Disney/espn off YouTube tv
December 18th, 2021 at 6:32 AM ^
They are lowering the price by $15 so I'm going to upgrade my Disney+ to include ESPN for a little bit. But if it lasts longer than a week, I'll be switching as well.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:35 AM ^
Also, I said I was going to rewatch the Michigan games this year (before UGA) and I noticed WMU and Washington are no longer available.
I just watched WMU a couple of days ago and it was on there. Washington I have to watch the BTN60 recording.
That said, it looks like the other 11 games are still available even though some were ESPN/ABC.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:19 AM ^
They removed WMU, UDub, Rutgers, NU,and PSU which were the 5 ESPN/ABC games this year. The rest of our games were Fox/BTN
December 18th, 2021 at 7:24 AM ^
They literally just took them off...after I posted this I went back to check and Northwestern was still on mine, click it, great.
Clicked away and now it's gone.
Still have BTN60 for obvious reasons, but still.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:50 AM ^
I thought the Disney bundle included ESPN Plus. Can you get regular ESPN too? And how much extra to add it on to Disney.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:52 AM ^
Yes, YTT is taking $15/month off.
And ESPN with Disney (and maybe Hulu) is $13.99/month.
YTT is trying to keep customers happy by even promoting it for Disney.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:54 AM ^
Weird, I thought ESPN+ did not have the primary ESPN channels (ESPN, ESPN2) for live sports.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:57 AM ^
That’s not ESPN, it’s ESPN+, which does not include any of the main ESPN content, including any sporting event worth a damn
December 18th, 2021 at 6:59 AM ^
Did YTT email you on this? You would think they would have but I haven't seen anything show up yet in my inbox.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:00 AM ^
Yes they did. Like 3 days ago.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:39 AM ^
Here’s the email I received at 1:51am:
We have held good faith negotiations with Disney for several months. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before our existing one expired.
As of December 17, 2021, end of day Eastern Time, all Disney-owned channels, including ESPN and your local ABC station, are unavailable on YouTube TV. Members will not be able to watch live or local content from Disney and will also lose access to any previous Library recordings from these channels, including 4K content that is available as part of the 4K Plus add-on.
We will be decreasing our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99, for the Base Plan while this content remains off of our platform. No action is needed on your part. A credit of $15 per month will automatically be issued. Once content is unavailable, this credit will be applied to your next bill after December 17 and will only be visible to family managers in Settings > Billing after the charge has taken place. Please note that if you have a promotional price with YouTube TV, you can still expect a $15 credit. Members who are in a paused state will receive this credit one month after their first charge.
Should we come to an agreement with Disney, we will adjust the price accordingly and will notify members via email beforehand. For the full list of Disney-owned channels that are no longer available on YouTube TV and for additional information or updates, please visit this webpage.
We know this is frustrating news, and it is not the outcome we wanted. We will continue conversations with Disney to advocate on your behalf in hopes of restoring their content on YouTube TV.
Thank you for being a YouTube TV member and for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
The YouTube TV team
December 18th, 2021 at 7:02 AM ^
Not sure why my phone keeps double posting even though I'm hitting save once, so I'll edit this one to say...it looks like we all need to cancel and get Fubo, Sling, or Hulu Live.
Yup, this sucks.
I found this, I'm sure it's accurate but didn't double check, now I'm tired and ornery and I'm going back to bed. Fuck the bosses.
fuboTV $64.99. 3 streams Yes (locals) 250 hrs. (DVR) View Plans
Sling TV $35 1 stream No (locals) 50 hrs. (DVR) View Plans
Vidgo $55 3 streams ABC, FOX No DVR View Plans
Hulu Live $64.99 2 streams Yes (locals) 50 hrs. (DVR) View Plans
AT&T TV $69.99 20 streams Yes (locals) 20 hrs. (DVR) View Plans
YouTube TV $64.99 3 streams Yes (locals) No Limit (DVR)
December 18th, 2021 at 7:18 PM ^
Thanks for the thorough summary, +1
December 18th, 2021 at 6:59 AM ^
I stand corrected, I'll check mine but I never had trouble watching live sports on ESPN.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:54 AM ^
There are live sports on ESPN+ but they are usually mid-major leagues and random one-off high-majors (I believe some Big 12 basketball games are on ESPN+).
You won't be able to watch ESPN/2/U/News with the Disney bundle. If you were able to then consider yourself very lucky.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:59 AM ^
How do you upgrade Disney+ to include ESPN?
December 18th, 2021 at 7:30 AM ^
You can’t. You can’t get live espn from espn plus.
December 18th, 2021 at 11:39 AM ^
He didn't say anything about ESPN+.
December 18th, 2021 at 12:28 PM ^
While true I believe his question was operating under the false impression that the Disney+ bundle could give one access to ESPN. The response was clarifying that only ESPN+ is available with the Disney+ bundle.
If I'm wrong then I apologize. It's difficult to determine to whom people are responding on mobile.
December 18th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
Disney makes most if its profit from ESPN. And ESPN makes all its money from carriage fees to content distributors like cable and YTT. The fees ESPN can charge are orders of magnitude higher than any other channel in cable because of how important ESPN is for customers to sign up for the bundle. Thus, ESPN has content distributors over a barrel and can practically charge whatever they want. The only option YTT has, to try and keep your retail costs lower, is to do what they did here. It probably won’t help them much. Whatever ESPN charges, distributors have to pass on to consumers. The cost may actually be the $15 YTT is cutting out. That sounds about right.
This background leads to the point for this response, which is that ESPN will not offer a direct to consumer version of their best content because it will undermine their negotiating leverage with all the cable companies.
By the way, as I pointed out later, the ESPN business model and cash flow is what ESPN has used to out bid the free add supported broadcast networks for the playoffs. Which forces you to buy a $60 per month bundle when bowl games used to be free.
December 18th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
This is exactly right. I am surprised that people are blaming YouTube, it’s time someone stands up and says it is too much. We don’t need to pay these huge fees and they don’t need to pay the monster prices to the pro or college leagues.
December 18th, 2021 at 9:04 AM ^
ESPN+ (which is in the bundle) will not be streaming the bowl games.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:43 AM ^
Well shit
Hulu Live is trash, looks like directv stream is the move
December 18th, 2021 at 8:39 AM ^
What don’t you like about Hulu live? We’ve had it for a couple years now and other than the price going up we’ve been really happy with it. I don’t watch many pro sports but I’ve never missed a UM football or basketball game.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:59 AM ^
Hulu's UI is complete, ill-considered garbage.
I switched to FuboTV which has a much better UI. My main issue with Fubo was that it has a bug on a few devices (Samsung Smart TVs for one) where the app asks you to sign in again almost every time you use it which is pretty annoying given how much 'fun' it is to enter a password using a remote control. I fixed that by using a Chromecast, so now I'm pretty much fine with Fubo.
December 18th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
I’m not crazy about Hulu’s UI but it doesn’t bother me enough to be a deal breaker. To each their own though, right?
December 18th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
We also have hulu live and have no complaints.
December 19th, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
It's kinda weird that people think one of YTT, Hulu Live and the rest is somewhere better than the others. They all do the exact same thing, plus or minus a few channels or options.
December 18th, 2021 at 6:47 AM ^
A Sling ad just popped up as I'm reading thru this thread.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:33 AM ^
I've had reasonable luck this past season with Sling, whose quality is maybe graded above-average, and I have an over the air antenna to secure local content.
December 18th, 2021 at 9:54 AM ^
Sling was great to catch the FOX games, the espn/abc games were on Youtube for free. Switched to Sling ESPN for 12/31 and beyond (hopefully).
December 18th, 2021 at 7:16 AM ^
I’m pretty confident they’ll resolve it soon. Google knows not having ESPN is a death wish and without contracts, cancellation fees, or hardware people will very easily change over to FuboTV, sling, Hulu, etc. Especially before the CFP. So Disney has all the leverage and google will cave.
December 18th, 2021 at 9:06 AM ^
Not necessarily. YTTV might see that a large segment of the market doesn't care for sports and would prefer the lower cost. All other mainstream bundled streaming services are now $70+/month.
December 18th, 2021 at 10:32 AM ^
ABC has a lot more than sports that other people care about ie. my wife loves Gray’s Anatomy. YTTV will want to resolve this.
December 18th, 2021 at 12:38 PM ^
In order to strategically save money I've had to mostly cut out ESPN for the past two years or so. It's doable. I think there was one M football game this year that ABC did not kick over to my local OTA channel. I did not have a cable subscription at all during the month of October and well into November before I had to pop for Sling Blue plus sports extra to watch Maryland. These clowns can scheme all they want for revenue. Anybody with ten minutes and an antenna can figure out a way to not waste excessive sums of money on a subscription they watch for maybe six hours a week (apart from live M sports and the occasional NBA game there is absolutely nothing I will watch on cable).
December 18th, 2021 at 7:31 AM ^
FuboTV had the best interface but has some big holes in the available channels. Directv stream has the most complete channel packages but will be the most expensive once you add what you want and the interface/dvr is pure trash. I’ve also used Hulu live. Interface is okay. Also has holes in the lineup.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:33 AM ^
So, it’s unclear to me: is it possible to subscribe to ESPN? Or do you HAVE to subscribe to some bundle (whether it be FUBO, DirecTV, Comcast, etc) in order to get the regular ESPN stations? I see ESPN+ which bizarrely doesn’t include ESPN or ESPN2. But no option to include the regular ESPN channels.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:57 AM ^
I read the thread as ESPN+ does not include all the channels, but
DISNEY+ does
How much does Disney Plus cost? Disney Plus costs $8 a month or $80 per year in the US. With a subscription, you get ad-free access to all of the service's streaming titles. Disney Plus does not currently offer a free trial.Nov 11, 2021
December 18th, 2021 at 8:04 AM ^
This is incorrect
you need a cable provider for ESPN channel content
December 18th, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
The Disney+ Bundle includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, not the standard ESPN channels.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:02 AM ^
You must subscribe to a bundled service in order to get ESPN. There is no way to get otherwise even with ESPN + bundled with Disney plus. I made that mistake before and then was disappointed I couldn’t watch College Gameday.
Personally, I have Hulu Live which I got due to their original content. Glad I went that route right now instead of YTTV.
December 18th, 2021 at 12:12 PM ^
Switching between streaming services that have no contracts is pretty painless though. No special wiring or hardware… That is what will keep me from cable/satellite.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:57 AM ^
Those prices are more than I pay for cable with Verizon fios, much more actually. What is the advantage?
December 18th, 2021 at 8:06 AM ^
Avoiding Equipment rental fees and miscellaneous add on fees, ease of canceling are the main benefits of streaming now
its not really cheaper anymore as much as it is more convenient. Even when something like this happens, all I have to do is download a new app and punch in my credit card info
December 18th, 2021 at 8:55 AM ^
At least with Fios I don't have any restrictions on cancelling my cable service; I owe whatever month I'm using prorated but that's true anywhere. I guess the equipment rental for the cable box and fees are there but you'll get additional fees and taxes with any over-the-top provider service, they must hide them better.
And honestly, I found both YTTV and PSVue (RIP) to be no more convenient than cable, and the buffering and video quality was rough even with relatively high-speed connection.
I am happy that people have options but every time I try cutting the cord I inevitably come back happier to at least have a consistent signal and ease-of-use you get from cable.
December 18th, 2021 at 10:47 AM ^
I am pretty much in this boat. I understand that streaming will save you some money and it's easier to switch services at the drop of a hat. But the thing is I can't even get my Zoom meetings to run from home without dropped audio and video issues occurring at least once a day. And I'll be damned if my Michigan football (or other team I am really interested in) stream is going to get interrupted due to an internet connection glitch. I'll spend the extra $40 per month for my dedicated hardware connection to television services and the peace of mind that comes with it. That's just me...
EDIT: and I wanted to add that I have had DirecTV for like 9 years. They gave me the introductory rate for 2 years at like $110 per month. Tons of channels and I rarely don't get a game that I want to see. After the 2 years expired and pricing went to like $175 per month I threatened to cancel and go somewhere else and they just give me that introductory rate again. Been doing this once per year for the past 7 years. Always works.
December 18th, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
To add to the convenience of streaming, when you’re moving around from place to place, you got it with you.
December 19th, 2021 at 4:14 AM ^
Fios allows me to do the same thing.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^
The next two basketball games are on BTN, and I don’t care about these early bowl games. So they’ve got until Dec 30 to work this out for me. Basketball game then, playoff game next day.
I did look earlier, and saw Hulu TV is raising their prices on Dec 21. Huh. They’re owned by Disney. No wonder Disney wants everyone else to raise their prices, too.
December 18th, 2021 at 8:30 AM ^
Directv stream has a price increase coming 1/1 also.