ESPN college football pregame show “College GameDay” was available for free on the ESPN app and on the X account of host Pat McAfee for the second straight week on Saturday.
“As we continue to work on reaching a fair resolution with YouTube TV so they can restore our networks, this week College GameDay will be available, once again, to all fans on the ESPN App with no subscription or authentication needed,” ESPN’s public relations account posted on X.
Mr. McAfee also posted the full stream and a series of clips from the program, taped this week at Texas Tech Univesity in Lubbock, Texas, featuring guest game picker and NFL star Patrick Mahomes, himself a Texas Tech alum.
ESPN, along with other Disney-owned channels like ABC and National Geographic, has been unavailable for YouTube TV customers since the night of Oct. 30, when the previous deal between Disney and the streaming platform expired.
YouTube TV told Reuters that Disney wants to make the Google-owned streaming service pay more for content and live sports than other distributors like DirecTV and Charter Communications.
Disney contends that YouTube TV is trying to leverage its status as the largest internet TV provider in the U.S. to get preferential terms.
“We invest in the best talent, creators and content in the world, and we cannot allow anyone to undercut our ability to do so. … YouTube TV continues to insist on receiving preferential terms that are below market and has made few concessions,” high-ranking Disney executives, including ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a Friday memo to employees, according to The Athletic.
YouTube TV already bridged impasses with CBS parent Paramount, NBCUniversal and Fox earlier this year, first reaching short-term extensions before prior deals expired and content was removed, and then inking new long-term deals with the three companies.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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