MW YouTube TV, Disney reach streaming deal in time to watch 'Monday Night Football'
By Mike Murphy
Deal reached after weekend blackout of Disney-owned channels, including ABC and ESPN, on YouTube's live-streaming service
Disney-owned channels are returning to YouTube TV, just in time for "Monday Night Football."
A deal was announced Sunday, two days after Walt Disney Co. $(DIS)$-owned channels -- including ABC, ESPN, FX, National Geographic and the Disney Channel -- were pulled from Alphabet Inc.'s $(GOOGL)$(GOOGL) YouTube TV live-streaming service over a price dispute.
"We're happy to share that we've reached an agreement with Disney to return their content to YouTube TV while preserving a $64.99/mo. price for our members," YouTube TV said in a statement Sunday. "We have already started to restore access to Disney networks like ESPN and FX, including their live and on-demand content, as well as any recordings that were previously in your library. We will also be turning on the local ABC stations over the course of the day."
YouTube TV added that customers will receive a $15 credit on their monthly bill to make up for the temporary loss of Disney content. On Friday, YouTube TV temporarily dropped its monthly price from $64.99 to $49.99 due to the loss of Disney; that price will now return to its previous level.
The dispute outraged many YouTube TV customers, who lost ESPN and ABC sports programming just as college football's bowl season was getting underway. ESPN's "Monday Night Football" is still a major draw for viewers, and a new deal was reached in plenty of time to make sure it was available for YouTube TV users.
Disney's Hulu may have benefited from the temporary channel blackout -- a number of angry YouTube TV customers posted on social media over the weekend that they were switching to rival Hulu Live, which carries ESPN, ABC and the other channels.
-Mike Murphy
$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires
December 19, 2021 16:41 ET (21:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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