The ongoing carriage dispute between Disney and Google‘s YouTube TV has resulted in millions of sports fans going without top college football and NFL games on the ABC and ESPN for the past three weekends. Unfortunately, based on comments from Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, it sounds as if this dispute could last longer than most ever imagined.
Recent reports have indicated that the dispute has resulted in Disney losing around $4.3 million each day as the blackout of ABC and ESPN programming continues for YouTube TV subscribers.
Thursday marks day 14 of the dispute after YouTube TV announced its plans to remove ABC and ESPN from its platform on Oct. 31 after both sides failed to reach a new carriage rights deal. This means that Disney has likely lost upwards of $60 million since the blackout began.
Despite the massive monetary losses since the dispute started, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston painted a bleak timeline of when the blackout may come to an end for sports fans.
“We're ready to go as long as they want to." Johnston said, via Sports Business Journal.
This falls directly in line with what Disney CEO Bob Iger had to say on the matter during the same earnings call on Thursday, reaffirming his stance that the deal offered to YouTube TV is “equal to or better” than other offers made to large distributors.
Despite all of the public backlash from sports fans and media personalities alike, it sure seems like Disney is sticking to their guns in this dispute. Obviously, the general public stands to suffer from this the most as we enter Week 11 in the NFL and Week 12 in college football.
While this update obviously isn’t what most were likely hoping to hear, there are some underlying reports that suggest that the two sides are getting closer to a deal.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal did further report that there was "tempered hope" for a deal to come to fruition ahead of Thursday’s earnings call. So despite the fact that no deal ultimately happened, it at least seems possible that the two sides will reach an agreement sooner rather than later.
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