Paying a flat fee for a streaming service is a great alternative to buying TV shows or movies individually. To a certain extent, it solves the issue with piracy because at around $10-$20 a month, it’s pretty affordable. However, the problem with streaming is licensing. If these platforms cannot strike a deal with movie studios or distributors, they will lose those shows. That’s exactly what happened here with YouTube TV and Disney, although the good news is that there is some compensation.

YouTube TV subscribers get compensation over Disney channel loss

According to a post on Reddit by u/Happy-Spare4582, it seems that YouTube TV is offering compensation to some users over the Disney channel loss. It’s not a particularly huge compensation at $10 monthly credit for the next six months, but we suppose it’s better than nothing. It’s safe to assume that Google doesn’t want users to cancel their YouTube TV subscription.

However, even then, Google isn’t making this particularly easy. Users will have to find the compensation in the account management page. They have to go to Manage membership > Manage Base plan section on the YouTube TV website on their PC to claim it. As if navigating the settings wasn’t enough, the post on Reddit suggests that it might not be available to everyone.

Ultimately, if you are lucky enough to have been chosen to receive this compensation, it brings YouTube TV’s subscription down to $73 a month, with a total savings of $60. If you want, you could always use that $10, top it up a bit more, and subscribe directly to Disney. This means you’ll spend a little bit more, but it’s a workaround for the time-being. If not, you will lose access to 20 channels from Disney’s network. This might be important to some, especially given the ongoing college football, NFL, and NHL seasons.

Failed negotiations

Like we said, licensing deals are an important part of a streaming platform. If it cannot get enough shows on its platform, users will just subscribe to another. Obviously original content matters too, but users want to be able to watch other stuff too.

Both Google and Disney have been trying to negotiate a deal, which expired on October 30. However, the reason the negotiations failed is because Google wanted better rates (obviously). It also wanted its subscribers to access additional Disney content, like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

Disney told CNBC, “This is the latest example of Google exploiting its position at the expense of their own customers.” YouTube, in return, responded by saying, “Unfortunately, Disney is proposing costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices, while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products — like Hulu + Live TV and, soon, Fubo.”