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Its certainly been a spooky week for the Walt Disney Co. and Google. The two corporations are in the midst of a carriage dispute that has resulted in a blackout of Disneys networks on Google-owned YouTube TV, leaving viewers unable to access popular channels including ESPN and ABC. Disney began notifying viewers on October 23 about the dispute and warning that its networks could be removed from the pay-TV streaming platform. All of that came to a head in the last 48 hours as the two parties failed to come to an agreement on a new deal, and YouTube TV began removing Disneys networks about 30 minutes before the previous carriage deal expired at midnight Eastern time. One area of contention between the two seems to be around pricing, with Disney asking for rate hikes that Google isnt agreeing to. A number of YouTube TV subscribers complained on social media about having their access cut, with some noting how the situation is reminiscent of the contract battles that have long plagued cable television. I’ll never forget how liberating it was in 2018 to cut the cord & subscribe to YouTube TV, John Martin, a radio host on sports station 92.9 FM ESPN, wrote on X, adding that “Nothing good ever lasts, kids. I wish cable just figured it out,” one X user wrote. “[This] should be the time they try to win others back but basically are like, hold my beer. hah, another user wrote. Still another said: I just switched, and now I have to find ANOTHER streaming platform.” Companies play the blame game Reached for comment, Google directed Fast Company to a statement released by YouTube on Thursday. Last week, Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers, the post on YouTubes blog read. Theyre now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. The post continued to say that while the situation is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for YouTube TV subscribers, the company said it was urging Disney to work constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV. If an agreement wasnt reached and the content remained off YouTube TV, Google said it would offer subscribers a $20 credit. Disney, meanwhile, is pointing the finger at Google, accusing the tech giant of using its market dominance to eliminate the competition and undercut the industry-standard terms that it says it has already negotiated with other distributors. Unfortunately, Googles YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC, a Disney spokesperson said. Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sportsanchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend. On Friday, a memo was shared with Disney Entertainment and ESPN employees from Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Berg and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, regarding YouTube TV. The memo, obtained by Fast Company, reiterated a similar sentiment as the statement. The three executives wrote that Googles actions make clear how little regard they have for their customers and are consistent with an attitude which has been prevalent throughout our negotiationsYouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in achieving a fair deal with us. The bottom line is that our channels are extremely valuable, and we can only continue to program them with the sports and entertainment viewers love most if we stand our ground against tactics that threaten the integrity of our business and the value of our creative work, the note concluded. Which channels are being blacked out? The networks impacted and being removed from YouTube TV include ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, SEC Network, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, ABC News Live, ACC Network, and Localish, as well as ESPN Deportes, Baby TV Espaol, and Nat Geo Mundo for those with the Spanish plan. This isnt the first time that corporations have butted heads over the distribution of television content, nor is it the first time that YouTube TV has gotten into disputes with other entertainment giants. Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Corporation, and NBCUniversal all recently battled with the streaming service, though they were able to eventually reach a deal to avert a blackout. YouTube TV also previously dropped Univision and other TelevisaUnivision-owned networks in September after the two parties could not come to an agreement. Meanwhile, Disney and Charter Communications had a public dispute over a renewal in 2023, though the two parties were able to resolve the problem to avert a blackout. The impact on subscribers Experts in the industry said those who suffer most from these ongoing carriage renewal disputes are the customers. Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics, said that while carriage disputes have always been present in the linear pay-TV era, the fragmentation of current at-home entertainment makes the lapses much more noticeable, especially when dealing with sports broadcast rights that are strewn across the small-screen ecosystem. When consumers are juggling multiple subscriptions, often directed by access to specific content such as sports channels, their removal causes added friction, Katz told Fast Company. That friction often leads to a temporary spike in cancellations and, in this instance, perhaps a short-term bump in ESPN Unlimited and/or Disney Bundle sign-ups. Convenience, cost, and access rule consumer decision-making in the convoluted streaming era. YouTube TV is estimated to be the fourth-largest multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the United States, rivaling traditional cable providers with around 10 million subscribers. That means it wields enormous leverage, although Katz did point out that blackouts caused by disputes like this typically dont last too long. Even when these disputes result in a blackout, they don’t usually extend past a couple weeks, Katz said. I fully expect YouTube TV and Disney to reach a deal in the near future. However, the increasing frequency of these disputes and the overextended nature of sports rights these days make it particularly frustrating for consumers, who ultimately vote wih their wallets.
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E-Commerce
Ted Bundy had courtroom groupies. Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez were sent love letters in prison. Now, in the age of social media, thousands like, share, and thirst in the comments over stylized fan edits of serial killers. Theres a term for this psychological phenomenon: hybristophilia. A new study has found a connection between young womens engagement with this type of TikTok content and their sexual attraction to criminals. Those who liked or repeatedly watched clips glorifying notorious serial killers, such as Bundy and Dahmer, or fictional villains like Joe Goldberg from Netflixs You, scored higher for hybristophilia than those who scrolled past such content, according to the peer-reviewed research published in the journal Deviant Behavior, the only journal that specifically and exclusively addresses social deviance. The findings also indicate that personality traits like Machiavellianism and psychopathy are strong predictors of these tendencies. Previous research on hybristophilia often focused on women already in relationships with convicted offenders. Instead, researchers at the University of Huddersfield, aimed to explore how this attraction emerges in younger generations, particularly through social media platforms like TikTok. The study analyzed 66 TikToks and 91 comments posted between 2020 and 2024, then surveyed nearly 100 female TikTok users aged 18 to 27, measuring hybristophilia levels, empathy and dark personality traits. As seen in the recent reaction to Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, who has been obsessively idolized online and sent fan mail in prison, the halo effect can play in these killers favor. Conventionally attractive offenders like Mangione often have their crimes minimized, while researchers found comments like Daddy or Smash commonly used in reference to notorious serial killers. Some users even expressed what the study called a victim fantasy, with 7.6% of participants admitting to having sexual fantasies about conventionally attractive offenders like Bundy. In their research, the studys authors found violent behaviors were often romanticized, recast as crimes of loyalty or passion. Some expressed the belief that love could reform the killers, a theme the researchers called I Can Fix Him. In some cases, social media users conflated the serial killers with their Hollywood counterparts, a phenomenon known as actor-offender transference. Attraction to actors like Zac Efron or Evan Peters, who played Bundy and Dahmer on-screen, then spilled into attraction to the real-life killers. For those concerned that innocently scrolling social media will suddenly have them fantasizing about serial killers, dont fear. The study found exposure to content romanticizing offenders on a social media feed did not by itself predict an attraction to criminals. Only when users engaged in the content by watching, commenting, or otherwise interacting, did a link present itself.
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E-Commerce
Amazon is leading the U.S. stock market on October 31 to the finish of another winning week and month. The S&P 500 was virtually flat after giving up a modest gain from the morning. The index is still near its all-time high set on October 28, and it’s on track to close a third-straight winning week and a sixth-straight winning month, which would be its longest monthly winning streak since 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 102 points, or less than 0.2%, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. Amazon led the way after jumping 10.3%. The retail giant was by far the strongest force pushing upward on the market after reporting profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts expectations. CEO Andy Jassy said growth for its booming cloud-computing business has reaccelerated back to a pace it hasnt seen since 2022. Because Amazon is so massive, worth roughly $2.4 trillion, its stock movements carry more weight on the S&P 500 than almost any other company’s. Another highly influential stock, Apple, was having less of an effect even though it’s bigger than Amazon. Apple, which is worth more than $4 trillion, was swinging between modest gains and losses and was most recently up 0.1%. It likewise delivered a better profit report than analysts expected, though by not as big a margin as Amazon did. CEO Tim Cook said Apple benefited from strong revenue for both its iPhone lineup and its services offerings, which include its app store. Elsewhere on Wall Street, online message board Reddit jumped 12.1% to erase losses from earlier in the week after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Coinbase Global rose 6.8% after the crypto exchanges profit likewise topped expectations. Outside of earnings reports, Netflix added 3.3% after the video streamer announced a move that could make its stock price more affordable but still leave its investors holding the same amount. Netflix will undergo a 10-for-1 stock split, where it will give nine additional shares to every investor with one. They helped offset a 4.8% drop for AbbVie, even though the medicine maker reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts pointed to how it’s beating forecasts by less than before, and expectations may have been high after AbbVie’s stock came into the day with a strong 28.4% gain for the year so far. The pressure is on companies to deliver strong growth in profits to justify the huge gains their stock prices have made since April. Criticism has been growing that the stock market has become too expensive. A day earlier, the S&P 500 slumped 1% as investors appeared unnerved by big increases in spending that Meta Platforms and Microsoft are planning as part of the investment spree underway in AI technology. Financial markets also appeared skeptical that President Donald Trumps trade truce with China would put an end to tensions between the two countries. Additional drops on Friday of 1.6% for Microsoft and 2.2% for Meta were two of the heaviest weights on the U.S. market. In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Stocks fell 1.4% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai after data showed factory activity in China contracted in October for a seventh straight month and at the fastest pace in six months. Japans Nikkei 225, meanwhile, jumped 2.1% to another record after a report showed industrial production rose more in September than expected. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after their spurt higher in the middle of the week, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that another cut to interest rates in December is not a foregone conclusionfar from it. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.09% from 4.11% late on October 30, but its still above the 3.99% level it was at before Powells warning. Other central banks have halted cuts to rates or hinted at pauses recently, and it seems this is it for the 2025 easing season in developed economies, economists at Bank of America wrote in a BofA Global Research report. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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E-Commerce
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