ESPN, ABC and other Disney TV networks are coming back to YouTube TV.
Google and Disney finally ended their standoff, announcing a multiyear agreement Friday on pricing and terms for a renewed carriage deal for YouTube TV. Disney’s nets went dark on the internet TV service just before midnight ET on Thursday, Oct. 30, after the two sides remained far apart on a deal before the expiration of the previous contract.
Under the new agreement, ESPN’s full lineup of sports — including content from ESPN Unlimited — will be made available on YouTube TV to base-plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026. In addition, access to a selection of live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited will be available inside YouTube TV.
The deal also lets YouTube include the Disney+ and Hulu bundle as part of “select YouTube offerings.” According to Disney, “select networks” will be included in various genre-specific packages that YouTube TV expects to launch in the future.
“This new agreement reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment and evolving with how audiences choose to watch,’’ Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a joint statement. “It recognizes the tremendous value of Disney’s 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 great programming options this weekend, including college football.”
In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said Friday, “We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers. Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf. ”
The deal supersedes their prior distribution agreement, inked in December 2021 after a two-day blackout.
On Sunday (Nov. 9) YouTube began issuing one-time $20 credits to YouTube TV customers for the loss of Disney’s programming, in the hopes it would help stave off user cancelations.
Many YouTube TV subscribers dropped the service in frustration. According to a survey fielded last week, 24% of YouTube TV users said they had canceled or intended to cancel their accounts over the Disney blackout. A YouTube rep said that “while subscriber churn is always regrettable, it’s been manageable and does not align with the findings of this survey.” Disney took a hit, too, losing more than $4 million per day during the blackout, according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley analysts.
Google had said Disney was asking for an unprecedented fee increase for the full suite of ESPN channels, ABC local stations, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform, Nat Geo and more — while Disney claimed the tech giant was “refusing to pay fair rates for our channels.” According to Google, Disney was trying to “reset” the market pricing for its programming (so it could charge similarly higher rates in upcoming renewals with other pay-TV distributors) and that Disney was insisting YouTube TV take the Mouse House’s full lineup of networks. The negotiating teams were led by Disney Platform Distribution EVP Sean Breen and YouTube chief business officer Mary Ellen Coe.
The removal of Disney’s networks from YouTube TV came a day before a busy Nov. 1 Saturday slate for college football as major marquee teams face pivotal contests, many of them aired on ESPN and ABC. In light of the blackout, ESPN made its “College GameDay” football pregame show available free to watch via a livestream on X. YouTube TV customers also missed two airings of “Monday Night Football” on ABC and ESPN. (YouTube pointed out to users they could catch all of ESPN’s programming on the ESPN Unlimited subscription service.)
Along with Disney’s live channels, YouTube TV customers’ DVR recordings of the media conglomerate’s programming were removed, as is standard in such disputes. With the deal renewal, YouTube TV subscribers will regain access to recordings that were previously in their library, according to YouTube.
On Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts that the company had been “working tirelessly to close this deal” but said, “It’s also imperative that we make sure that we agree to a deal that reflects the value that we deliver, which both YouTube, by the way, and Alphabet, have told us, is greater than the value of any other provider.”
Disney Entertainment’s Walden and Bergman and ESPN’s Pitaro had previously addressed the impasse in several memos to staffers. “YouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in achieving a fair deal with us,” the execs wrote in an Oct. 31 email. “Instead, they want to use their power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content that helped them build their service.”
Meanwhile, ahead of this year’s Election Night (Nov. 4), Disney asked Google to restore ABC on YouTube TV for one day to serve the “public interest.” Google declined — and instead suggested that Disney allow YouTube TV to make ABC and ESPN available while the two sides continued talks because those are “the channels that people want.” Disney didn’t go for the idea.
The Disney-Google clash became public Oct. 23, when Disney began alerting viewers that its networks could be removed from YouTube TV.
Disney has faced other tough negotiations with distributors amid the transition to ESPN Unlimited — the standalone streaming service launched in August that includes everything on the sports programmer’s lineup — and its continued investment in Disney+ and Hulu.
In 2023, Disney’s networks had a 10-day blackout on Charter Communications cable systems in a similar fight over price. To settle the Charter deal, Disney allowed Charter’s high-tier TV subscribers to access Disney+ and the ESPN+ streaming app. In 2024, ESPN and other Disney nets went dark on DirecTV for nearly two weeks before they reached a new deal. In October, Disney and Comcast quietly reached a carriage renewal deal.
Google has encountered no small amount of friction in deal-renewal talks this year for YouTube TV. Other programmers that have fought with the internet company include Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Corp. and NBCUniversal — each of which reached a new deal without a blackout. At the end of September, YouTube TV dropped Univision, with Google alleging the price increases sought by parent company TelevisaUnivision were drastically out of line with viewership on the platform.
YouTube TV is the biggest internet-TV service in the U.S., estimated to have more than 10 million subscribers. Next is Disney, which last week closed a deal to merge its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo; together, those have almost 6 million subs in North America. Google had asserted Disney’s hardball tactics over a YouTube TV deal was “benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.”
