It’s Day 5 of the Disney blackout on YouTube TV, and sports fans who subscribe to the Google-owned pay TV service are feeling the pinch. They’ve missed out on an entire weekend of football on ESPN and ABC, missed Monday Night Football, and a full slate of college basketball games.
Disney is shedding millions of dollars, Google didn’t take the PR bait, and consumers are taking the brunt of it as usual.
On Saturday, ESPN made an interesting move by making its highly popular College GameDay available for free on Pat McAfee’s X account and its recently launched app. That app has been at the center of much speculation over Disney’s decision-making through this stalemate.
Specifically, some have wondered whether Disney and ESPN are slow-playing the situation to boost interest and subscriptions for their app. While they reportedly snagged over 2 million new sign-ups in the first 40 days after launching, the need to push subscriber growth is a key element of launching any streaming product. And some have asked if Disney might be moving a little faster to settle this impasse if that weren’t the case.
That includes Barstool’s Dan “Big Cat” Katz.
@pardonmytakeESPN won’t let the people watch sports♬ original sound – pardonmytake
“ESPN is f*cking everyone because ESPN has got a new app… and they also own Hulu and Fubo,” said Big Cat on a recent episode of Pardon My Take. “They’re screwing over everyone who has cut the cord and went to YouTube TV. And it’s just f*cked up. It’s f*cked up.
“…It’s obviously not a coincidence. They just came out with their app that they’re trying to get everyone to pay $30 a month for, and this is now happening.”
For Katz, this speaks to a larger issue with the way major networks and rightsholders are making it unnecessarily difficult for fans to enjoy sports.
“They’re just screwing over the consumer, the people who just want to watch sports,” said Katz. “I just want to watch sports. That’s all I want to watch. The shows I watch are on Netflix or HBO. Let me just watch sports. I don’t watch any other TV besides sports. Give me all the sports in one place and let me pay for that, and stop with this bulls*** where everyone is trying to squeeze each other out for an extra dollar, screwing over the people who just want to watch sports.”
He also had no love lost for ESPN’s new app and his user experience.
Also, guess what? ESPN, your app is garbage,” he continued. “It kicks me out all the time.”
“I just don’t get it. I don’t get it. It seems like the only one who gets screwed over in all this sh*t is the consumer, the guys just want to watch sports?” said Katz.
Big Cat and co-host Eric “PFT Commentator” Sollenberger then wistfully opine about a mythical all-in-one sports app that offers every major sport and every viewing option. An ESPN app-Fox One bundle currently exists that will get you a solid amount of the way there, but it still doesn’t include many sports or leagues whose rights are controlled by other entities.
Alas, while many of the corporations and streaming services that control the myriad broadcasting rights for sports content are slightly contracting and consolidating, it’s unlikely we’ll see that sports-viewing panacea anytime soon.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.