Mike Florio ,
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As football fans who have paid for the YouTube TV service continue to not be able to watch football on ESPN or ABC, the two mega-corporations playing a high-stakes game of chicken are reportedly talking turkey.
Via Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com, Google and Disney are negotiating today .
As we’ve said from the get go, f the two parties truly wanted to do a deal, they would get one done. Go in a room, lock the door, and stay there until an agreement is reached. Use a third-party mediator, if need be.
They need to prioritize it. Both parties. They haven’t. And the customers have gotten screwed.
The situation hasn’t been good for the companies involved, either. ESPN has handled the situation poorly from a P.R. perspective, with a variety of they-think-we’re-all-stupid tactics that have largely backfired.
Meanwhile, YouTube TV will provide customers with a $20 credit if no deal is reached. Even if a deal is done, hopefully there will be a credit for the eight days (so far) that have entailed YouTube TV not delivering on the channels for which it has charged.
For now, we can at least hope that, by Monday night, the Eagles-Packers game will be available on ESPN and ABC. And then, by Wednesday afternoon, ESPN can avoid having to come up with a clunky P.R. spin aimed at making depressed viewership numbers look better than they were.
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