree 100%. I'll switch without thise channels. But these types of negotiations are part of the new normal. This is just Google vs Disney. Is it more profitable for Disney to keep selling content to YouTubeTV/Google or do they take a short term loss to try and poach YouTubeTV subscribers for their Hulu service?
Like I said, I'll likely switch if they lose all of those channels. Disney pretty much has them by the balls. It's a dick measuring contest between Disney and Google and most likely they will both agree to continue working with one another since it profits both of them, unless Disney is planning on running a new live TV/sports streaming service. I have no delusions that things will stay as they are when companies want to make more money.
Does anyone know if ESPN+ gives you all the ESPN channels and ACCN? It seems ESPN+ only covers the excess that's not apart of the ESPN channels and ACCN. Does anyone have insight into this?
I wouldn't be opposed to an ESPN+ subscription if it covered all ESPN channels and ACCN.
It does not have any of that. ESPN+ provides exclusively ESPN+ content.
It's a bunch of leftovers, really.
Agreed. If it didn't make more sense for me to do the Hulu/Disney/ESPN+ bundle, I would never pay for ESPN+ on its own.
That's what I thought. So, not an option then. Thanks.
No it doesn't but you can use the free ESPN app and stream through there
All of you having issues choosing a provider or which apps. I give you.... Big Bubba Streaming Service. Click this link and then click "client area". You can review the different packages and choose whats best for you. All you need to do is purchase subscription, buy a FireStick then follow the guide to jailbreak the FireStick with the BBS Clear or Original Channel app. There is a youtube video for it and it might take you 10-20 minutes depending on your tech savvy. $100-$255 p/ year for every sports channel/network(SECN, ACCN, NFL Network, NHL, MLB etc), network tv, premium movie channels (HBO, Showtime, STARs etc), all PPV, multiple 24/7 cartoon channels. Over 400 channels in the basic package, up to 800 channels in the premium. Can pay once per month (suggested if you want to just try it out for a month, only $20) every 6 months or once per year to renew. I've had it for 3 years now and it's a game changer for sure. 100% legit, let me know if yall have any questions.
...said the Nigerian Prince.
That Sonofabitch still owes me for that lottery my long-dead uncle won back in 1996.
There is no way this is legit just fyi lol
Hacking a fire stick 100% 100% works, but it's definitely dubious legality
I took legit to mean legal. There is no way this is legal was probably better.
Me saying Legit, means the service is quality and it's everything that it's promoted to be. I haven't had any service interruptions or buffering/loading issues at all since having it. Legal, I have no idea but again I'm 3 years in and haven't had any issues. Maybe the feds are building their case as I type.
For the most part, as long as you aren't re-copying the content on your own, and you aren't stealing the content, there currently isn't a legal recourse against you. For Big Bubba, if they are providing copyrighted content without a license or stealing the content, then they could be prosecuted for copyright violations and/or theft. (This is not legal advice.)
Welp. 7 minutes early.
What a fucking joke
2
billiontrillion dollar companies bickering over how much money to charge and we are the losers. Every fucking time we are the losers.Straight up cartel levels of bullshit. Where the fuck is the government during this? If you are going to break up Microsoft 20 years ago, it's long past time to do the same to Google, Amazon, Apple, Disney, etc.
There's a SC court case that's the answer to all this but I won't go any further than that.
Edit: on second thought not trying to go down a rabbit hole with this
RIP Bowl Season for many of us
Time to move over to Hulu TV.
Hows Hulu's dev service? The unlimited dev on YouTube tv is huge
Fuck Hulu, it's owned by Disney and moving over to Hulu is exactly what Disney is trying to accomplish here so they can get more of your money. Fuck them
Go with something like Fubo
So you're mad at them for charging you for something you want?
For me, I just wish there were one place that had all VT basketball and football. I get a lot of it with Hulu Live. It's more the blackouts when I can't get the games (even though I'm paying) that annoy me.
It's not that they're charging for something we want, it's that they bought up the content and distribution sides and are now trying to set their own terms and prices without competition. This is why anti-trust laws are such a big deal.
I'm as much against monopolies as the next guy, but watching YouTube call another company monopolistic could get pretty interesting.
Seems to me all the biggest streaming channels are developing their own content, so I'm not sure how you take one side over another. I'm interested to hear your views.
Disney and Google are both major monopoly concerns, one being in the wrong in this case doesn't mean the other is off the hook.
Multiple content companies competing on the merits of their product and business practices is great, a handful of companies using their acquired power to buy out opposition and control both supply and distribution is bad and results in anti-competitive conundrums like these. Preventing these kinds of monopolies used to be a core aspect of maintaining a free market that we, as a country, did aggressively. I think that's as much as I can say without crossing CG.
I agree, though just to keep in mind Disney owns part of Fubo as well (though unlike Hulu isn't a majority shareholder)
And YTTV is cancelled. Might try Fubo tv
I had switched from HuluTV years ago because there interface was garbage. I preferred the "guide" like style for live TV surfing.
I will give youtubeTV till Monday to fix this stupid bullshit.
Hulu live is what I still use and I've had it pretty much since it was released. It's gone through a price increase every 6 months or so.
I'm sick of it and just cancel my live service after football season
They make it pretty easy to cancel the 'live' element. I do it every year, and add it back in for football.
Yupp it's one of the only reasons I've kept it the ease of changing my subscription level
The Hulu interface is still garbage? I couldn't even make it through a one-week trial with them a few years ago due to the awful UI. I guess that means I'm switching to FuboTV if YoutubeTV doesn't fix this in the next couple of days.
Same. It was so bad.
Just in time YTTV....
Next time you might not get to keep me as a customer.
Just paused our YTTV subscription and started a trial of Hulu. It's hard to imagine that letting their agreement with Disney lapse is a good strategy for google/ YouTube
Disney is every bit as much to blame as this. They own Hulu and you better believe this was done to get people to that subscription.
I get that too, just don't think that YTTV had much or any leverage here. They must be bleeding subscriptions
Edit: and, I'll cancel Hulu the minute YTTV gets this figured out but bow season is the most wonderful time of the year and it's hard to watch without ESPN
Who could ever have foreseen this when ESPN started buying the entire sport, one conference and bowl at a time? /s
Absolutely loathe Disney.
Yes, I hate furry goodness, fairy princesses, and ESPN.
Wait, no I don't.
I hated COX cable, where I paid obscene amounts of money and STILL had to grovel with them once a month to make it work.
(Disney may or may not have played a significant role behind the scenes in you having to pay obscene amounts of money to COX)
I'm pretty sure Cox was run by the King's official torturer, with or without any help from Disney.
Have done all the streaming services, and fubo has been the family favorite for us. No drama, no price increases, and have only gained channels instead of losing them. Has everything for sports lovers, and all the main channels for the non-sports watchers. Highly underrated imho.
Had Fubo for over a year and no complaints from me. Using the cheapest plan so only knock on that is limited to 30 hours on cloud DVR and only one TV streaming at a time. Can use pc or mobile device at the same time as 1 TV though.
Their cheapest plan is now offering 3 simultaneous streams and 250 hours of DVR. You might want to contact them to see if they will upgrade you for free or create a new account if you want those added benefits.
Thanks for the info on fubo. Currently yttv user and i share my account with 2 other households to split the costs. Does fubo allow that same setup or does fubo have to be within the same home? If so, I'm putting a pause on yttv and will look at switching over to fubo.
It is possible, however, it looks like only one of the locations can use it on a TV while the other locations will have to use a mobile device or web browser.
All current fuboTV English (US & Canada) bundle plans at a minimum include Family Share, which allows you to stream from three devices at a time. Family Share is included in the Starter or Elite bundle plans.
Add Unlimited Screens to your Started plan for $9.99/mo (plus applicable taxes and fees) to stream on up to ten supported devices connected to your Home Network, plus two streams outside the home using mobile devices or web browsers, for a total of 12. Unlimited Screens is included in the Pro bundle plan.
Can I stream fuboTV from multiple locations?
You can stream on supported mobile devices and web browsers from different locations simultaneously. fuboTV also allows you to stream using a compatible TV device (Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Xbox One) from any location, however you can only stream on TV devices from one location at a time.
If you attempt to use fuboTV from two locations using a TV device, you'll receive an error indicating you are streaming from too many locations. In order to continue streaming from your TV, you must end the other TV device's stream or you can allow the other device to continue by ending your stream.
https://support.fubo.tv/hc/en-us/articles/115001440248-How-many-devices-...
In addition to Hulu, Disney also has a stake in fubo. Shocking I know.
So I just signed up with Fubo today because of the disruption, and just discovered fan view.
What??!!! How did I not know this was something a provider was doing! It's great!
Um.... elaborate please...
When you put the game in Fan View, it sends the video to a window, and pops up stats on the right, and scores of other games of interest at the bottom.
Oh that's nifty.
If this doesn't get resolved in a timely manner I'm wondering if Bezos swoops in and finds a way to put all this on a Disney-zon Prime subscription somehow
Today's mood when I'm not watching any bowl games
Wasn't aware of any of this until this morning when I finally TKPd for more than 5 seconds.... Guess I'll look into Fubo. YTTV is not worth $50 without the Disney stuff (something something monopoly)....
Hate being the little guy...
Switched to Fubo today after about a year of YTTV and am already a fan. The ease of going between channels and viewing multiple streams at once is reason enough to stay.
Hulu straight trolling today:
https://twitter.com/hulu/status/1472281508698230784?t=99wcFrQNoEWyVtbNJX...
almost like disney/hulu are pricing everyone else out to get more hulu subs
Basically every bowl game is on normal YouTube right now.
I'm guessing YouTube is slower to pull for copyright infringement than usual...
If I were google, I'd be reeeeaaaal slow to react to copyright claims from Disney right now.
Yep cable and streaming aren't just competing against each other, but pirating to. The more barriers you put up to watching the more pirating will proliferate and become acceptable.
Both sides are the problem Disney shouldn't be able to eat up the entire CFB arena the way they have and YTTV need to quit getting channels that are useless worthless fluff and inflating the rate on wasted channels that offer little to no value. I'm looking at you MTV with 24/7 ridiculousness on. Only people who truly pay here are customers like myself.
As someone whose formative years were spent watching late 80's and early 90's MTV, it saddens me to see the sad sack that it has become. Mix of endless reruns of sitcoms that were never that funny in the first place and mindless original content. Pull the plug and just let MTV die, please.
But more to the point, Streaming has really been destroyed. It started with the folding of Playstation Vue which despite its stupid name was by far the best service I have ever used. Other than lack of contracts and boxes, they're pretty much Cable now.
7-8 years ago, many had real hope that soon consumers would actually be able to choose which channels they wanted and bypass the spurious ones (*cough* Hallmark*cough*). Now, not only can't you do that but you have to both have a Streaming/cable/satellite Provider and 6-8 subscription services just to get all the top content. It's even worse than it was before.
I'm not happy with AT&T DirectTV Stream. Despite having the Fiber 1000 bandwidth, my stream constantly buffers. Lose-lose all around.
And this is exactly what we knew would happen as soon as the networks themselves decided they wanted a piece of the cake. Just corporate greed from top to bottom and in the end the only losers are the consumers. CEOs and shareholders rake in more and more money while the consumer is gouged more and more. And because all the networks act like a cartel, artificially raising their rates across the board, there is no competition and nobody capable of keeping it under control. Its unregulated price inflation that is making things worse than it was under cable, which was already charging consumers an absurd price for the product.
Is television this important to you?
I'd say watching VT sports is pretty important for people who read and consume sites like this, yes.
Yeah and many options have been floated for watching the games. Stop bitching constantly about a fucking streaming service.
This is the thread about the streaming service. There are other threads if you'd rather talk about something else.
Imagine coming into this thread over this topic and actually making that post.
Did this user get banned for this? Just curious because I noticed the link to the user profile goes to the sweet Beamer gif page...
Apparently. I mean he came into a thread about streaming services to insult all the people talking about streaming services.
Oh I agree it was a bold strategy, just wasn't sure if I missed something even more entertaining that was more deserving of the banhammer.
I sincerely hope so
Tried a $10 promo of Sling Orange for the ESPN channels during bowl season, and while the interface is not as bad as Hulu's (to which I will certainly not be giving any money, given this Disney mess) it's still pretty shitty. I can't believe all of the competition's UI / UX is so bad compared to YouTube TV. It's like they don't even care.
Yeah, I've had Sling for a few years and the interface was pretty good before, but they just changed it a couple of months ago and I hate it now.
It's back. No price increase, at least for now
🍻
Oooh got you by one second
Drink up!
Cancelling YTTV would've been a knee jerk reaction on this... There was no doubt on my mind this wouldn't resolve itself within days.
And we got $15, it's a Christmas Miracle
I was hoping it would be resolved but figured it would lead to a price hike. Glad it didn't. Also surprised Google kept the $15 credit in place for a 36 hour inconvenience. Even more surprised that all recordings from removed channels were reinstated.
I'm not. I canceled YTTV for about a year and all my previous recordings were there when I came back.
Recordings only have a shelf life of 10-12 months, so you probably didn't keep them for long lol
Glad to hear that's the case though, in case I end up cancelling at some point.
They have a shelf life now. They didn't use to.
What you want to bet that tens of thousands of people canceling their YTTV subscriptions made the bosses at Google decide to cave into the Mouse's demands? Gotta love corporate politics, it's all about the $$$.
I had cancelled mine after I heard the news. Still hoping for Xfinity to finally put the ACCN on the air so I don't have to re-up YTTV for $64.85/month to watch Hokie sports.
ACCN is live on Xfinity as of a couple days ago. Channel 1325.
That's awesome, thanks!
I must have missed the press release from the customer-friendly Xfinity. s/
A lot of people probably didn't realize YTTV (I believe) was price locked. So when they signed up it was only $65... Newer prescribers pay $80. So cancelling service and signing back up probably cost them $15/month
I've chose to transfer from YouTube TV. Please respect my decision.
All the "true" YTTV fans wish you the best /s
I won't be surprised when YTTV goes up something like + $5/month in a few months once all the smoke from this ordeal clears out.
Still worth it in my opinion if you're a casual television viewer.
It has such a surprisingly high number of sports channels and packages and significantly better channel options then a comparable prices Cox cable package.
Can't wait for GloFiber in Vinton so I can finally fuck Cox... (phrasing)
Anyone else still missing Disney related channels from YTTV?
Edit: the channels were removed from my listings. I had to go into settings and reselect them. Of course, my custom view is screwed up now so I have to fix that too.