YouTube TV warns it could lose all channels owned by Disney over contract dispute

YouTube TV warned yesterday it could lose all Disney-owned channels after Friday due to a contract dispute and said it would temporarily cut its price by $15 a month if that happened.

“We are now in talks with Disney to continue distributing their content on YouTube TV so you can keep watching everything from your favorite ESPN teams to The Bachelor and Good Morning America. Our deal expires on Friday, December 17, and we haven’t done it yet.”no equitable agreement could be reached yet, so we wanted to warn you ahead of time so you can understand your choice,” YouTube, owned by Google, wrote on its blog.

“If we cannot reach an agreement by Friday, Disney-owned channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV and we will reduce our monthly price by $15 from $64.99 to $49.99 (as long as this content remains outside of our platform.),” reads the blog post. YouTube noted that users can pause or cancel their YouTube TV subscription at any time and subscribe to the Disney Bundle for $13.99 per month.

YouTube’s statement that it wants “equal”terms indicates that it is seeking a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause from Disney. “We ask Disney, like all of our partners, to treat YouTube TV like any other TV channel provider, offering us the same rates that pay a similarly sized service on all Disney channels for as long as we provide them. If Disney offers us equal terms, we will renew the contract with them,” YouTube wrote.

In response to an inquiry from Ars, Disney said the contract expires Friday at 11:59 pm ET and covers “ABC-owned TV stations, ESPN networks, Disney Channels, Freeform Channels, FX Networks, and National Geographic Channels.”Disney expressed confidence that companies will be able to avoid power outages:

Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution has a highly successful track record of negotiating such agreements with vendors of all types and sizes across the country and is committed to working with Google to reach a fair market agreement. We hope we can close the deal and continue to provide YouTube TV customers with our live sports and news, as well as programs for kids, families, and general entertainment.

YouTube settles disputes with NBC and Roku

YouTube’s demand for an MFN provision was also one of the turning points in its recent dispute with Comcast’s NBCUniversal. In this case, the companies had to agree to a short extension to avoid power cuts after the original contract expired. A day later, they announced a multi-year deal to keep the NBC channel on YouTube TV.

Negotiations between YouTube and NBC were contentious in part because NBCUniversal asked YouTube TV to turn on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, which apparently failed to attract many paying subscribers. A Disney spokesperson told Ars that Disney didn’t ask YouTube TV to include Disney+.

A recent dispute between Roku and Google resulted in the YouTube TV app being removed from the Roku Channel Store. Google and Roku reached an agreement to end this stalemate last week, a day before the regular YouTube app was removed from the Roku store.