By Brian Steinberg
Senior TV Editor
Disney‘s carriage fight with Google’s YouTube TV is beginning to create some issues for some of the company’s most popular media properties.
“NBC Nightly News” was able to claim victory over ABC’s ‘World News Tonight” last week among viewers between 25 and 54 — the demographic most coveted by advertisers. It’s the first time “Nightly” has been able to tout that distinction during the nascent tenure of its new anchor, Tom Llamas. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Today” was the most-watched morning-news program last week among viewers overall, a lead normally held by ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
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The NBC News programs were able to notch those victories in part because ABC News “retitled” the programs last week as Disney grapples with a blackout of its properties on YouTube TV. To ward off the effects of atypical viewing, TV networks sometimes use a different name for a show that is likely to underperform, so it’s not counted in Nielsen’s analysis of the show’s other, properly titled episodes. ABC retitled episodes of both “World News Tonight” and “GMA” last week, according to TV executives familiar with the matter. ABC isn’t alone in its use of the technique — many of the network news divisions tap it with increasing frequency — but such a move doesn’t suggest complete confidence in a program’s ability to bring in the usual audience.
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ABC has had reason to be anxious. ABC and Disney-owned siblings like ESPN, Freeform and FX have been removed from YouTube TV since October 30, the result of an inability by the networks’ corporate parent and the popular video distributor to come to a new carriage deal. The main sticking point is price — Disney is asking for rate hikes to which Google isn’t willing to agree. At the same time, Google has been trying to push TV companies to accept new tiers of programming that could result in some subscribers opting to drop receiving certain networks to keep bills manageable.
Approximately 10 million people subscribe to YouTube TV. ABC News declined to comment.
NBC News said Wednesday that “Nightly” won an average of 929,000 viewers between 25 and 54 for the five days ended November 7, compared with 883,000 for “World News Tonight.” During a typical week, “World News Tonight” prevails over its evening-news rivals in all categories. The ABC News program shed 20,000 viewers in the demographic from the week prior, according to Nielsen data, and was down in overall audience as well, though it maintained its usual position in that category.
Meanwhile, “Today” captured an average of 2.81 million total viewers, according to data from Nielsen, compared with 2.72 million for “GMA.” “Today” has generated some momentum in recent weeks, notching the most-watched lead in six weeks of the last ten.
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