It seems that YouTube and Disney have some bad blood between the two companies. In a recent statement published by YouTube TV on Monday, November 3rd, the platform stated that they won’t allow the ABC News outlet to return to the platform for one day.
This statement came after a week-long, tension-filled negotiation between YouTube, which is owned by Google, and Disney after the companies could not find an acceptable contract that would allow YouTube TV subscribers to access Disney-owned television channels.
After the negotiations failed, Disney requested that YouTube allow ABC News back on the platform for one day to cover the US Election Day. Two important elections are taking place today, with the New York Mayoral Election and California’s Proposition 50.
A Disney spokesperson said in a statement, “We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for their customers while we continue to work toward a fair agreement,”.
In response, YouTube gave the following response. “Unfortunately, your proposal would permit us to return Disney’s ABC stations only for a day and will cause customer confusion among those who may briefly see ABC on YouTube TV only to lose it again shortly after,”.
The post continues, “There are plenty of other options for customers — election news information is very widely available across other broadcast stations and news networks on YouTube TV, as well as on the main YouTube service, for free,”
To end the statement, YouTube gave a slightly backhanded comment, “In fact, on the last two US election days, the vast majority of tuned in YouTube TV subscribers chose not to watch ABC,”.
The tension between the two media giants continues to rise as neither side wants to give in to the other.
