YouTube TV vs. Disney, Day 8: Is It Over?
By Phillip Swann
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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. Until there is a settlement, The TV Answer Man will post a daily notice here on whether the blackout has been lifted. I will publish the update in the early morning hours so when you wake up, you can check whether the two sides have settled. I encourage you to bookmark the site for easier reference.
I will also include the latest news related to the fight in the daily post so you can find out what Disney and YouTube TV executives and subscribers are saying and doing in response to the blackout.
So, it’s day eight of the dispute. Friday at 4:30 a.m. ET. Is the dispute over? No way. Let’s go to the updates:
It’s Getting Serious Now – Okay, More Serious
YouTube TV sports fans last weekend readied the torches and pitchforks when they couldn’t watch ESPN’s college football on Saturday and Monday Night Football. But here we are on the eve of another football weekend with no settlement in sight. Would one more pigskin blackout trigger a huge exodus of subscribers? Or, if people were going to cancel, they would have done it last weekend? The answer, which undoubtedly is a hot topic at Google headquarters (although maybe not this moment; it’s 4 a.m. ET.), could greatly influence today’s negotiations.
Survey Says YouTube TV Subscribers Are Abandoning Ship
And to that point: Drive Research, a company that no one has heard of before now, released a survey yesterday saying 24 percent of YouTube TV subscribers have either cancelled since the blackout began or they are planning to cancel. If you follow me on X, you know my thoughts about surveys; they are notoriously unreliable because people will tell pollsters anything about their future intentions, but that doesn’t mean they wind up doing it. However, if this survey is accurate (probably not), Google headquarters is doing more than having a discussion. (Even at 4 a.m. ET) For what it’s worth, a YouTube representative told Variety that the Drive Research numbers do not ‘align’ with his company’s internal numbers. To learn more, click here.
Disney Execs Looking For the Excedrin, Too
And don’t think Google executives are the only ones losing sleep these days. YouTube TV subscribers represent roughly eight percent of TV homes. So fresh evidence suggests that the ratings on ABC and ESPN are taking a huge hit. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Monday Night Football garnered about 16.4 million viewers last Monday, a 20 percent drop from the average this season. That would not be surprising considering that YouTube TV likely has more rabid football fans than your average TV service because of its NFL Sunday Ticket package. However, it’s not just football crazies; dancing enthusiasts also are panging for Disney. Dancing With the Stars suffered its first ratings decline of the season on Tuesday. Oh, the humanity! To learn more, click here.
Washington Post Sacks Sen. Warren For Saying Trump Is to Blame
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) raised eyebrows this week when she said President Trump is to blame for the YouTube TV-Disney dispute. The senator, who has been a serial critic of the president, did not explain how Trump could have stopped the blackout, and it’s worth noting that carriage fights have gone on for years and in multiple presidential administrations. The Washington Post also thinks that’s worth noting, publishing an editorial yesterday that eviscerated the senator’s argument. The newspaper said: “Why should the president or a senator weigh in on Disney’s side, which is the side of higher prices for consumers? It certainly doesn’t make life more affordable for anyone, except maybe Disney investors…Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor who made big money consulting for corporations before she refashioned herself as a pitchfork populist, knows all this. Maybe she just thinks her supporters are not as smart as she is.” Ouch. To read the full editorial, click here.
Who’s Really Benefitting From the Blackout?
Ever since Friday, people have been debating which company is most to blame for the blackout. But now the debate is shifting to which companies are benefitting. Business Insider reports that Apptopia (where do they get these names?) has published a study finding that app usage of DIRECTV, Fubo and Sling TV have all increased about 35 percent. That’s another way of suggesting that some YouTube TV subscribers are signing up for its rivals. Of course, with Fubo and DIRECTV both offering five-day free trials, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have cancelled YouTube TV; they could be using the free trials and keeping the YTTV sub. To learn more, click here.
That’s it for now. Come back today for more news on the dispute and be sure to wake up early on Saturday morning (Yes, we work on Saturday) to catch our latest ‘Is It Over?’ update.
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