Disney wants to return to YouTube TV in the name of public service.
In the media conglomerate’s latest attempt to generate support for its content following an outage of the Google-owned television service, Disney has proposed that YouTube TV put its ABC program back on the air on November 4, when the country goes to the polls for Election Day.
“Despite the impasse that led to the current outage, we asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so subscribers have access to the information they rely on,” Disney said in a statement.
“We believe in putting the public interest first and hope that YouTube TV will take this small step for its customers while continuing to work for a fair deal.”
ABC News coverage will likely be available through non-traditional means, including the live streaming channel ABC News Live. Over the weekend, Disney’s ESPN made its popular show “College GameDay” available through the X social media platform and streamed the show on the ESPN mobile app without requiring a subscription to a cable, satellite or video service.
Disney networks have been blocked from YouTube TV since last week. YouTube TV removed the Disney Networks on October 30, after the two sides failed to agree on a renewal that would keep ABC, ESPN and other Disney properties on the Internet TV service. The main sticking point is price: Disney is asking for price increases that Google is not ready to accept. At the same time, Google has tried to push TV companies to accept new levels of programming that could lead some subscribers to opt out of receiving certain networks.
YouTube TV said that if Disney channels remain unavailable for “an extended period of time,” it will offer subscribers a one-time $20 credit. YouTube TV’s basic subscription plan costs $82.99 per month.
Disney is the latest in a string of media companies to take on Google over YouTube TV in recent months. Others who have fought with the company include Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Corp. and NBCUniversal. Each of them struck a new deal without interruption, although some did so with moments of frenzy as deadlines approached. YouTube TV dropped Univision and other TelevisaUnivision-owned networks in late September after the two sides failed to reach a new deal — and those channels remain off the Google service.
