Disney has been off YouTube TV for a week now, with the absence of ESPN and ABC on the streaming television platform resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and tanking television ratings for both the National Football League and college football. However, it appears the dispute won’t end anytime soon.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported on Friday that while YouTube TV and Disney have been “exchanging proposals” that could put the upcoming Monday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers back on Google’s streaming platform, the two companies remain “far apart” in negotiations right now.
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Amid growing frustrations from sports fans who have become increasingly tired of both the rising subscription prices for YouTube TV and the number of streaming services required to watch sports now, there has been some cost to the companies involved.
Without access for its subscribers to ESPN, ABC and other channels, Google has stopped paying its fee to Disney for the streaming rights to those networks. As a result, it’s been reported that Disney is losing about $5 million per day during the blackout.
Advertisers could also become increasingly upset about the ongoing feud. Ordinarily, the very presence of the Dallas Cowboys playing on Monday Night Football would generate massive ratings for ESPN and ABC. However, in the first game with the network off YouTube TV, the Monday Night Football ratings for the Cowboys vs Arizona Cardinals game dropped 21.4 percent from a Week 9 matchup in 2024.
The absence of YouTube TV’s 10 million subscribers could also last for a while, with those customers potentially losing out on Monday Night Football games and the SEC action on ESPN and ABC for weeks to come. That’s based on an internal document obtained by The Athletic, a memo signed by ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, which told employees not to expect a resolution anytime soon.
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Barring a last-minute resolution, Saturday’s Week 11 college football matchups between the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs versus the Mississippi State Bulldogs (12:00 PM ET on ESPN), a top-10 matchup between the No. 7-ranked BYU Cougars versus the No.8-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders (12:00 PM ET on ABC), a top-25 matchup between Texas A&M and Missouri (3:30 PM ET on ABC), Syracuse versus No.18-ranked Miami (3:30 PM ET on ESPN), and the iconic night-time rivalry matchup between LSU versus Alabama (7:30 PM ET on ABC) will not be available for YouTube TV subscribers.
Unfortunately, it now appears increasingly likely that this standoff between the multi-billion-dollar corporations will last into the second week of November and potentially even longer. When it’s resolved, there is a high likelihood that Google will soon after announce a subscription price hike for YouTube TV.
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Matt Johnson is Senior Editor of NFL and College Football for Sportsnaut. His work, including weekly NFL and college ... More about Matt Johnson