Word came late yesterday afternoon that Disney and YouTube TV have agreed to a new deal that will restore access to Disney-owned networks.
Disney said in a statement: “We are pleased to announce that after a brief disruption, we have reached a new distribution agreement with Google’s YouTube TV for continued carriage of our portfolio of networks. We appreciate Google’s collaboration to reach fair terms that are consistent with the market, and we’re thrilled that our robust lineup of live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming is in the process of being restored to YouTube TV subscribers across the country.”
Last week, negotiations between Disney and YouTube TV’s parent company Google failed, and the previous agreement expired on Friday, December 17, 2021 at 11:59pm.
As of midnight on Saturday, all of these Disney-owned networks were removed from YouTube TV‘s line-up:
- Local ABC channels
- ABC News Live
- ACC Network
- Disney Channel
- Disney Junior
- Disney XD
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)
- ESPNU
- ESPNEWS
- Freeform
- FX
- FXX
- FXM
- National Geographic
- National Geographic Wild
- SEC Network
YouTube TV offered its viewers a $15 discount off the regular $64.99 price for the length of time the channels were gone.
Last night the streaming service announced via Twitter that all customers will still receive a one-time $15 discount for the two-day loss of channels.
The channels began being restored to the service last night, but many online are expecting a rate hike to follow this new contract.