Pat McAfee likes to posture as a man of the people in his various hosting roles, and on Tuesday, he stepped up to take fans’ side against his own employer.
As fans continue to miss significant sporting events amid a prolonged blackout of Disney networks, including ESPN on YouTube TV, McAfee called out both sides of the carriage dispute to stop being stubborn. During a segment reacting to the disagreement that swallowed up Monday Night Football and his own show, College GameDay, this past weekend, McAfee also took aim at his colleagues.
The host, who licenses his show to ESPN, encouraged talent not to take their employer’s side over their audience and fanbase. McAfee was referring to videos posted last week by ESPN stars, urging fans to visit “KeepMyNetworks.com” to contact YouTube TV and express their frustration.
These videos are a tactic Disney and ESPN have frequently deployed during disputes with content carriers, but they landed like a ton of bricks this time around.
“We’re all done with it,” McAfee said of the Disney-YTTV dispute.
“And also, if you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multi-billion-dollar deal. Nobody cares what you have to say. There will be nothing that we have to say or any website that will be visited. There are, I don’t want to say the exact names, but these people (hands up high), let’s put our swords down. Let’s put our swords down for the good of sports.
“We need each other. A lot of people saying ‘greedy corporations,’ it’s like, yeah. We need each other, especially with where sports are right now. And we’re in the middle of it, so let’s get it done. And stop asking me to go to a website. I don’t want to do that, so stop … all you’re doing is pissing everybody off even more. So it’s like, let’s just not do that.”
At issue in the dispute is the carriage rate YouTube will pay Disney. This is the amount YouTube pays content companies per subscriber, and a big part of how cable networks like ESPN make money. For years, ESPN has been among the most expensive networks for distributors like YouTube TV to carry. Like many network conglomerates, Disney uses ESPN’s value to bring up the prices of other, less valuable networks like ESPNU, Freeform, and FXX.
As the two sides fail to reach a compromise on the carriage rate YTTV will pay Disney, sports fans must launch new subscriptions elsewhere to watch games.
“We need to be able to access this sh*t easily,” McAfee said Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show. “And also, sports are a unifier, man. Come on. We don’t want to hear about business bullsh*t.”
However, McAfee also acknowledged that the deal is complicated. YouTube TV has somewhere around 10 million subscribers, and Disney is losing approximately $5 million per day as the dispute drags on.
“Any time both sides feel like they have leverage and they feel like they have to to survive, that is a tough deal to get done,” McAfee added.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.