Blackout Blunder: YouTube TV’s Disney dispute is a PR mess

Scrrrrreeech! 

That was the sound of Disney network ratings as channels went dark on YouTube TV hours before one of the biggest football weekends of the year. 

Disney-owned networks, which include ESPN channels, were riding their best college football viewership in 15 years when subscribers opened their YouTube TV app the night of October 30 and found … nothing. 

Since then, about 10 million YouTube TV subscribers have also missed Monday Night Football, NBA and college basketball games.

Both sides fumbled the PR assignment

There was a lot of finger-pointing before screens went dark. The fact is, fans don’t care who’s to blame. They just want the service they paid for. That’s where proactive and responsive PR comes into play. But there isn’t any. From either side.

Neither YouTube TV nor Disney is talking to subscribers online: Bluesky (no accounts), Instagram/Threads (Meta-owned), Reddit — all ignored. One corporate statement appeared on moribund Twitter, October 30. Nothing since.

If you read my PR newsletter SIDEbar, you know this: when you don’t control your message, the public will. And maaaannnnn, has it. Pissed off viewers have taken over the narrative. And no one’s fighting back. 🤦🏻‍♀️

This isn’t about one missed football game. It’s dozens of sports, news and entertainment channels going dark. And to top it off, YouTube TV emailed NFL Sunday Ticket promos after it offered streaming subscribers a $20 credit – woohoo. It was like it was trying to top an already bad PR response.

Being a sports fan isn’t cheap, even if you never set foot in a stadium. When $20 is hyped as a gift by a $3.4 trillion company (Alphabet-Google owns YouTube TV; Disney is worth a mere $200 million), you lose. Staying silent just piles on.

Both brands are losing the PR game

This tit-for-tat nonsense hurts both brands. Some viewers will change their habits and jump to other service providers and networks. Others will go read a book (I’ve got suggestions). Push people hard enough and they’ll unsubscribe, which Disney won’t like after the Jimmy Kimmel debacle.

For now, viewers and media continue to call out both companies, torching brand cred faster than surge pricing at a theme park. PR could fix some of this, but silence is PR, too — and this kind is pouring fuel on fans’ frustration.

The insult isn’t just the outage. It’s the clueless response, or lack thereof. Sending NFL Sunday Ticket promos while your sports channels are down? PR malpractice. The $20 credit? Disrespectful — and sends a message that you aren’t the priority you thought you were.

© 2025 Gail Sideman, pissedoffpublicist.com; gpublicity.com

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