ESPN Has Started Putting Its Videos Back on YouTube
February 02 2017 - 02:05PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Shields
ESPN is back on YouTube.
When the sports network's majority owner Walt Disney Co. signed
a deal with YouTube in 2015 to include its content in the ad-free
YouTube Red service, ESPN declined to participate and pulled its
videos off of YouTube altogether.
But last weekend ESPN quietly streamed some live X Games footage
on YouTube. And on Wednesday, short clips from ESPN's shows like
"SportsCenter" and "First Take" started appearing on the free,
ad-supported version of YouTube as well as YouTube Red.
"We were able to come to terms on a short form video agreement
for YouTube and YouTube Red as part of our larger deal with The
Walt Disney Company," said an ESPN spokeswoman.
Back when ESPN first pulled its content off of YouTube and
declined to be part of Red, a Google spokeswoman said it was due to
"rights and legal issues."
It isn't clear what has changed since that announcement was
made, and the companies won't specify.
But the return of ESPN's content to the YouTube platform comes
as Google works on signing up TV networks for its planned web TV
service, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Disney has been part
of those talks.
There are no pre-roll ads running on ESPN's free YouTube clips
at the moment, but that will change soon with ESPN selling the ads
directly. ESPN's Disney sibling ABC reached an agreement in 2015 to
sell pre-roll ads on YouTube prior to clips from "Jimmy Kimmel
Live." YouTube typically takes a 45% cut from ads that partners
sell on its platform.
Write to Mike Shields at mike.shields@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2017 13:50 ET (18:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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