YouTube TV's contract dispute with Disney has now cost its subscribers two weekends of college football and will also likely cause them to miss yet another Monday Night Football game tonight.
All of the Disney-owned streaming channels, including ABC, ESPN, the ACC Network and the SEC Networks, were removed from YouTube TV on Oct. 31 and have not returned since.
The disagreement causing the ABC and ESPN outage stems from the "carriage fee" that YouTube TV pays Disney to broadcast its channels. Disney has faced similar negotiating standoffs with other broadcasters in recent years, including an earlier 2021 outage on YouTube TV that was resolved in two days.
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Disney says YouTube TV is not paying enough to stream its channels. YouTube TV, owned by Google, has the most subscribers among all internet TV providers, with over 9 million. Hulu, owned by Disney, is second with 4.3 million subscribers through its Hulu + Live TV offering.
YouTube TV had promised subscribers a $20 credit for the streaming service if the Disney channels outage continued for an extended period, and on Sunday, the streaming service announced the details of that credit. Read on to learn how you can claim the $20 credit, when the outage might be resolved, and how you can watch ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in the meantime.
How can YouTube TV subscribers claim their $20 credit?
YouTube
YouTube TV subscribers should receive an email from the service when their credits are available. After you've received your email, follow these steps to claim your $20 credit.
Log in to YouTube.com on a web browser, click or tap on your profile picture, then select Settings. You can also directly browse to the URL at https://tv.youtube.com/settings/service_updates. At the bottom of the menu on the left, select Updates. On the following screen that explains the Disney channels outage, click or tap the blue button marked Claim Credit.
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