Will fans be able to watch “Monday Night Football” tonight on ESPN or ABC via YouTube TV?
The short answer: “No.” Not yet.
Longer answer: not yetBut there is a possibility that the problem will be solved by kickoff.
YouTube TV and Disney — which includes the ABC and ESPN family of networks — remain in a standoff over distribution terms that began late last week, leaving ESPN, ABC and other Disney networks unavailable to YouTube TV subscribers.
With YouTube TV’s 10 million subscribers left in limbo, the industry struggle is primarily about how much per-subscriber fee YouTube TV will pay Disney for access to its networks.
The impact of the impasse was felt last Saturday, as YouTube TV subscribers were unable to access ESPN’s extensive slate of college football games, including Texas’ thrilling win over Vanderbilt, Georgia beating Florida in the annual rivalry game, and Oklahoma beating Tennessee in prime time.
Over the weekend, ESPN stars took to social media with a promotional message for the company directing fans to a website offering other ways to watch games on the ABC or ESPN networks. ESPN recently launched its own direct-to-consumer subscription service that features access to all of Disney’s sports-related content, although this is a modest line of business compared to the revenue generated from distribution deals with operators such as cable companies or multi-channel streaming services.
On Saturday, viewers expressed a range of emotions on social media over the outage, including frustration on both sides.
This is the third football season dispute between YouTube TV and a major sports broadcaster, including Fox in August and NBC in September. Typically, deadlines involve increasing levels of intimidation and intimidation, followed by an inevitable agreement, as was the case with Fox and NBC.
None of those negotiations have reached the stage that Disney and YouTube are at now. However, a distributor that is not broadcasting an NFL game — certainly a prime-time NFL game like “Monday Night Football” — crosses an accessibility barrier that puts this dispute into largely uncharted new territory. That’s one reason why some industry experts believe the showdown could end before tonight’s 8:15 PM ET broadcast.
Looking to the future — and beyond sports — any ongoing negotiations could impact YouTube TV subscribers’ ability to receive Election Day information from ABC News. Per a Disney spokesperson:
“Despite the impasse that led to the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to bring back ABC for Election Day so subscribers can access the information they rely on. We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for its customers as we continue to work toward a fair agreement.”
YouTube TV is the fourth-largest TV distributor in the United States, behind cable giants Comcast and Charter and satellite operator DirecTV. However, industry trends predict that YouTube TV will become the largest TV distributor by the end of the decade, which will give it more market power in its negotiations with content providers. If access is not possible via YouTube TV, fans can watch the game through alternatives of varying cost and complexity.
This story will be updated as circumstances change.
