Alright, let's get real. Another freakin' standoff between a streaming service and Disney? Give me a break. YouTube TV and Disney are still duking it out, leaving viewers like us stuck in the middle. Disney wants more money, YouTube TV doesn't want to pay it, and we're left without ESPN on Monday night. Again.
The Election Day Ploy
Disney's bright idea to temporarily lift the blackout for Election Day? YouTube TV wasn't having it. They said it would confuse customers. Confuse them? As if we're all goldfish who can't remember what happened yesterday. “The vast majority” of subscribers didn’t even watch ABC on the last two election days, YouTube TV claims. Okay, sure. Maybe people were too busy doomscrolling to watch the news. Or maybe they've already cut the cord entirely and are sailing the high seas of illegal streaming... just a thought.
YouTube TV is playing the "we're not like DirecTV" card, pointing out how Disney pulled the same stunt during the 2024 presidential debate. As if two wrongs make a right? This whole thing is just corporate posturing at our expense. The real question is, who blinks first? And how much more are we going to end up paying for this crap in the long run?
Speaking of paying more... I saw my neighbor's kid the other day, and he was rocking a freakin' $200 pair of sneakers. Two hundred bucks! For sneakers! When I was a kid, we were happy with generic brands from Walmart. Now everyone expects to be dripping in designer labels. This whole culture is so messed up. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Disney and YouTube TV.
Fubo's Weird Flex
Then there's Fubo. David Gandler, their CEO, is out there saying their merger with Hulu + Live TV won't have any overlap because Fubo is all about sports and Hulu is about "general entertainment." Right. So, people who watch sports never watch anything else? It's like saying beer drinkers never eat pizza.
Fubo launched some "sports skinny bundle" for $56 a month. Skinny bundle? That's still highway robbery. And they're talking about tapping into the ESPN ecosystem. "This is a funnel we have never leveraged before," Gandler says. Translation: "We're gonna squeeze every last penny out of you sports fanatics we possibly can."
And hey, Fubo's Q3 numbers are out. Revenue down 2%, but subscriber numbers are up slightly. They're patting themselves on the back for losing less money than last year. Congrats, guys. You're still losing money. FuboTV Reports Strong Q3 Growth Amid Hulu Merger
Remembering a Legend
Okay, shifting gears completely. Bob Trumpy passed away. The guy was a legend. Four Super Bowls with Enberg? That's serious broadcasting cred. Before that, he was a tight end for the Bengals. The "father of Cincinnati sports talk." Cris Collinsworth looked up to him. You gotta respect that. It's a reminder that there's more to life than streaming wars and corporate greed... although, offcourse, the broadcasting world has its own dark side.
But back to the main event.
What's the Point of All This?
Seriously, what are we even doing here? We're paying more and more for less and less. These streaming services are all starting to look the same, jacking up prices and fighting over content like toddlers fighting over toys. Maybe it's time to just cancel everything and go back to reading books. Or, you know, building a time machine and going back to when cable was the only option. At least then you knew what you were getting.