Disney is estimated to have lost about $4.3 million per day during last fall’s YouTube TV blackout, according to one Wall Street analyst. In fact, the Mouse House suffered far more casualties in the battle of the wagons.
A 15-day outage to the ESPN suite of networks on Google’s YouTube TV reduced ESPN’s operating profit by $110 million in the year-end quarter. That’s more than $7 million a day in losses for ESPN alone. Disney made the announcement in its year-end quarterly financial results announcement.
ABC and Disney’s entertainment TV networks also suffered revenue losses due to the YouTube TV outage, but the company did not quantify that. In fact, Disney has not reported any revenue or operating income for its linear television business as of the December 2025 quarter, which is the media conglomer’s first quarter of fiscal 2026.
The YouTube TV outage saw ESPN and the rest of Disney Net’s internet service go black just before midnight ET on Thursday, October 30th. The dispute was primarily about the price increases that Disney was seeking. Both sides finally reached an agreement to restore the channel on November 14th.
Speaking on the company’s Nov. 13 earnings call, Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston said of the “dollar impact” of the YouTube TV outage, saying that while Disney was indeed losing money because the network was unavailable on the streamer, it was gaining revenue “because of subscribers moving elsewhere.”
Perhaps the two-week YouTube TV outage prompted some subscribers to sign up for ESPN Unlimited, the streamer that includes all of ESPN’s networks and services for the first time. However, Disney did not provide details about ESPN Unlimited’s subscriber numbers or revenue.
With the launch of ESPN Unlimited in August, Disney initially offered a bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited for $29.99 per month for the first 12 months. This is the same price as the standalone version of ESPN Unlimited. According to Disney, 80% of ESPN Unlimited customers took advantage of three-way bundles in the September 2025 quarter, which is not surprising given the deep discounts on promotional offers. (Disney+/Hulu/ESPN bundle pricing starts at $35.99 per month.)
In the year-end quarter of 2025, ESPN’s overall revenue increased 1% to $4.9 billion. Operating income for the sports division was $191 million, down 23% from the same period last year. Disney said ESPN’s 10% increase in ad revenue was offset by higher programming and production costs, as well as lower subscription and affiliate fees, including lower revenue from the YouTube TV outage.
Disney said that in the ending quarter of 2025, ESPN captured more than 30% of all sports viewership across networks, including ABC programming via ESPN, giving it the industry’s leading share.
Separately on Saturday, Disney and the NFL confirmed they have signed a deal that gives the NFL a 10% ownership stake in ESPN, in exchange for control of the NFL Network and the popular NFL Red Zone highlights service. Disney has licensed the rights to operate NFL Network and NFL Red Zone through 2033.
The fair value of Disney’s NFL contract is estimated at $3 billion, according to Disney’s 10th quarter filing with the SEC on Monday. After July 2034, based on the performance of the NFL assets, Disney may have the right to reacquire the NFL’s interest in ESPN at 70% of the then-current fair market value of the NFL’s interest in ESPN in exchange for a 10-year guarantee. Alternatively, the NFL may have the right to acquire up to an additional 4% equity interest in ESPN with a purchase price equal to 70% of ESPN’s then-current fair market value.
The deal with the NFL gives Disney an effective 72% interest in ESPN. Hearst owns 18% and NFL Enterprises LLC owns 10%.
