Disney and Google have been locked in a standoff since Oct. 30, leaving YouTube TV customers without Disney’s slate of networks like ABC and ESPN.
After the two sides failed to agree on a new carriage rights deal, YouTube TV announced its plans to remove all of Disney’s networks including Freeform, FX and National Geographic. Football fans who have YouTube TV have now missed two weekends of college football and two Monday Night Football games including three of the most popular teams in the NFL – the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.
The blackout led to decreased viewership in a Week 9 game between the Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals. That game drew an average audience of 16.2 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+ – a 21.4% drop when compared to the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers clash in Week 9 of the 2024 season, which averaged 20.6 million viewers.
While the Week 9 matchup led to a surprisingly low audience, the Week 10 bout between the Eagles and Packers led to unexpected news from the Worldwide Leader, which announced the game averaged 20.6 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes - marking it the largest Monday Night Football audience since Chiefs-Jaguars in Week 5 (22.3M) and the fourth-most watched this season.
The game delivered the most-watched Monday Night Football Week 10 contest since Packers-Minnesota Vikings in 2000.
It’s a strong audience despite YouTube TV’s 10 million subscribers being unable to watch.
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