ESPN, ABC, and other Disney TV networks are returning to YouTube TV.
Google and Disney finally ended their standoff, announcing a multi-year agreement on Friday regarding the pricing and terms of the YouTube TV reshipment agreement. Disney’s internet television service went dark just before midnight Eastern time on Thursday, October 30th, due to a major gap in agreement between the two parties before the previous contract expired.
Under the new agreement, ESPN’s entire sports lineup, including content from ESPN Unlimited, will be available on YouTube TV for basic plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026. Additionally, access to select live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited will also be available within YouTube TV.
The deal also allows YouTube to include bundles of Disney+ and Hulu as part of “select YouTube services.” According to Disney, “select networks” will be included in various genre-specific packages that YouTube TV plans to launch in the future.
“This new agreement reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment and evolving with the way our viewers choose to watch,” Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a joint statement. We are pleased that our network was restored in time and our fans can now enjoy many great programming options this weekend, including college football. ”
“We’re pleased to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that maintains the value of the service to our subscribers and the flexibility of future offers,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement Friday. “Subscribers should see channels like ABC, ESPN, and FX return to the service that day, as well as the recordings that were previously in their library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate the patience of our subscribers as we negotiated on their behalf.”
This agreement replaces a previous distribution agreement signed in December 2021 following a two-day power outage.
YouTube on Sunday (Nov. 9) began issuing a one-time $20 credit to YouTube TV customers for lost Disney programming in hopes of helping prevent user cancellations.
Many YouTube TV subscribers became dissatisfied and quit the service. According to a survey conducted last week, 24% of YouTube TV users said they canceled or planned to cancel their accounts due to the Disney outage. A YouTube representative said, “Subscriber abandonment is always unfortunate, but it has been manageable in the past, and this is not consistent with the findings of this study.” Disney was also hit hard, losing more than $4 million a day during the outage, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley analysts.
Google said Disney is demanding unprecedented price increases for all of its channels, including ESPN Channel, local ABC, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform and Nat Geo, while Disney claimed the tech giant “refuses to pay a fair price for our channels.” According to Google, Disney is trying to “reset” the market price of its programming (so it can charge similarly high prices for future renewals with other pay-TV distributors), and Disney is insisting that YouTube TV feature the Mouse House’s entire lineup of networks. The negotiating team was led by Sean Breen, vice president of Disney Platform Distribution, and Mary Ellen Coe, YouTube’s chief business officer.
The removal of Disney’s network from YouTube TV comes a day before a busy college football schedule on Saturday, Nov. 1, as major-league teams face important games, many of which will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC. In light of the power outage, ESPN has made its football pregame show “College Gameday” available for free via the X livestream. YouTube TV customers also missed two episodes of “Monday Night Football” on ABC and ESPN. (YouTube reminded users that they can watch all of ESPN’s programming with their ESPN Unlimited subscription service.)
As with Disney’s live channels, YouTube TV customers’ DVR recordings of the media conglomerate’s programming were also removed, as is often the case in these types of disputes. According to YouTube, the new contract will allow YouTube TV subscribers to regain access to recordings that were previously in their library.
On Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts that the company is “working vigorously to close this deal,” but added, “It’s also essential that we make sure we agree to a deal that reflects the value that we deliver. And by the way, the value that both YouTube and Alphabet have been conveying to us is greater than the value of any other provider.”
Disney Entertainment’s Walden and Bergman and ESPN’s Pitaro previously addressed the impasse in several memos to staff. “YouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in entering into a fair contract with us,” executives said in an Oct. 31 email. “Instead, they want to use their power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content they helped build the service.”
Meanwhile, ahead of this year’s election night (November 4), Disney asked Google to reinstate ABC on YouTube TV for one day to serve the “public interest.” Google refused, instead suggesting that Disney allow YouTube TV to watch ABC and ESPN while the two sides continue talks because they are “channels that people want.” Disney wasn’t into that idea.
The conflict between Disney and Google became public on October 23, when Disney began warning viewers that its network could be removed from YouTube TV.
Disney faces another tough negotiation with its distributors amid its transition to ESPN Unlimited, a standalone streaming service that launched in August that includes its entire lineup of sports programmers, and its continued investments in Disney+ and Hulu.
In 2023, Disney’s network shut down Charter Communications’ cable system for 10 days over a similar price dispute. To resolve the Charter deal, Disney granted Charter’s top TV subscribers access to the Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming apps. In 2024, ESPN and the rest of DisneyNet ceased broadcasting on DirecTV for nearly two weeks until a new deal was reached. In October, Disney and Comcast quietly reached a fleet renewal agreement.
Google has encountered considerable friction this year in negotiations to renew its YouTube TV contract. Other programmers who fought with the Internet company included Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Co., and NBCUniversal, all of which reached new deals without blackouts. At the end of September, YouTube TV discontinued Univision, with Google claiming that the price hikes sought by parent company Televisa Univision were significantly out of sync with the platform’s viewership numbers.
YouTube TV is the largest Internet TV service in the United States, with an estimated number of over 10 million subscribers. Next, Disney signed a deal last week to merge its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo. Combined, they have about 6 million subscribers in North America. Google had argued that Disney’s aggressive tactics over the YouTube TV deal “benefited its live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.”
