{"id":123507,"date":"2025-11-07T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123507\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:43:09","slug":"top-disney-exec-trio-sees-no-end-to-youtube-tv-clash-as-sports-packed-weekend-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123507\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Disney Exec Trio Sees No End To YouTube TV Clash As “Sports-Packed Weekend” Approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs the Disney<\/a>\u2013YouTube TV<\/a> carriage fight drags on, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman joined with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro to thank employees for \u201cstaying focused\u201d during the disruption.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnother sports-packed weekend\u201d headlined by college football on Saturday is likely to be dark for YouTube TV\u2019s 10 million subscribers, the execs wrote in an internal memo. (Read it in full below.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe memo thanked employees for \u201cstaying focused on maintaining such a high bar throughout this difficult situation.\u201d Given the \u201cswirl of information about the impasse,\u201d it said it wanted to recap the company\u2019s bargaining position. \u201cRather than compete on a level playing field, Google\u2019s YouTube TV has approached these negotiations as if it were the only player in the game,\u201d the executives complained.<\/p>\n

\n\tABC stations, ESPN, FX and other Disney networks went dark on YouTube TV on October 30<\/a> after the companies were unable to reach terms on a distribution renewal. While carriage disputes are nothing news, and Disney has had high-profile ones with DirecTV and Charter in recent years, the YouTube TV situation is unique. While carriage fees are a primary source of friction, the Big Tech DNA of YouTube and the $3 trillion valuation of its corporate parent, Google, have altered the usual dynamics. This battle is the fourth in the past three months between YouTube TV and a major programmer.<\/p>\n

\n\tYouTube TV, not surprisingly, sees things a bit differently than Walden, Bergman and Pitaro do.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnce again, Disney is resorting to their old tactics like leaking documents to the press, negotiating in public through their paid talent and misrepresenting the facts including from the deals they\u2019ve offered and taking credit for our product proposals,\u201d a YouTube TV spokesperson told Deadline in a statement. \u201cOur team stands ready to make a fair agreement in line with their deals with other distributors and we encourage Disney to come to the table and do what\u2019s best for our mutual customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHere is the full memo:<\/p>\n

Team,<\/p>\n

We promised to keep you updated on our negotiations with Google\u2019s YouTube TV following their decision last week to pull our channels from their service, and we are writing today with the latest. We realize this has been a challenging week, with everyone asking the same question as millions of YouTube TV subscribers during the busiest time of the year in sports: When will ESPN and ABC be back on the service? We wish we could give you that answer today, but unfortunately, we are headed into another sports-packed weekend without a deal in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We know you\u2019ve seen a swirl of information about the impasse, so we wanted to share some of the facts:
We began these negotiations by offering YouTube TV a deal that would cost\u00a0less\u00a0overall than the terms of our recently expired license. That\u2019s real savings that YouTube TV could pass along to its customers.\u00a0
We\u2019ve offered innovative, bespoke programming packages\u2014tailored to sports fans, entertainment fans, kids and families\u2014that would provide tremendous flexibility for YouTube TV and greater choice and value for its customers.
We\u2019ve offered fair terms that are in-line with the more than 500 other distributors that have renewed their agreements since last summer, including the top distributors, who are far larger than YouTube TV.
Despite all this, YouTube TV continues to insist on receiving preferential terms that are below market and has made few concessions.\u00a0
Rather than compete on a level playing field, Google\u2019s YouTube TV has approached these negotiations as if it were the only player in the game. It goes without saying that the reason so many consumers value our programming above others is because we invest in the best talent, creators and content in the world, and we cannot allow anyone to undercut our ability to do so.<\/p>\n

We know how difficult this situation is for the YouTube TV customers we serve, and for all of you who provide the sports programming, entertainment, news and live events that our fans know and love. Thank you for the incredible work you do each and every day and for staying focused on maintaining such a high bar throughout this difficult situation.<\/p>\n

We will continue to work diligently to find common ground with YouTube TV and will keep you informed as we have more news to share.<\/p>\n

With Gratitude,
Alan, Dana & Jimmy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Disney\u2013YouTube TV carriage fight drags on, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman joined with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14827,2398,156,111,139,69,14829,437,14831],"class_list":{"0":"post-123507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-carriage-dispute","9":"tag-disney","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-pay-tv","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-youtube-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}