Disney and YouTube TV have reached a new distribution deal, ending a two-week hiatus of programming from ESPN, ABC and more on the Google-owned platform.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and the future flexibility of our offerings,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX return to their service throughout the day, along with any recordings that were previously in their library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience while we negotiate on their behalf.”
“This new agreement reflects our continued commitment to providing
exceptional entertainment that evolves with the way audiences choose to
look,” Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana.
Walden and ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro added. “This recognizes the tremendous value of Disney programming and provides YouTube TV subscribers with more flexibility and choice. We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many exciting programming options this weekend, including college football.”
The new deal will offer ESPN’s full sports lineup, including live and on-demand content from ESPN Unlimited, to YouTube TV base package subscribers at no additional cost through the end of 2026. It also preserved distributor optionality for future programming packages with Disney, as well as other content partners.
YouTube TV removed the media giant’s networks from its platform on October 30 after the two parties failed to reach an agreement before their previous contract expired.
Disney argued that it had offered YouTube TV a deal that would cost less overall than the terms of its previous contract, with “fair” terms that are “consistent with those of more than 500 other distributors who have renewed their deals since last summer, including the largest distributors, which are much larger than YouTube TV.”
Additionally, Disney says it offers programming packages tailored to sports fans, entertainment fans, kids and families to provide more flexibility and value. He accuses YouTube TV of continuing to “insist on benefiting from preferential conditions below the market” and of making “few concessions”.
Meanwhile, YouTube TV said Disney is charging them a higher rate than Charter and DirecTV pay for the ABC networks and to pay more for their content than they charge Hulu and Fubo, which recently completed their merger with Hulu + Live TV.
He also said he was asking for “most favored nations” based on size, a contractual promise that a programmer would not offer better terms to any other distributor without offering them the same terms, and disputed that bespoke programming packages were Disney’s proposition, noting that it was a topic they had had conversations about with all their partners.
With over 8 million subscribers, YouTube TV is one of the largest pay TV operators alongside Charter Communications, Comcast and DirecTV. It is the largest virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).
Morgan Stanley estimated that Disney lost $30 million in revenue per week, or $4.3 million per day, during the outage. These figures were based on the bank’s estimate that it could lose $60 million in revenue due to the programming outage if the distribution conflict lasted 14 days.
It’s unclear how much revenue and subscribers YouTube TV lost due to the outage, although the platform offered its subscribers a $20 credit to limit the amount of cancellations. The discount was not applied automatically and was not available to people who canceled or suspended their subscription.
A recent survey of 1,107 consumers by Drive Research found that nearly one in four YouTube TV subscribers have already canceled or are considering canceling the service because it “no longer provides the core content they signed up for.” A YouTube TV spokesperson previously told TheWrap that “while subscriber churn is still unfortunate, it is manageable and not consistent with the findings of this survey.”
The latest resolution to the distribution dispute comes after Disney resolved a 13-day programming blackout with DirecTV in September 2024, a 10-day dispute with Charter Communications in 2023 and a 48-hour dispute with Dish in 2022, while YouTube TV recently reached deals with Fox and NBCUniversal.
Despite the agreement with Disney, YouTube TV has not yet reached a new distribution agreement with TelevisaUnivision, whose programming has been blocked on the platform since September 30. President Donald Trump has weighed in on this latest dispute, urging YouTube TV to restore the network’s Spanish-language programming.
More to come…
