Overview
- Roughly 10 million YouTube TV subscribers lost access to Disney-owned channels on Oct. 30 after the carriage deal expired.
- YouTube TV publicly asked Disney to bring back ABC and ESPN while negotiations continue, while Disney’s earlier request to briefly restore ABC for Election Day was rejected by Google.
- The outage has disrupted major events including college football, Monday Night Football and election coverage, with SEC on ABC windows reportedly averaging a 32.5% week-over-week ratings drop.
- Usage of rival apps surged as Apptopia data showed Sling TV, Fubo and DirecTV each spiking to over 35% overlap among YouTube TV users after the blackout.
- Both sides traded blame as YouTube cited protecting members from higher fees and Disney accused Google of leveraging market dominance, while Pat McAfee and other sports figures criticized on-air pressure campaigns.