Disney CEO Bob Iger did not address an ongoing carrier dispute the company is locked in with YouTubeTV that has left ABC, ESPN and other channels it owns off the streamer for several weeks during an appearance on ESPN’s “Manningcast” on Monday.
Iger visited with the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli, for several minutes during the network’s ESPN2 simulcast of Monday Night Football between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.
The former Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and brothers mused with the head of Disney about Iger’s Packers fanhood, broke down play-by-play strategy for each team and joked about Eli Manning’s success against Iger’s Packers.
The business executive was not, however, asked any questions about Disney’s dispute with YouTubeTV, which has kept ESPN away from some 10 million subscribers and angered fans of pro and college football since the blackout began last month.
YouTubeTV, which is owned by Google, has said it is “working to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content” and this week offered subscribers a $20 credit for the service disruption, though many customers expressed annoyance that each subscriber must manually accept the rebate in the platform’s settings.
The ESPN-YouTubeTV fight is being widely seen as a test of consumer appetite for bundled content packages, as more media companies ditch linear cable assets in favor of direct-to-consumer streaming platforms.
