ESPN is off the air on YouTube.
Earlier this week, YouTube announced it will be rolling out a premium plan costing $9.99 per month for exclusive content without any ads. As part of the deal, content creators, like ESPN, were essentially given no alternative other than to participate with YouTube Red, as it is called, or have their content rendered unviewable. The strong-arming ignited a firestorm within the content creator community since many of them felt being bullied into the revenue split.
While many companies complied, ESPN has declined.
Now, many of ESPN’s 13 YouTube channels, which have 3 million subscribers among them, have been mostly stripped of videos. On three of the network’s show pages (SportsNation, First Take and His & Hers) there’s a message displayed reading “This channel has no content.” Grantland’s page also has the same message.
On ESPN’s YouTube channel, which has 1.6 million subscribers alone, videos that are three years and older are the only posts left. That doesn’t mean ESPN’s videos are completely wiped off the Internet: the network is still posting them in its own video player.
ESPN told Digiday that it’s not commenting “at this time.”
Mashable reports the issue revolves around rights since ESPN’s posts a lot of sporting content that “tend to involve many third-party rights that are affected if that work is suddenly not being distributed for free.”
Update 2:50 p.m. ET | ESPN provided this additional comment to Digiday: “ESPN is not currently part of the Red service. Content previously available on the free YouTube service will be available across ESPN digital properties.”
Images via Facebook.
-
‘Qualify the context’: Publishers see success with podcasts created to deepen coronavirus crisis coverage
Publishers expanded COVID-19 coverage with products like podcasts as audiences flocked to pandemic-related content.
-
‘We need to see ourselves as a media business’: AC Milan’s endgame for content
Italian football club AC Milan has joined the likes of Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona F.C and Bayern Munich in owning its production arm.
-
Member ExclusiveMedia Briefing: ‘I literally didn’t sleep last night’: Publishers share their concerns about the future of data
Publishing execs today face big questions about how to value their audiences and who holds the keys to that value.
-
SponsoredShoppable content is reshaping brand and publisher relationships
In recent years, brands and publishers have adopted affiliate marketing as an increasingly established method to audiences. However, what may seem to be a mutually beneficial arrangement between brands and affiliates on closer scrutiny reveals itself as a solution that comes with challenges. Meanwhile, the emergence of content commerce is opening different approaches to matching […]
-
California’s privacy law has had ‘no impact’ on ad revenues or inventory, but indirect effects could hurt
Publishers, ad tech firms and ad agencies say they felt a bigger hit from opt-ins in Europe than from opt-outs in California.
-
‘Isolated and voiceless’: Burnt out young workers are turning to tech for mental health support
Gen Z workers think robots are more helpful than humans for mental health support — a factor that hints at deeper work-culture issues.
