<story><title>YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-12-17/youtube-tv-loses-espn-abc-and-other-disney-channels-in-fee-dispute</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dreyfan</author><text>Hulu + LiveTV is $65 and Sling is about $50 and Youtube TV $65.&lt;p&gt;These aren’t really comparable to standard Hulu or Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. It’s for people that want to pretend they’re cord-cutting while buying the exact same thing from a streaming company.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>YouTube TV is a separate $65&amp;#x2F;month subscription. Seems like an absurdly high price relative to Hulu or Netflix, but it’s meant to compete more with local cable packages.&lt;p&gt;Without the premium content, it’s hard to do that. I think the content providers know this and are trying to squeeze YouTube into giving more of their profits to the content providers. Either that, or to raise prices to be similar to cable.&lt;p&gt;YouTube TV is claiming Disney content added $15&amp;#x2F;month to the bill, so they’re dropping the price by $15&amp;#x2F;month as long as Disney is out:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “We will be decreasing our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99 while this content remains off of our platform,” YouTube TV said in its Friday night statement.</text></item><item><author>heartbreak</author><text>I’m really surprised by the number of top level comments that are confusing two different products: YouTube and YouTube TV.&lt;p&gt;YouTube TV is basically cable TV delivered via the internet with some on-demand content and an “unlimited” DVR system. There are multiple tiers via add-on packages (just like cable), and there is no ad-free offering.&lt;p&gt;YouTube is the video sharing website everyone uses. The ad-free version of which is called YouTube Premium.&lt;p&gt;These two services have very little in common besides the obvious branding and parent company. The contract&amp;#x2F;fee dispute is between Disney and YouTube TV, and the result is that YouTube TV is currently not broadcasting Disney-owned television channels. Disney content is still all over YouTube itself via their YouTube “Channels.”</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>saltminer</author><text>&amp;gt; It’s for people that want to pretend they’re cord-cutting while buying the exact same thing from a streaming company.&lt;p&gt;It legitimately is way better than cable, though. Ignoring the disputes over fees, I once tried Spectrum&amp;#x27;s TV Android app (probably 3-4 years ago, I gave up on getting it to work), and this is what I experienced:&lt;p&gt;* Refuses to work if a VPN is on&lt;p&gt;* Must disable developer tools (doesn&amp;#x27;t matter if you changed any settings in there or not)&lt;p&gt;* Root check&lt;p&gt;* Must be from a Spectrum home IP (and remember, you can&amp;#x27;t VPN to your home network to use this app)&lt;p&gt;* Must allow access to all contacts, all texts, etc or the app would close itself (there is no legitimate justification for this, unlike potential contract stipulations requiring no root, etc - it&amp;#x27;s purely for selling all your data)&lt;p&gt;* Didn&amp;#x27;t even work after I installed it on a totally stock Android device on my home network&lt;p&gt;* No web interface; if you can&amp;#x27;t run the app, too bad&lt;p&gt;Compared to that, YT TV&amp;#x27;s app is a breath of fresh air. But ignoring the streaming convenience, you also have:&lt;p&gt;* No ads in the TV guide (which is also more responsive than any DVR I&amp;#x27;ve ever experienced)&lt;p&gt;* Unlimited DVR is nice (and it&amp;#x27;s not utter dogshit hardware that would&amp;#x27;ve been considered unimpressive in the 90s)&lt;p&gt;* You don&amp;#x27;t need a cable box - just a Chromecast (which is absolute tiny by comparison) or a TV with Chromecast built-in&lt;p&gt;* The pricing is much easier to understand&lt;p&gt;Of course, I don&amp;#x27;t actually pay for it. My mother does, and she put my Google account as an allowed user. I just use it to watch hockey.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s true that you&amp;#x27;re paying for the same product, but it&amp;#x27;s delivered in a package that doesn&amp;#x27;t scream &amp;quot;fuck you, pay me.&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-12-17/youtube-tv-loses-espn-abc-and-other-disney-channels-in-fee-dispute</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dreyfan</author><text>Hulu + LiveTV is $65 and Sling is about $50 and Youtube TV $65.&lt;p&gt;These aren’t really comparable to standard Hulu or Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. It’s for people that want to pretend they’re cord-cutting while buying the exact same thing from a streaming company.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>YouTube TV is a separate $65&amp;#x2F;month subscription. Seems like an absurdly high price relative to Hulu or Netflix, but it’s meant to compete more with local cable packages.&lt;p&gt;Without the premium content, it’s hard to do that. I think the content providers know this and are trying to squeeze YouTube into giving more of their profits to the content providers. Either that, or to raise prices to be similar to cable.&lt;p&gt;YouTube TV is claiming Disney content added $15&amp;#x2F;month to the bill, so they’re dropping the price by $15&amp;#x2F;month as long as Disney is out:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “We will be decreasing our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99 while this content remains off of our platform,” YouTube TV said in its Friday night statement.</text></item><item><author>heartbreak</author><text>I’m really surprised by the number of top level comments that are confusing two different products: YouTube and YouTube TV.&lt;p&gt;YouTube TV is basically cable TV delivered via the internet with some on-demand content and an “unlimited” DVR system. There are multiple tiers via add-on packages (just like cable), and there is no ad-free offering.&lt;p&gt;YouTube is the video sharing website everyone uses. The ad-free version of which is called YouTube Premium.&lt;p&gt;These two services have very little in common besides the obvious branding and parent company. The contract&amp;#x2F;fee dispute is between Disney and YouTube TV, and the result is that YouTube TV is currently not broadcasting Disney-owned television channels. Disney content is still all over YouTube itself via their YouTube “Channels.”</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghaff</author><text>And because you&amp;#x27;re buying essentially the same content package, there&amp;#x27;s no reason one would expect it to be significantly cheaper just because it&amp;#x27;s streamed.&lt;p&gt;As a content package, it&amp;#x27;s evolved to be something largely different from what you get from the streaming services like Netflix. It&amp;#x27;s largely sports, news&amp;#x2F;talk shows, and reality TV and other relatively low-cost lightly scripted&amp;#x2F;unscripted content, some documentaries... You still have some traditional network content but it&amp;#x27;s been a while since I&amp;#x27;ve even heard of a network drama or comedy of note.</text></comment>