Disney CEO Bob Iger did not address the elephant in the room—the company’s carriage dispute with YouTube TV—in a surprise appearance on Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli. The ongoing battle, however, is causing increasing friction with not only the two sides but also frustrated consumers.
Iger, who often does not speak publicly outside of appearances tied to earnings calls and investor conferences, made the unique visit on the Manningcast of the Eagles–Packers game for an eight-minute interview from Lambeau Field that was entirely devoid of news. Instead, the discussion with the Manning brothers delved primarily into Iger’s Packers fandom and football strategy.
“It was the beginning of the Vince Lombardi era,” Iger said, recalling a story of attending with his father the 1960 NFL championship game between the Packers and Eagles. “I’ve been a Packers fan for 65 years.”
There was no mention at all of the ongoing blackout of Disney channels on the No. 4 U.S. pay-TV distributor, something that reached into its 12th day on Tuesday, and remains a major national story. Much of the lack of news from Iger owes to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s “quiet period” rules about executives making market-moving comments before earnings reports, and Disney will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
There, the carriage dispute is expected to be a front-and-center topic, even if it’s solved by then.
Still, the complete lack of acknowledgement of the YouTube TV issue during the MNF appearance created plenty of social media pushback, and greatly recalled Fox’s missed opportunity Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The continuing blackout on YouTube TV is causing Disney about $30 million in lost revenue per week, according to a research report issued last weekend by Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne. While Disney’s Hulu + Live TV, a streaming service that competes with YouTube TV, is a salient factor in the talks, much of this dispute remains focused on money. Disney claims that YouTube TV is not willing to pay market-based rates for the programming that includes ESPN—something that could, in turn, threaten most-favored-nation clauses in Disney’s carriage deals with other major distributors such as Charter, Comcast, and DirecTV.
Refund Matters
While the two sides continue to negotiate, YouTube TV began issuing $20 credits to subscribers on Sunday.
Receiving that credit requires subscribers to opt in and activate it. That additional step is very similar to many other refund and rebate processes, among other television distributors, and in plenty of other industries. The legwork that is required, however, only served to frustrate YouTube TV subscribers further.
“It is—and I say this with full appreciation of the fact that YouTube and its parent company, Google, and its parent company, Alphabet, are a multi-trillion-dollar conglomerate—bullshit,” wrote ProFootball Talk’s Mike Florio. “They’re adding an obstacle knowing that some people won’t realize that the credit has to be claimed, won’t know how to do it, won’t have the time to do it, or will forget to do it.”
