MILWAUKEE — YouTube TV subscribers were left scrambling to find alternative ways to watch Monday Night Football as the Green Bay Packers took on the Philadelphia Eagles, all due to an ongoing dispute between Google and Disney.
The blackout affected viewers like Gaurav, a sophomore at UW-Milwaukee, who discovered he couldn't watch his favorite team just hours before kickoff.
"I actually did not know, I was planning on watching it on YouTube TV," Gaurav said.
The dispute between Google, which owns YouTube TV, and Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, started last month. The two companies have yet to reach an agreement, making this the second Monday Night Football matchup not shown on the streaming platform.
We took the conversation to the TMJ4 Facebook page to see how fans were planning to watch the game, and received an overwhelming response.
Several people like Theresa, Don, Becky and Jess opted for the good old antenna to catch the games. Others like Jackie, Patti, and Bobbie were trying out other streaming services, while some like Marc were heading to a local establishment.
The frustrating search left many fans on the sidelines Monday night.
"Having it blacked out, even though you're paying such great amounts of money, and I feel like that's kind of a disappointing part to not be getting the full service and potentially not being able to watch the game," Gaurav said.
YouTube TV is offering a $20 credit to subscribers who have been affected by the Disney channel blackout, but Gaurav doesn't think that's good enough.
"I feel like just having to pay for that, and assure myself to kind of be able to watch it, I feel like that kind of makes it look more disappointing," Gaurav said.
Fans continue waiting for the two parties to reconcile as soon as possible.
This story was reported on-air by Mike Beiermeister and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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