YouTube TV Customers Lose Access To ABC Channels, DVR Recordings Due To Annoying, Avoidable Disney Contract Dispute
from the you-don't-actually-own-anything-and-have-no-control dept
For the last decade or so, U.S. cable TV customers have been plagued by a steady parade of content blackouts as cable providers and broadcasters bicker over new programming contracts.
For the end user, so-called “retransmission feuds” usually go something like this: a TV broadcaster demands a cable company pay significantly more money to carry the same content. The pay TV provider balks, and one side or the other blacks out the aforementioned content. Consumers spend a few months paying for content they can’t access, while the two sides bitch at each other and try to leverage consumer anger against the other guy.
After a while a new confidential deal is struck, customers face a higher bill, and never get any sort of refund for missing content. Wash, rinse, repeat. Over and over again. With regulators largely sitting on their hands as U.S. consumers get shafted.
While streaming has fixed some of the shittier issues related to cable TV, these sorts of standoffs have made the jump to the modern era.
For example, Google and Disney have been in an ugly contract dispute since October 30 resulting in YouTube TV subscribers losing access to 21 ABC/Disney-owned TV channels, including ABC, ESPN, and The Disney Channel. Not only that, they’ve lost access to content they’d recorded to the cloud via the YouTube TV DVR system, according to Ars Technica:
“…the corporate conflict is highlighting another frustration in the streaming era. As Google and Disney continue duking it out, their customers have lost some access to content they thought was permanent: DVR files and digital movie purchases.”
As BestNetTech has long noted, you don’t really own any of the things you pay for in the modern Internet era. And that apparently extends to content you thought you had stored on the servers of companies that can get dragged into annoying contract disputes.
A lot of folks got used to having some sort of “ownership” control over the content they’d saved to their DVR, but as YouTube TV’s help page points out, that’s no longer the case:
“Recordings of Disney content will be removed. If we’re able to reach an agreement with Disney and bring their content back to YouTube TV, subscribers will regain access to recordings that were previously in their library.”
In an act of retaliation, Google has also removed content customers may have purchased via Google Play and YouTube from Movies Anywhere, Disney’s centralized platform for content available on various distributors.
If this follows the trajectory of past disputes, this will continue for a few more weeks or months, with users failing to access content they pay for. Possibly without any sort of compensation. Then a confidential deal will be struck, and everybody will be forced to pay even more money for the same content. It’s the exact sort of annoying bullshit that helped trigger the cord cutting revolution in the first place.
Every so often the FCC hints that it might do something useful to prevent companies from taking out their inability to conduct business like adults out on their customers. But nothing ever really comes from it; and it’s certainly not going to be a priority for a Trump administration that’s busy stripping FCC consumer protection authority down to the studs under the pretense of efficiency.
Filed Under: blackout, content, contract, retransmission, tv, video, youtubetv
Companies: disney, google
Comments on “YouTube TV Customers Lose Access To ABC Channels, DVR Recordings Due To Annoying, Avoidable Disney Contract Dispute”
And this is why...
…I have a bunch of 8T disks, a VPN subscription, and a torrent client. Even if I pay for a service, that gives me zero assurance that I’ll be able to access the content I’m promised, now or in the future. What all these services — TV, movies, music, books, etc. — have taught me is that they absolutely can’t be relied on for anything ever.
I haven’t got the time or the patience for this. Yes, doing things my way means that I have to wait (sometimes for a long time) and that I miss out on some things entirely (oh well) but at least I’m in control, and once I have something, I’ll always have it.
cord cutting made easy!
do you really need that over priced cable tv garbage? NO! do you really need that scattered misguided streaming BS? NO!
with most TV stations having an online page. they will have regular live what ever ready to go! don’t want to watch live. missed a live show. most will let you watch a day later. as for streaming service. there are many that will have all the old crap you want to watch for free! then of coarse there’s always the free air TV. now if you want the latest and greatest. then sail the sea’s! don’t want to use home internet! no problem! just goto the library and torrent that stuff!
YouTube TV Credit
I think it’s fair to note that YouTube TV is offering a $20 credit to this month’s bill for the inconvenience.
Poor memory?
I have a dim recollection of a time and a technology that meant that I owned an actual copy of the media I wanted to… and could put said physical media in a device and display it on a screen with no internet connection.
What was that archaic media? Oh yeah, DVD.
On demand sports and news-comedy shows? Who cares, there’ll be another one along in a week, just the same as the last one.
Re:
Well, maybe you could display it, depending on whether your player’s key was on the film industry’s shitlist when the disc was created. If you used a software player that hadn’t been recently updated over the internet, it was a gamble. At least, unlike Blu-ray, playing a new disc couldn’t cause your old ones to stop working.
These days, if you want to own an actual copy you can use while offline, there are many groups that will provide them for you. NTb, FLUX, MeGusta, NiGHTNiNJAS…. They’re quicker, cheaper, and aren’t working against ownership and preservation (and do, by the way, publish sports and news-comedy shows); but, for some reason, even on BestNetTech, people tend to
liken them to violent maritime criminals and not take them seriously.
Where have I seen this recently?
Oh, yeah, so this is exactly the same playbook the GOP used over the government shutdown. Those banners plastered all over
.govblaming the Democrats? Same thing at the top when logging into YouTube TV. Somehow Google has managed to be comparatively restrained about it.I don't mind
I have YoutubeTV. After the crap with Kimmel earlier this year, I’m kinda glad my money isn’t going to them. I also discovered how little I watch Disney channels — so I don’t miss them. If it saves me $20/month by not having Disney, I vote for not having Disney!
And I can still watch the 10 minutes of Kimmel I actually want to watch on YouTube!
This happened in cable tv years ago before the web was invented
Contract dispute means customers lose access to channels they pay for
This go,s to show you do nt really own anything if you buy a tv show or money you are really renting it for an extended period
Disney’s big thing has been strongarming companies recently. A couple years back they were at war work Spectrum for like 2 months. Then they were in a thing with Dish for the better part of a year. This is just how Disney spends their time these days.
Waiting still for the restore of ABC ch
I don’t like this one bit. The prices has already been increased I’m looking for my $20 credit. And I shouldn’t have to request it. I didn’t request for the channel to be taken off. I get it there’s some kind of dispute but why is the customers caught in the middle?
This is Network tv. Figure it out and restore our channels.
this is insane. I have other platforms but why am I paying YouTubetv and others if I’m not getting the total package. We do have options and I may start considering mine. Long time customers are never appreciated