The biggest story in college football right now is a business transaction, which is par for the course in this absurd decade of wholesale changes across the sport. Fans already missed out on one full weekend slate of games thanks to irreconcilable greed from two companies that collect billions of dollars per year to broadcast games and simply aren’t doing that during a crucial stretch of the season. We’re looking at you, ESPN and YouTube TV.
YouTube TV, one of the largest television providers nowadays, especially in the sports realm, had all of ESPN’s channels, including ABC, yanked off their platform over a carriage dispute ahead of last weekend’s games. ESPN wants X amount of money to allow YouTube TV to broadcast their channels, and apparently, YouTube TV believes that X number is too high.
Well, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, there’s no end in sight with this self-centered stand-off between two enormous corporations while fans starve for the content they already pay for. “The two sides are exchanging proposals, but remain far apart, according to sources briefed on the talks,” he wrote on Friday.
As of now, it sounds like YouTube TV subscribers will miss yet another week of college football action, and potentially the Monday night football game as well. Luckily, you can just about find a free live stream of every ESPN game on the actual YouTube website, in case you’re having trouble thanks to the dispute. Seriously, just type in the game you want to see in the “Live” section on YouTube and a stream is likely to pop up.
Frankly, it’s much easier to pull up a free live stream through YouTube than it is to log in to ESPN — or, Heaven forbid, fork over the $30 price of ESPN Unlimited, which was recently launched, and not so coincidentally around when the carriage dispute began.
It’s clear. ESPN wants folks to ditch YouTube TV and sign up for a streaming platform direct from them. If you used the old ESPN+ app, you know well how truly inept the company is at operating the most basic level of streaming product. The early reviews suggest this newest “Unlimited” setup is another example of just that.
YouTube TV’s problem is they need ESPN to complete their full complement of sports channels, especially when it comes to college football. But ESPN’s issue is that many YouTube TV subscribers have the NFL Sunday Ticket Package exclusive to their service, and the only weekly game that’s missing is ESPN’s Monday Night contest.
Another issue for ESPN: People don’t want a direct-from-ESPN product. They don’t want to finagle with a 45-step login process on a smart TV app just to watch one ESPN game. They want to sit down and throw on their YouTube TV quad-box and have games from FOX, ESPN, CBS, the CW and whichever other channels all in one spot. ESPN cannot offer that and seemingly never will, and that’s ultimately what the people want.
Nobody wants to log in to a different app to watch every game. The company that’s going to get the most subscribers is the one that has all of the channels in a fluent, easily-accessible interface. YouTube TV can get that back by striking a deal with ESPN, eventually, while ESPN appears to be holding out with hopes that fans actually value their content enough to pay $30 a month separate from YouTube TV, who has the rest of the sports channels and already has the subscriber base.
Greedy, greedy, greedy, and just plain greedy. Figure it out, you guys.
ESPN may think there’s a brand loyalty to their product, but from a ground-level college football fan here in Kentucky, I can promise you nobody will blink twice if ESPN crumbles tomorrow and all of the games move to FOX, CBS and other providers. The “Worldwide Leader” won’t be missed. The only thing ESPN leads the world in is carrier disputes over the last few seasons, because this is not the first brawl between ESPN and a cable provider.
Maybe tone down the self-importance, ESPN, and find a way to get your games back on YouTube TV. Because, as mentioned, YouTube itself has almost all of ’em for free. Good luck to the fans on finding a way to watch your favorite teams this weekend.
