Updated: Disney Urges YouTube TV to Restore ABC For Election Day; YouTube TV: No Thanks

By Phillip Swann
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Disney is asking YouTube TV to restore its ABC programming on Tuesday (November 4, 2025) so its subscribers can watch the network’s election coverage. Several states tomorrow are holding odd year elections including hotly contested governor races in Virginia and New Jersey.

“Despite the impasse that led to the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so subscribers have access to the information they rely on,” Disney said in a statement released today. “We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for their customers while we continue to work toward a fair agreement.”

As of noon ET, YouTube TV, which is owned by Google, has not publicly responded to the request.

YouTube TV last Friday morning (October 31, 2025) lost all Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, the ABC affiliates and FX, due to a carriage dispute between the companies.

Disney’s request for YouTube TV to restore ABC could be seen as a move to curry favor with the streamer’s subscribers. While ABC is blacked out on YouTube TV, the service’s customers can still watch election coverage from several other news outlets including CBS, Fox and NBC.

The request could also be viewed as bad news for YouTube TV subscribers who will miss tonight’s Monday Night Football on ESPN unless a new agreement is struck today. Disney would likely not request that ABC be restored on Tuesday if it thought a new carriage pact might be signed today.

Disney made a similar request in 2024 when it was embroiled in a carriage dispute with DIRECTV. The company wanted the TV provider to restore ABC for the September debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. DIRECTV rejected the request, saying it would cause “customer confusion.”

Update: As expected, YouTube TV has rejected the request, saying its subscribers have “plenty of other options” to watch the election coverage, according to Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal.

You can see the entire statement from YouTube TV here. The streamer countered that Disney should allow it to restore ABC and ESPN while negotiations continue.

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