YouTube TV Warns Subscribers They Could Lose Disney Channels This Week

Subscribers to Alphabet’s GOOG YouTube TV are being warned they could possibly lose access to the Walt Disney Co.'s DIS network lineup by the end of this week if contract negotiations between the companies fail.

What Happened: Disney’s contract with YouTube TV for its ABC-owned stations, its ESPN offerings, Disney channels, Freeform, FX networks and National Geographic channels are scheduled to expire on Dec. 17 at 11:59 p.m. ET, according to a Variety report.

YouTube is placing the blame on the stalled negotiations on Disney, issuing a statement that if “Disney offers us equitable terms, we’ll renew our agreement with them. However, if we are unable to reach a deal by Friday, the Disney-owned channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV and we will decrease our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99 (while this content remains off our platform).”

For its part, Disney issued its own statement boasting it has a “highly successful track record of negotiating such agreements with providers of all types and sizes across the country and is committed to working with Google to reach a fair, market-based agreement.”

Related Link: Analysis: Why Did Disney's 'West Side Story' Flop On Opening Weekend?

What's Next: YouTube advised its subscribers that if the companies cannot reach an agreement, they could “consider signing up for their own service, the Disney Bundle, which they offer for $13.99/month.”

The spat with Disney is the latest carriage deal confrontation that YouTube TV has undertaken. Earlier in the fall, it had a similar give-and-take with Comcast Corporation’s CMCSA NBCUniversal, and last week it settled simmering differences with Roku ROKU that resulted in YouTube TV being taken off the Roku platform.

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