re: Disney Says YouTube TV Dispute Might Not End Anytime Soon

I use Fubo. And have seen DirecTV's service in action. At end of day, they are all pretty similar.

Just cancel YTTV and start up a new service. And switch back later if you want.

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Are they? Disney has 100% of the leverage here. Google is richer, but it’s not like Disney is dependent on streaming. Disney is gaining direct subscribers through all this. Everyone that has kids probably already has Disney plus, so it’s not that hard to add Hulu or espn unlimited at this point. They’ve cornered the market here.

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Counter argument = there's a lot of people who subscribe to YTTV or cable and only care about TV dramas and trashy reality shows, but couldn't give 2 shits about watching sports. But its damn near impossible to find a cable / live TV streaming package that doesn't include ESPN.

Disney uses their leverage to force TV providers to include ESPN in all of their packages....otherwise they won't be allowed to carry ABC and Disney's other networks.

So yes, Disney is picking up direct subscribers. But they're losing a lot more subscribers who had ESPN because of YTTV but never watch sports. Those subscribers are more than happy to get a credit or lower price from YTTV.

ETA: and with direct subscribers, Disney is going to lose a large percentage of those people when football season is over. When those people have ESPN through cable or live streaming packages, Disney is getting those subscriber fees all year. Direct subscribers to ESPN are more likely to cancel in January and just subscribe again in 7 months.

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Me discovering the Sling day pass during this fiasco has been a blessing in disguise.

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Yep, I’m close to getting rid of any regular streaming service and use this whenever I want to watch a game. Otherwise, I don’t really watch much tv.

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They just invested 9 billion in buying Hulu,

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I doubt they had 9 billion just sitting in Scrooge McDuck's vault. So who did they borrow it from?

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I tried this and got aggravated because it was constantly buffering and cutting out.

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then try DirecTV stream...I have never had buffering issues with Fubo.

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The Mouse overpaid for rights to several properties - primarily the NBA - and is now trying to squeeze every cent it can from everywhere it can

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This is the part I don’t see discussed enough. The price of ESPN and streaming is going up on the backs of these enormous TV rights contracts. There is no way for the average TV consumer to collectively pushback on these billion dollar contracts. At least Google has the might to stand up to the Mouse.

Sorry Chicken the other streaming platforms can't hold a candle to YTTV and the multiscreen technology.

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Disney did not have a good earning call today, I’d be surprised if this actually dragged on

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Wouldn’t take anything from those bullshite calls. The accounting for all the big media companies is laughable at this point but no one is going to call for them to be investigated because who is going to make that push? No one in the media is going to do it nor will they cover any public outcry for it no matter how big it gets.

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That WWE contract is looking large right now.

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Yeah they made the mistake of believing that WWE fans weren’t already watching other sports when in reality there was already a massive overlap. The idiots also cannibalized their own audience with having events on Saturday while college football season is going on. For ESPN, they have stipulated that the PLEs would be on Sunday afternoon/night during college football season and on the usual Saturday night outside of that. Another more simple solution would be for them to include the PLEs in multiview. I can watch 1-4 college football games, college basketball games, soccer games (not that I watch that European nonsense), and more all at once, but if I want to watch Survivor Series and Rivalry weekend in college football on the 29th, on the same device on the same screen, I’m screwed.

Also, they need to integrate the multiview feature into the Disney Plus app as well. If your kids want to watch Bluey or Paw Patrol or whatever and you want to watch a game, you should have that feature but that would require giving one iota of a frick about what your consumers want and they aren’t interested in that.