YouTube TV has had a pretty bumpy ride this past year, renegotiating contracts in order to keep its content flowing. And while it’s been pretty good at navigating the waters up until this point, it couldn’t close the deal with Disney towards the tail end of October, leading to a pretty big gap in content from the subscription service.

And while YouTube TV still doesn’t have any Disney-owned channels back on its service, we’re now getting some information on why the deal won’t close. The reason that the deal hasn’t pushed through isn’t really all that big of a surprise, with YouTube playing hardball in order to get better rates for Disney’s content.

Never ending story

The original report comes from Puckwith 9to5Google picking up the news, shedding light that YouTube is looking to get rates that are below what competitors are paying. Disney is just trying to keep things fair by offering prices that are equally matched with what other providers are currently paying.

This has been YouTube’s tactic for this round of negotiations with other networks, since it’s now a much bigger player in the streaming industry. It’s pretty much just business as usual, but there is a huge reason why Disney hasn’t given in to YouTube’s demand here. If Disney chooses to give YouTube this kind of pricing, it would need to provide this same rate to its other partners as well.

This is referred to as the “most favored nation” (MFN) clause, ensuring equality when it comes to business transactions. So if Disney does give in to YouTube, it could create a major chain reaction for the brand.

However, the Puck reports that it’s not a matter of “if” this deal will close, but “when”. Disney is the one in the hot seat here, with YouTube being able to wait as long as needed in order to get this deal done.

YouTube has even denied one-time airings for Disney productssaying that it could lead to confusion for its customers. Currently, YouTube is providing some subscribers with a hefty monthly credit.

And there’s even a one-time $20 credit being issued to all YouTube subscribers. For the most part, it appears that YouTube thinks that it will get this deal done sooner rather than later.

While it may seem twisted, this is the nature of this kind of relationship, with networks and broadcasters relying on each other in order to have a successful business. 9to5Google reports that Disney is losing $30 million per week because it doesn’t have its content up on YouTube TV. As you can imagine, that’s a pretty sizable chunk for any brand.

As stated before, the customers are the ones that lose out the most during this period. And it shows just how contentious the streaming business really is. And while other streaming services have to rely on licensing content as well, most have moved on to producing their own shows and movies in order to avoid these kinds of issues.

Unfortunately, YouTube TV can’t really rely on that method since it is an online TV streaming service. Regardless, let’s hope this all ends quickly so we can get back to watching our favorite shows.