YouTube TV, Disney dispute set to impact Week 11 of college football, can agreement be reached?

The ongoing dispute between YouTube TV and Disney is set to carry over into Week 11 of college football. News broke last week that ESPN, ABC and other Disney networks were going dark on Google’s YouTube TV.

The decision to go dark came after months of negotiations and is the latest in a series of carriage disputes with major networks and YouTube TV. The standoff between Disney and YouTube TV is coming up on one week, and has surprised many that a resolution was not reached before this week’s Monday Night Football game.

With Disney going dark on YouTube TV, more than 20 channels were removed. On Friday, YouTube TV called out Disney for leaking documents to the press and negotiating in public through paid talent.

“Once 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’ve offered and taking credit for our product proposals,” YouTube TV said in a statement. “Our 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’s best for our mutual customers.”

Earlier on Friday, Disney wrote a memo to employees stating it was headed to another “sports-packed weekend without a deal in place.”

“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?” the memo stated. “We wish we could give you that answer today.”

The two sides remain distanced from reaching an agreement before Week 11. The root of the dispute is a streaming contract that has to be renewed. The top concern is the size of the per-subscriber fee that YouTube TV will pay Disney for access to its networks.

YouTube previously asked for Disney’s streaming content to be added to YouTube TV. Disney rejected the deal, according to CNBC, and has no plans to budge on the request. Disney was willing to offer an agreement that would give some subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ without an extra charge, but adding streaming content to YouTube TV is out of the question.

Meanwhile, consumers are left scrambling to find options to watch college football games on Disney channels. YouTube TV has roughly 10 million subscribers, and YouTube is the top U.S. media distributor by audience engagement.

ESPN has been pushing its new streaming app since the carriage dispute began. During Tuesday’s The Pat McAfee Show, which is simulcast on both ESPN and YouTube, McAfee called for an end to the dispute and called out Disney for pushing ESPN stars to promote the streaming platform and bundle on social media.

“We’re all done with it, OK? We’re all done with it,” McAfee said. “And also, if you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multi-billion dollar deal. OK? Nobody cares what you have to say. There will be nothing that we say or a website that needs to be visited that’ll get this thing (resolved). There are, I don’t want to say the exact names, but these people [need to come together]. Let’s put our swords down. Let’s put our swords down for the good of sports.

“… And stop asking me to go to a website. I don’t want to do that. … All you’re doing is pissing everybody off even more.”

YouTube TV said in a statement earlier this week that, “to truly achieve what is best for our mutual customers, we propose immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate.”

YouTube TV accused Disney of proposing “costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices.”

Which Week 11 college football games will be impacted?

With mid-week MAC games starting, YouTube TV customers have already missed a handful of Week 11 games. Multiple Group of Six conference games are scheduled for Thursday night, too. Tulane at Memphis on Friday night is set to be on ESPN with major College Football Playoff implications on the line.

Beyond the mid-week games, No. 5 Georgia at Mississippi State, No. 7 BYU at No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 22 Missouri, Syracuse at No. 18 Miami, Wake Forest at No. 14 Virginia, Cal at No. 15 Louisville and LSU at No. 4 Alabama are all on Disney channels.

ABC, specifically, has gotten off to a dominant start to the college football season. The network has aired 21 of the 25 most-watched games of the year, led by Georgia’s overtime victory against Tennessee in Week 3. That matchup averaged 12.6 million viewers.

Without Disney channels on YouTube TV, consumers are left to turn to cable or sign up for a new streaming platform. Fubo, which is 70% owned by Disney, has Disney channels and includes a free trial, and Sling TV is another option.