The release of the memo to ESPN employees is the latest twist in the protracted stand-off between the distributor and content company.

Rising costs of sports rights fees and other other factors have fueled YouTube's disputes with Disney and other media companies.

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.

That is where the YouTube TV versus ESPN brouhaha stands. The two sides are exchanging proposals, but remain far apart, according to sources briefed on the talks, as the “Monday Night Football” game of the year — the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Green Bay Packers — looms early next week.

With the blackout of ESPN, ABC and other Disney networks on YouTube TV, 24% of subscribers said they have already canceled or plan to, a survey found.

YouTube users panicking over blank screens and broken playback can relax, the platform isn’t down. Google is reportedly stepping up its long-running battle against ad-blockers, causing videos to stall,

Rising costs of sports rights fees and other other factors have fueled YouTube's disputes with Disney and other media companies.

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