When Business Deals Go Sideways: Lessons from the Disney-YouTube TV Saga
The highly public contract dispute between Disney/ESPN and YouTube TV isn’t just a business disagreement. It’s a high stakes exercise in how reputation sparks turn into firestorms. For organizations engaged in B2B partnerships that directly impact their customers, the margin for error is zero. When such partnerships sour, disagreements can alienate customers overnight and create narratives that instantly turn brands into villains.
Stakeholder Engagement: Mobilizing Your Advocates
Brands need allies, particularly during partnership disputes. Activating the right stakeholders during such vulnerable moments can be the critical differentiator in emerging with a reputation intact.
During negotiations, organizations sometimes successfully rally important stakeholders to their cause. Think health systems that use the voices of their physicians during health plan negotiations, or unions that mobilize their membership in droves during employer negotiations.
Allies don’t just add pressure on the other party during a negotiation. They signal trust and faith. The presence of allies, supporting an organization during a tough moment or a fight, will do more to influence consumer and media perception than virtually anything the brand says directly.
For YouTube TV and Disney, the list of potential advocates is vast: consumers, athletes, media personalities, and advocacy groups. The party that effectively mobilizes these voices by turning passive anger into active, organized pressure gains an immediate and significant advantage.
The Reputational Imperative: Go beyond your own marketing. Identify and engage credible, third-party voices—the trusted advocates who can speak for you with authenticity and urgency.
The “Billionaire” Perception: Aligning with the American Fan
The Disney/YouTube TV dispute is part of a much larger, and far more resonant, societal tensions: the endless growth of the wealth of the ownership class, which includes owners of professional sports teams.
NFL, NBA and MLB franchise valuations have exploded in the last decade, driven by ever-escalating media rights deals. Yet at the same time, watching these sports - whether on television or in person - is becoming prohibitively expensive for a lot of Americans.
This festering frustration is the reputation opportunity for organizations like YouTube TV. Despite being owned by Alphabet, YouTube TV can strategically align itself as the champion of the millions of consumers who are sick of the soaring cost of watching sports.
The Reputational Imperative: Successfully navigating this public dispute requires elevating a narrative larger than the fee dispute itself. The message must be simple and powerful, tapping into a cultural tension that allows the consumer to easily see the story’s villain and hero.
Strategic Positioning: Small vs. Giant
In a public dispute of this scale, the successful party must master the art of strategic humility. They must demonstrate they have the consumer's interests at heart and make themselves appear small and relatable compared to the other party.
Disney/ESPN has tried to tie YouTube TV to the vast profits of Google/Alphabet. In its response, YouTube TV must position itself as the underdog standing up for the average consumer. This will allow them to “shrink” their own size while turning the wealth argument against its adversary.
The Reputational Imperative: In a crisis, reputation is a zero-sum game. You must define your organization as the consumer’s ally, while defining your opposition as the foe you’re protecting them against.
In disputes, narratives move quickly, turning customers into critics and eroding reputation overnight. Sometimes, brands win the negotiation, but lose far more in squandered reputation. At Motio, we’ve supported hundreds of B2B fights. We provide the velocity, foresight, and senior experience to ensure that when your partnership goes sideways, your brand isn’t just focused on winning the battle, but owning the reputation war.