The disagreement causing the ESPN and ABC outage stems from the "carriage fee" that YouTube TV pays Disney to broadcast its channels. Disney has faced similar negotiating standoffs with other broadcasters in recent years, including a 2021 outage on YouTubeTV that was resolved in two days.

Pay TV subscribers are accustomed to losing channels when negotiations go south between station groups and cable or satellite providers. In those instances, TV stations get yanked from the cable lineup until a deal is reached,

The current mess battle between YouTube TV and the Walt Disney Co. provides an opportunity to rethink having paid live television.

Fubo Sports is a slimmed-down live TV streaming package that caters to sports and news, featuring roughly 30 channels. The lineup carries ABC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ACCN and other channels that allow you to stream NBA, NFL and college sports.

Amid the Disney blackout, YouTube TV customers will begin to receive a $20 credit starting Nov. 9 if there is still no deal to restore ESPN, ABC and other channels.

YouTube TV subscribers lost access to Disney-owned networks— including ABC, ESPN and FX— after the companies failed to reach a new carriage deal.

Google and Disney have reached a standstill in their negotiations over a new agreement for the continued carriage of their channels, including WAAY TV, a local ABC affiliate on Google’s internet-delivered service, YouTube TV.

Disney suspended ESPN, ABC content on YouTube TV after the companies failed to reach a new contractual agreement.

Are you thinking about signing up for a streaming service? Here's why you might want to check out Fubo TV instead.