YouTube TV sent an email to customers announcing it would remove Disney’s programming from its platform, including ABC and ESPN ahead of a busy sports weekend on Thursday.
“In order to deliver a wide variety of sports, news, and entertainment programming on YouTube TV, we enter into agreements with network partners. Each time we renew our contracts with these partners, we advocate for fair pricing and greater flexibility to offer our subscribers the best possible live TV experience,” the company said in a statement at the time.
“Our current agreement with Disney has approached its renewal date, and we will not agree to terms that disadvantage our members while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to reach a fair deal, and starting today, October 30, 2025, Disney programming will not be available on YouTube TV. This means you will no longer be able to watch channels like ABC and ESPN or access recordings from these networks in your Library.”
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YouTube TV offered a $20 discount to customers in the event the outage continues for “an extended period of time.”
ESPN, meanwhile, issued a statement blaming YouTube TV for denying its customers access to the Disney slate of channels. Just a few days later with a full schedule of college football action, ESPN issued a new statement seemingly baiting YouTube TV customers into complaining about the platform in order to get ESPN and ABC back on the air.
“YouTube TV customers: A weekend full of must-see sports is underway Go to http://Keepmynetworks.com to get ESPN back!” ESPN said while showing a graphic of its schedule.
ESPN used a number of its top talent like Stephen A. Smith, Mike Greenberg and Kirk Herbstreit to call for fans to ask YouTube TV to keep the networks. The network was hit with fan backlash after its latest message.
“ESPN is doing everything it can to damage its competition by egregiously raising rates for users so that those users will seek alternate avenues which are all now owned by ESPN in Fubo and Hulu, etc. Monopolistic. Play fair,” one person suggested.
“If you really cared you’d have agreed to a short term extension at the current rate so fans don’t lose access. People are finally realizing that what you actually want is to extort YTTV, and by extension the paying consumer, out of even more money,” offered another.
“I love how Disney is constantly coming up with new ways to alienate customers,” added a third.
The standoff between Disney and Google wages on, and perhaps ESPN’s latest stunt could be enough to nudge the streaming giant into finding some middle ground.
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