ABC, ESPN, and other Disney networks are close to having a blackout on YouTube TV
Updated with dark webs: ABC, ESPN, and other Disney networks have stopped offering YouTube TV due to a carriage dispute.
In a departure from industry protocol, the signal was cut off shortly after 11:15 p.m. ET, just before the companies’ current distribution agreement officially expired at midnight. Sources familiar with the dealings between the two companies told Deadline that YouTube needed additional time operationally to terminate the service and notify customers as well.
The long-running and rancorous dispute now deprives about 10 million YouTube TV subscribers of Thursday prime-time programming on ABC and threatens college football and other major sports programming.
Although carriage battles are nothing new in the TV industry, the involvement of a major tech company in this battle has given the battle a bit of a different feel. When the networks went dark on Thursday, instead of a typical graph explaining to subscribers why their desired channels were missing, Disney Networks simply disappeared from users’ Home and Live tabs despite previous viewing history. Searches for Disney shows generate a box but no link to watch them live.
Unlike traditional pay TV distributors, YouTube TV uses algorithms and technology to show subscribers what programs they want to watch, feeding them their favorite content so everyone can ditch old-fashioned channel surfing.
previously:
ABC, ESPN and other Disney networks were approaching a YouTube TV outage late Thursday, which will deprive about 10 million subscribers of college football, the NBA and other programming.
The two companies have been actively negotiating in recent weeks, even after Disney warned viewers of possible power outages, but they remain at loggerheads. The current agreement is scheduled to expire at midnight Eastern time on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deprive its subscribers of the content they value most by refusing to pay fair prices for our channels, including ESPN and ABC,” Disney said in a statement provided to Deadline. “With a market capitalization of $3 trillion, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undermine the industry standard terms we have successfully negotiated with every other distributor. We know how frustrating this is for YouTube TV subscribers and we remain committed to working on a solution as quickly as possible.”
A YouTube spokesperson told Deadline in a statement: “Last week, Disney used the threat of a YouTube TV blackout as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers. They are now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us.” constructively to reach a fair agreement that returns their networks to YouTube TV.
YouTube said that if Disney programming remains off YouTube TV “for an extended period of time,” without being more specific, subscribers will be offered a $20 credit toward their bills.
The dispute with Disney is the fifth such distribution tangle between YouTube TV and a major distributor in 2025 and the fourth in three months. Eleventh-hour agreements with NBCUniversal, Paramount and Fox Corp have kept those networks on the air, but Spanish broadcast network Univision has gone dark since the end of September.
Disney Networks has been locked in contract disputes with Charter, DirecTV, Sling and YouTube TV over the past four years. The charter controversy gained particular visibility in the media sphere because it involved the nation’s No. 1 cable operator and broadcaster of college football and the US Open tennis tournament just as those events were unfolding. An agreement, seen as a model for future deals spanning the line and streaming, was reached 10 days later and just hours earlier. Monday Night Football Its season began on ESPN and ABC.
In terms of programming, YouTube TV subscribers are expected to miss a noteworthy slate of college football games on Saturday, including a matchup between two ranked teams, Vanderbilt and Texas. Games involving top-ranked schools Georgia, Ole Miss and Miami are also on the schedule. Prime-time series on ABC and other networks, including ABC Dancing with the stars and Shark tank and FX Inside information It will also disappear, although you can see it on the live stream. The dance is streaming live on Disney+ while also being streamed Shark tank, Inside information Many other shows air the day after their linear premiere on Hulu.
Disney prioritized streaming even as it decided to retain its linear TV networks after CEO Bob Iger’s public musings in 2023 that they “may not be core” to the company’s strategy. Since it retains Disney+ and Hulu, the company also launched a new subscription streaming port, ESPN, last August, which includes access to more than a dozen linear channels along with a wealth of programming and features for streaming only. A few pay-TV partners have agreed to let their subscribers authenticate and access the new ESPN app for free, but YouTube TV is among several high-profile operators that don’t have this feature for subscribers.
Many industry sources involved in those disputes and the current standoff with Disney say YouTube TV is trying to leverage its growth and position as a pure pay-TV technology provider in every set of negotiations. In multiple instances, YouTube TV has sought the rights to “ingest” programming from media companies’ streaming services into its main user interface. For media companies trying to nurture direct-to-consumer businesses at the same time as they manage the decline of their traditional linear networks, this is the definition of an existential threat.
With the Disney discussions, sources involved in the talks told Deadline that although the show appears to be a “request” from YouTube, the main source of tension is disagreement over how much YouTube TV should pay to run the networks.
Although it may always be a coincidence, two pieces of work related to the Disney-YouTube TV talks were completed this week on the eve of the deadline. The first was the closing of Disney’s acquisition of 70% of Fubo, with the combination of its pay TV footprint and Hulu + Live TV creating a strong competitor to YouTube TV. Hulu Live and Fubo combined have about 6 million subscribers in North America, ranking sixth among pay-TV distributors.
The second development was the settlement in Disney’s lawsuit against YouTube last June over the tech company’s hiring of Justin Connolly, a former longtime distribution executive at Disney and ESPN. A judge sided with YouTube, declining to classify it as poaching, but the two sides settled nonetheless. Connolly was making public appearances on Disney’s behalf in mid-May, telling Deadline about early discussions with YouTube about renewing distribution. Now he sits on the other side of the negotiating table.