ESPN, said it will not make its content available on YouTube, due to the recently announced ad-free, subscription-based offering coined YouTube Red. Therefore, as of now, if you try and go to Youtube pages affiliated with the network, you get a message that says something along the lines of “this channel has no content”. The fight between the two giants doesn’t appear that it will end anytime soon.
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“ESPN is not currently part of the Red service. Content previously available on the free YouTube service will be available across ESPN digital properties,” ESPN said in a statement.
Of ESPN’s 13 YouTube “featured” channels, two of them (Nacion ESPN and X Games) are still in operation, while the other 11 are not. It’s unclear why only some channels are up and others aren’t, and whether it was YouTube or ESPN that made them private, but you can expect to see all of ESPN’s YouTube channels go private until ESPN becomes a part of YouTube Red, which might take awhile.
According to a YouTube spokesperson, ESPN’s parent company Disney has signed an agreement to be a part of the new subscription service, but ESPN is not currently included in that due to rights and legal issues. Presumably ESPN’s numerous rights deals with sports leagues somehow prevent them from joining.
