Top Disney Executives Sent Email To Staff About Disney / YouTube TV Kerfuffle and Google Calls Them Out!

Disney and YouTube TV are still in the midst of a standoff over Disney’s channels being streamed on the Google-owned service. It’s been over a week since YouTube shut down Disney channels after a carriage deal was not reached.

Ahead of the elections this past week, Disney asked YouTube to allow ABC News on the platform to cover election news, but they were denied.

Now, three top Disney executives have reportedly sent an internal memo to staff about the issue, and Google called them out for it.

The three executives involved in the message were listed as Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, along with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.

Excerpts of the memo were revealed online. Disney is blaming YouTube for trying to be “the only player in the game.” Which, I admit, was a bit ironic given that Disney has been accused of similar things in the past when they demanded higher rates along with requirements for extra channels that carriers might not have wanted.

Google has called out Disney for “leaking internal documents to the press,” implying that the executives drafted the memo to paint Google in a bad light, then released it to the press themselves.

Here is what the three Disney executives said, 

In the memo, the Disney executives discussed the “challenging week” and the loss of ESPN and ABC during big sporting events. Then they lay out why it’s YouTube’s fault saying they were offered better deals and packages, but YouTube declined.

If it is like past deals, complaints were made that Disney tried to force carriers into offering channels their subscribers might not want. It’s why Fubo fought against Disney until they were brought into a deal with Disney.

Team,

We promised to keep you updated on our negotiations with Google’s YouTube TV following their decision last week to pull our channels from their service, and we are writing today with the latest. We realize this has been a challenging week, with everyone asking the same question as millions of YouTube TV subscribers during the busiest time of the year in sports: When will ESPN and ABC be back on the service? We wish we could give you that answer today, but unfortunately, we are headed into another sports-packed weekend without a deal in place.

We know you’ve seen a swirl of information about the impasse, so we wanted to share some of the facts:
We began these negotiations by offering YouTube TV a deal that would cost less overall than the terms of our recently expired license. That’s real savings that YouTube TV could pass along to its customers.

We’ve offered innovative, bespoke programming packages—tailored to sports fans, entertainment fans, kids and families—that would provide tremendous flexibility for YouTube TV and greater choice and value for its customers.
We’ve offered fair terms that are in-line with the more than 500 other distributors that have renewed their agreements since last summer, including the top distributors, who are far larger than YouTube TV.

Despite all this, YouTube TV continues to insist on receiving preferential terms that are below market and has made few concessions.
Rather than compete on a level playing field, Google’s YouTube TV has approached these negotiations as if it were the only player in the game. It goes without saying that the reason so many consumers value our programming above others is because we invest in the best talent, creators and content in the world, and we cannot allow anyone to undercut our ability to do so.

We know how difficult this situation is for the YouTube TV customers we serve, and for all of you who provide the sports programming, entertainment, news and live events that our fans know and love. Thank you for the incredible work you do each and every day and for staying focused on maintaining such a high bar throughout this difficult situation.

We will continue to work diligently to find common ground with YouTube TV and will keep you informed as we have more news to share.

With Gratitude,
Alan, Dana & Jimmy

Google has shot back, saying that Disney drafted and released this “internal memo” with the intention of releasing it to the media. Given the way it’s worded, that does seem possible.

Andrew Marchand posted Google’s comments on X.com

“Once again, Disney is resorting to their old tactics like leaking documents to the press, negotiating in public through their paid talent and misrepresenting the facts including from the deals they’ve offered and taking credit for our product proposals. Our team stands ready to make a fair agreement in line with their deals with other distributors and we encourage Disney to come to the table and do what’s best for our mutual customers.”

It’s a mess. Who knows how long this will go on for? Neither side will budge.

Apparently, the government shutdown impasse wasn’t enough for the American people. Now this.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!