Consumers aren’t the only ones fed up with the ongoing carriage dispute between Disney and YouTube TV. Local station owners are as well.
A unique and perhaps underrated aspect of this dispute is that all ABC stations nationwide, regardless of whether they are owned by Disney or a local station group like Sinclair, have been taken off of YouTube TV. In carriage disputes with traditional cable or satellite providers, like Comcast or DirecTV, broadcast networks like ABC are removed on a station-by-station basis, depending on who owns the station, not so much with YouTube TV and other digital pay TV platforms, which aren’t subject to the same federal laws regulating cable and satellite providers.
And as we stare down Day 7 of Disney’s blackout on YouTube TV, Chris Ripley, CEO of local TV giant Sinclair Broadcasting, is speaking out. Sinclair owns around 40 ABC affiliates across the country, all of which are not currently available on YouTube TV.
“As local broadcasters, we have no say in whether our content and the content we pay to air will be distributed to local viewers,” Ripley said of YouTube TV and other similar platforms during an earnings call earlier this week, per Deadline. “This was clearly not the intent of the Telecommunications Act, and seems to be, from our perspective, an antitrust issue as well. This dispute, and others like it, continue to hurt local viewers and local journalism, and the ecosystem of global journalism. So as we and many broadcasters have discussed with the FCC and antitrust regulators, we believe this practice needs to be stopped.”
Disney “should not be able to dictate to us whether we can or cannot distribute content to YouTube TV,” Ripley added.
It is, seemingly, a double standard. If Disney were hypothetically in a similar dispute with DirecTV, Sinclair’s 40 or so ABC stations would remain on the air for DirecTV customers. Only the affiliates owned by Disney directly would be blacked out. But because YouTube TV distributes its product digitally, all ABC channels are unavailable for subscribers.
“We’re seeing those hurtful practices play out in front of our eyes as viewers are missing local news and local sports. Particularly concerning is that consumers are now being forced to buy more streaming services from one of the parties in the dispute to get the content that they literally already paid for. We call on Congress, the FCC, and antitrust regulators to further review this and stop the harm to local broadcasters and local viewers,” the Sinclair CEO said.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.