Technologies

YouTube TV Starts Giving $20 Credits for Extended ESPN and ABC Outage

As its contract dispute between Disney stretches into its second full week, YouTube has started sending subscribers payouts.

YouTube TV’s contract dispute with Disney has now cost its subscribers two weekends of college football and will also likely cause them to miss yet another Monday Night Football game tonight.

All of the Disney-owned streaming channels, including ABC, ESPN, the ACC Network and the SEC Networks, were removed from YouTube TV on Oct. 31 and have not returned since.

The disagreement causing the ABC and ESPN 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 an earlier 2021 outage on YouTube TV that was resolved in two days.

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Disney says YouTube TV is not paying enough to stream its channels. YouTube TV, owned by Google, has the most subscribers among all internet TV providers, with over 9 million. Hulu, owned by Disney, is second with 4.3 million subscribers through its Hulu + Live TV offering.

YouTube TV had promised subscribers a $20 credit for the streaming service if the Disney channels outage continued for an extended period, and on Sunday, the streaming service announced the details of that credit. Read on to learn how you can claim the $20 credit, when the outage might be resolved, and how you can watch ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in the meantime.

How can YouTube TV subscribers claim their $20 credit?

YouTube TV subscribers should receive an email from the service when their credits are available. After you’ve received your email, follow these steps to claim your $20 credit.

Log in to YouTube.com on a web browser, click or tap on your profile picture, then select Settings. You can also directly browse to the URL at https://tv.youtube.com/settings/service_updates.
At the bottom of the menu on the left, select Updates.
On the following screen that explains the Disney channels outage, click or tap the blue button marked Claim Credit.

Emails from YouTube TV started going out Sunday night, and several Reddit posters have already reported receiving the $20 credit. All of the credits for YouTube TV subscribers should be issued by Nov. 12, according to Variety.

Which Disney channels were removed from YouTube TV?

Sports fans aren’t the only viewers left sidelined by the loss of Disney channels from YouTube TV. Here are all the channels that have been removed from the streaming service:

ABC
ABC News Live
ACC Network
Baby TV Español (Spanish Plan)
Disney Channel
Disney Junior
Disney XD
ESPN
ESPN Deportes (Spanish Plan)
ESPNews
ESPNU
ESPN2
Freeform
FX
FXM
FXX
Localish
Nat Geo
Nat Geo Mundo (Spanish Plan)
Nat Geo Wild
SEC Network

When could Disney channels return to YouTube TV?

As with previous Disney disputes, negotiations are under wraps. Disney’s contract conflicts from previous years — Sling TV in 2022, Spectrum/Charter in 2023 and DirecTV in 2024 — were mostly resolved in a week or two, but Google has considerably more bargaining power than those other platforms.

According to Variety, if a deal is reached between Disney and YouTube, the missing channels will return «in a matter of hours.»

On Oct. 30, YouTube TV posted on X, «Members, when we renew our contracts with network partners, we advocate for fair pricing to offer you the best TV experience.»

«Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny its subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC,» Disney said in a statement to CNBC.

In a memo to employees on Oct. 31 that was also reported by CNBC, Disney accused YouTube TV of deleting «previously recorded shows and events from their subscribers’ libraries.»

«YouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in achieving a fair deal with us,» Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in the memo. «Instead, they want to use their power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content that helped them build their service.»

Disney is also asking its viewers to ask YouTube TV to bring back its broadcasting via the keepmynetworks.com site.

How can YouTube TV subscribers watch football games during the Disney outage?

YouTube TV subscribers with an aerial TV antenna can still watch Monday Night Football and college football games on ABC if they live close enough to receive an over-the-air broadcast signal from a local ABC affiliate.

Other than that, the only real option for viewers who want to watch all of the college football and basketball games this weekend and Monday Night Football at home is to subscribe to another service that provides ABC and ESPN, including ESPN+, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo or DirecTV Stream.

Sling TV offers a $5 Day Pass that could be a good option for viewers who want to watch one specific game, as well as a $10 Weekend Pass that would give you college football and basketball games for both days.

For those looking to find football games at local establishments, this handy app can help you find places that are showing the games.

Correction, Nov. 5: An earlier version of this story failed to note that Sling TV day and weekend passes can be used to watch local ABC affiliates only in certain markets.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 13 #620

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Nov. 13, No. 620.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, and not too difficult. But if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Out, damned spot!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Think Maytag or Whirlpool.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

PRAY, PRAYS, BOLT, RULE, HALT, HALTS, LACE, SPAN, SPAR, TALE, STAIN, STALE, STEAL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BLOT, SOAK, SCRUB, SPRAY, STEAM, LAUNDER, BLEACH

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is STAINREMOVAL. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the far-left row, and wind up and over.

Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK.

Technologies

Airbnb Testing Option for Guests to Order Instacart Supplies Ahead of Their Stay

If you don’t want to haul your own groceries to your next Airbnb, this could be for you.

Heading to an Airbnb, but you don’t want to haul along six boxes of your kid’s favorite macaroni and cheese? You might soon be able to have your choice of groceries waiting for you when you arrive. Airbnb is testing a new service in three US cities that will allow travelers to place an Instacart order ahead of their trip.

The program will launch Jan. 5 in Phoenix, Orlando and Los Angeles and will continue for a few months to see if it gains traction among guests. Currently, guests can place an Instacart order during their stay if they desire, but this feature would mean the items would already be there when they arrive.

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The new option would mean more work for Airbnb hosts, who’d have to unpack and put away the order before guests arrive. However, Airbnb plans to pay hosts for each completed order.

«By offering this service, they [hosts] not only receive rewards, including a one-time payment of $100 plus $25 for each delivery that opts in for kitchen stocking, but they will be helping to make their guests’ stay even better,» an Airbnb spokesperson told CNET.

Guests can use Instacart through the Airbnb app to order groceries, household essentials and other items up to three weeks in advance. After they place an order, the hosts are notified. The host then selects a date and time that works for them to receive the order.

«While the order can be placed up to three weeks in advance of a stay, hosts can coordinate delivery and kitchen stocking to be a part of the general turnover process between guests, similar to cleaning,» the Airbnb spokesperson said.

On delivery day, hosts receive updates on the order’s status and can notify guests that their groceries have been packed and are ready for pickup. Hosts can accept the delivery up to 24 hours in advance and at least three hours before the guest’s check-in time. Hosts are also expected to follow food safety guidelines when unpacking and stocking items.

This isn’t the first time Airbnb has experimented with unique services for guests. They previously teamed up with Chargepoint, the electric car charging service, and offered guests discounts on EV chargers.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 13, #886

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 13, #886.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough, though I thought the green category was a fun one. If you need help sorting the words into groups, you’re in the right place. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: What to wear.

Green group hint: Coffee drinks often are topped with this.

Blue group hint: Clothes dryers use these.

Purple group hint: Where you might work.