ESPN Videos Going Dark on You Tube, Video Red Under Scanner

You Tube subscribers will be free from advertisements if they opt for its new service You Tube Red. For $9.99 a month, subscribers will get ad-free YouTube videos, access to Google Play Music, exclusive original content from YouTube official Creator partners like PewDiePie, and other unspecified perks, said Tech Times.

ESPN has begun removing its videos from YouTube due to rights issues surrounding next week's launch of YouTube's ad-free subscription service, Red. People first began to notice something was amiss when the Grantland Network and Grantland podcast pages went dark and greeted visitors with message: "This channel has no content." When Richard Deitsch asked a question about it on Twitter, a Grantland senior editor pointed him at this landing page on Grantland's website, containing links to Grantland's videos, said Deadspin.com.

Fans will have to go to ESPN website to watch all videos. Media analysts presume it to be linked to pre-existing contracts of ESPN. ESPN currently has pre-existing contracts with cable and satellite companies like Comcast Corp that prevents it from participating in You Tube's subscription plan, said Washington Post. However, ESPN's parent company Disney has signed an agreement to be a part of the new subscription service.

Since You Tube Red is currently being offered only in the US, viewers in other parts of the world remain untouched with the new arrangements between ESPN and You Tube. Moreover, there has been a lot of grumbling in media as how the arrangement amounts to a form of extortion or strong-arming by Google, said Fortune.

According to Google's perspective, it is trying to help companies like ESPN to monetize their content better through the ad supported model.