Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 225 posts

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#11

Post by ekianjo »

technofiend wrote: post #3

Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want. [1] Your local ABC channel, ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)…

> Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want.

They could make several tiers:

- Youtubers-only content: no big media included

- Tier 2: the same + ABC, ESPN, etc...

- Tier 3: same as 2 + exclusive content only available for Tier 3 subscribers

would be a good business model rather than just charging to remove ads.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#12

Post by mrweasel »

taurath wrote: post #6
14 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have YouTube Tv but your comment almost made me dry heave a little realizing we are back at square one with cable tv and bundling channels users don't want and forcing them to pay for stuff. I haven't had cable tv in years but seldom don't miss a show I want to watch. It is mostly all online if you know where to search. Also Canadian so no one comes knocking on my door for downloading.

Sports is the anchor by which unbundling won’t happen for a long time, especially with linear TV. This is partially because it benefits the conglomerates business models to have as many channels and content streams as possible to sell ad time on, and partially because for sports teams they can functionally name their price. In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish produc…

I've not looked into how the US cable market is doing, but here in Denmark it feels like we're very close to cable/bundling snapping. The cable companies are forced to raise prices each year, mostly because of sports and people are cancelling in droves. In 2015 93% of Danes had cable, in 2019 less than 80% had cable and during 2020 - 2022 the largest provider lost at least 250.000 subscribers, pushing them well below 1 million subscribers. Many others have downgrade their subscription to the bundles that doesn't include sports channels.

At some point the remaining subscribers can't pay the cost of the ridiculous fees charged for the major sporting events. When that happens the fees must come down, or the sporting companies must find a different solution.

Honestly a great solution for the major sports, like football in Europe, would be to great something like what the MLB did in the US. I know a lot of football fans who'd love to get a subscription for all the Champions League games. Just a fixed price and then watch any game you like. Why pay for Formula 1, hockey or even the Bundesliga, if you only care about the Danish Superliga and Champions League.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#13

Post by treyfitty »

ekianjo wrote: post #11
technofiend wrote: post #3

Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want. [1] Your local ABC channel, ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)…

> Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want. They could make several tiers: - Youtubers-only content: no big media included - Tier 2: the same + ABC, ESPN, etc... - Tier 3: same as 2 + exclusive content only available for Tier 3 subscribers would be a g…

…like cable TV?

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#15

Post by sofixa »

taurath wrote: post #6
14 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have YouTube Tv but your comment almost made me dry heave a little realizing we are back at square one with cable tv and bundling channels users don't want and forcing them to pay for stuff. I haven't had cable tv in years but seldom don't miss a show I want to watch. It is mostly all online if you know where to search. Also Canadian so no one comes knocking on my door for downloading.

Sports is the anchor by which unbundling won’t happen for a long time, especially with linear TV. This is partially because it benefits the conglomerates business models to have as many channels and content streams as possible to sell ad time on, and partially because for sports teams they can functionally name their price. In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish produc…

Regarding sports, there are companies such as DAZN and Amazon which break the bundling. They get the rights for a certain sport/league in a country, and if you want to watch, you pay only for that, directly.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#16

Post by BrazzVuvuzela »

Anything that hamper's Google's continued effort to turn youtube into the new cable TV is good in my book. I hope they lose all the other channels too, and then I hope those channels die anyway, along with the old-media companies that own them. A pipe dream, I know.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#18

Post by taurath »

mrweasel wrote: post #12
taurath wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports is the anchor by which unbundling won’t happen for a long time, especially with linear TV. This is partially because it benefits the conglomerates business models to have as many channels and content streams as possible to sell ad time on, and partially because for sports teams they can functionally name their price. In seattle, the brand new hockey team is only available through Root Sports, a smallish produc…

I've not looked into how the US cable market is doing, but here in Denmark it feels like we're very close to cable/bundling snapping. The cable companies are forced to raise prices each year, mostly because of sports and people are cancelling in droves. In 2015 93% of Danes had cable, in 2019 less than 80% had cable and during 2020 - 2022 the largest provider lost at least 250.000 subscribers, pushing them well below…

In the US American football only recently became available on streaming - it is currently $450 or $500 per season. You can go to a bar every week and have several drinks and a meal for that money. It’s a little crazy.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#19

Post by MomoXenosaga »

14 wrote: post #4
technofiend wrote: post #3

Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want. [1] Your local ABC channel, ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)…

I don't have YouTube Tv but your comment almost made me dry heave a little realizing we are back at square one with cable tv and bundling channels users don't want and forcing them to pay for stuff. I haven't had cable tv in years but seldom don't miss a show I want to watch. It is mostly all online if you know where to search. Also Canadian so no one comes knocking on my door for downloading.

I hate bundling. I have been paying my cable company money for football and Formula one. I don't watch that stuff.

How about we just pay for the things we use? Imagine if a restaurant put a bottle of wine on your bill even though you don't like wine.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#20

Post by mrweasel »

taurath wrote: post #18
mrweasel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not looked into how the US cable market is doing, but here in Denmark it feels like we're very close to cable/bundling snapping. The cable companies are forced to raise prices each year, mostly because of sports and people are cancelling in droves. In 2015 93% of Danes had cable, in 2019 less than 80% had cable and during 2020 - 2022 the largest provider lost at least 250.000 subscribers, pushing them well below…

In the US American football only recently became available on streaming - it is currently $450 or $500 per season. You can go to a bar every week and have several drinks and a meal for that money. It’s a little crazy.

$500 a year is still at around half the price of cable tv where I live, if you want any sport, largest cable package would be $1213 per year. So you could get all the games you wanted to see, rather than just the ones the TV stations decided to buy, and still have money left over to subscribe to a few streaming services.

Edit: Something something, cost of living. $500 is 3300DKK, which would let you go to a bar, have a meal and four or five beers only seven times.

Post reply on HN