By Alan Wooten
The Center Square

One November stalemate has movement, another does not, and neither is appetizing to American consumers.

The $20 credit, however, is only with one and it takes some effort to get it.

Posturing of Republicans and Democrats while the federal government is without a spending plan since Oct. 1 dominates the conversations, and arguably rightly so amid food and education concerns for millions. Another with widespread attention is the nation’s dominant television streamer that is No. 4 behind traditional pay-TV providers Comcast, Charter and DirecTV and poised to go to No. 1 ahead of them in early 2026.

YouTube TV and Disney locked horns a month after the government on Oct. 30, unable to agree to terms on carriage fees. All Disney channels, including ABC, are off, along with popular sports platforms connected to Bristol, Conn.-headquartered ESPN and a number of other less watched Disney-owned channels such as A&E, Disney Junior and the Disney Channel.

Public relations efforts are watched, and consumers of YouTube TV can get a $20 credit on their bill for the missing product. The catch is the requirement to go into the billing information of the account and activate it – in other words, it is not automatic.

The Center Square helps with a here’s how. First, enter the YouTube TV platform account and toggle to “manage your Google account.” From the menu, select “payments & subscriptions.” Then, click “manage subscriptions,” and choose “YouTube TV.” At the bottom choice of the next menu available is “updates,” and when clicked, yield’s a button to click to claim the $20 credit.

The largest roar of fans has been from NFL viewers missing Monday Night Football, and college fans of football and basketball – where ESPN is the main source to watch college football for roughly 6 in 10 fans, and for 5 in 10 for college basketball.

Observers of the industry are forecasting a breaking point this week. An earnings call for Disney is scheduled Thursday.

According to industry expert Nielsen as of September, 45.2% of the nation streams to watch TV, 22.3% uses broadcast, and 22.3% is via cable. Of that 45.2%, the leader at 12.6% is YouTube TV, followed by Netflix (8.3%), Disney (4.5%) and PrimeVideo (3.9%).

Nielsen bills itself as the “global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics.”