After the 39-hour blackout, YouTube TV sought to halt customer defections: 'We would love to welcome you back.'
YouTube TV’s blackout of ESPN, ABC and other Walt Disney Co.-owned channels ended Sunday when the two media giants reached a deal on a new distribution agreement.Sports fans who subscribed to the service, which is owned by search giant Google, were livid about the outage, which began Friday night in the middle of ESPN’s broadcast of a Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves’ basketball game.
“We appreciate Google’s collaboration to reach fair terms that are consistent with the market, and we’re thrilled that our robust lineup of live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming is in the process of being restored to YouTube TV subscribers across the country,” the division of the Burbank entertainment behemoth said.
The previous distribution contract ended at 8:59 p.m. PST on Friday, and without a new deal in place YouTube did not have authorization to continue carrying the Disney-owned channels. YouTube TV is one of the most successful digital providers of pay-TV channels. It also competes head to head with the Disney-owned Hulu live TV service.to keep NBC’s portfolio of channels, including MSNBC, Bravo and E!, on YouTube TV. Those negotiations did not result in a blackout.
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