Copyright Athlon Sports
The contract negotiations between YouTube TV and Disney have been costly. With every sports fan wanting to watch their favorite teams play on ESPN’s plethora of networks, which are all owned by Disney, including NBA, NFL and college football games, YouTube TV users have caused an uproar about when they will be able to watch ESPN again. This demand came to an all-time high on Monday when the “Monday Night Football” matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals was played on ABC, ESPN and ESPN 2. YouTube TV users were forced to try other ways to watch the game, including paying for ESPN Unlimited, the new direct-to-consumer streaming service offered by the network. Disney’s networks have now been off of YouTube TV for five days since the contract between Disney and YouTube TV’s parent company, Google, expired at the end of the day on Oct. 30. This means that fans have lost an entire weekend of sports, including many high-profile college football games on Saturday and Monday’s NFL matchup. Users are also at risk of missing the beginning of the 2025-26 college basketball season, which includes the Texas Longhorns taking on the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils in the Dick Vitale Invitational on Tuesday. While the companies are at a standstill, they are both losing money by the day. According to Awful Announcing reporter Drew Lerner, Disney is losing approximately $5 million per day that its networks are not on YouTube TV, which has become one of the biggest television streaming platforms in the country. “According to numerous reports, Disney generally receives about $15 per month per subscriber from pay TV providers for the right to distribute the ESPN family of networks,” Lerner said. “YouTube TV boasts approximately 10 million monthly subscribers. So for each month that Disney is not getting paid by YouTube TV, it loses about $150 million (and likely a bit more when accounting for non-ESPN networks owned by Disney).” With this type of money being lost each day the networks are not carried by YouTube TV, fans are hoping that Disney and Google can reach an agreement soon, as another big weekend of sports looms ahead.
