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alphabet and disney announced Friday that it has reached an agreement to restore content from ABC and ESPN to Google’s YouTube TV.
The deal comes after a two-week standoff between the two companies that began on October 31st. The stalemate resulted in the absence of a number of live sports events on the popular streaming service, including a college football game and two Monday Night Football games.
“We are pleased to share with Disney that we have reached an agreement that preserves the value of the service for our subscribers and the flexibility of future offers,” YouTube said in a statement. “Subscribers should see channels like ABC, ESPN, and FX return to service that day, as well as recordings that were previously in their libraries. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate the patience of our subscribers as we negotiated on their behalf.”
Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and David Waldman, along with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, said in a statement that the deal reflects “how audiences choose” entertainment.
“We are pleased that the network has been restored in time for fans to enjoy many great programming options this weekend, including college football,” they said.
The controversy led to more than 20 Disney-owned channels being removed this week from YouTube TV, which had been offering subscribers a $20 credit. In addition to ABC and ESPN, other networks such as FX, NatGeo, Disney Channel, and Freeform are no longer available.
The main point of contention between the two companies was the fees Disney charges YouTube TV for its network. ESPN, Disney’s most valuable channel, charges more than $10 per month in transportation fees per pay TV subscriber, more than any other network in the U.S., CNBC previously reported.
This is not the first dispute between YouTube and legacy media this year.
Most of NBCUniversal’s content was removed from YouTube TV before the two companies reached an agreement in October, with shows like “Sunday Night Football” and “America’s Got Talent” no longer being taken down.
YouTube TV also faced the following issues: fox In August, it nearly caused Fox News, Fox Sports and other Fox channels to go offline just before the start of the college football season. Both sides were able to reach an agreement to prevent power outages.
YouTube said it has options for future program packages with Disney and other partners.
Disney said access to select live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited, including content from ESPN+ and new content from the comprehensive digital service launching later this year, will be available on YouTube TV at no additional cost to basic plan subscribers by the end of 2026.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.
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