Why YouTube TV Had to Wait Until Now to Issue $20 Disney Blackout Credits
By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – Follow me on X.
TV Answer Man, why did YouTube TV wait until now to give us a $20 credit for the ESPN blackout? That makes no sense to me. Didn’t people cancel who might not have cancelled if they had received the credit earlier? – Tony, Las Vegas.
YouTube TV announced today that it will begin providing $20 credits to subscribers who have been without the entire Disney channel lineup (including ESPN and ABC) since Halloween (October 31, 2025) due to a carriage dispute.
In an e-mail to its customers, the streamer said they would soon get an additional e-mail with instructions on how to redeem the $20 credit. The $20 reduction would not be automatically applied to the customer’s monthly bill.
That did not sit well with many YouTube TV subscribers who took to social media to complain that the credit should be an automatic reduction rather than redeemed through a series of steps yet not explained.
However, for what it’s worth, DIRECTV handled its distribution of credits during carriage blackouts in 2022, 2023 and 2024 the exact same way; DIRECTV required the subscriber to apply for the credit rather than receiving it automatically.
Now, to your question as to why YouTube TV waited until now to start issuing credits when the blackout has lasted 10 days:
The answer is that the credit is now being subsidized (somewhat) because YouTube TV has not had to pay Disney any carriage fees for 10 days. The streamer can use that savings to help pay the $20 credits to its subscribers (at least to the ones who actually take action to redeem it; yes, YouTube TV could save money by not automatically applying the credit to the bill if every subscriber does not redeem it. Clever, huh?)
How much has YouTube TV saved in carriage fees the last 10 days? Awful Announcing has estimated that the daily carriage fee from YouTube TV to Disney has been roughly $5 million – and from my research during last year’s DIRECTV-Disney blackout – I think that’s right. So, over 10 days, YouTube TV has saved about $50 million in fees.
Now, you can argue that YouTube TV will lose subscriber revenue from the blackout so the savings is not as significant as it might seem. But even if that’s true, the company is still able to use the carriage fee savings to help subsidize the credit. By waiting 10 days, the savings have reached a point where it makes more economic sense to issue $20 credits potentially to 10 million people (subscribers).
If all 10 million YouTube TV subscribers redeem the credit, which is probably unlikely, the current $50 million savings would not be enough to cover every one. 10 million times $20 comes to $200 million. So it’s fair to speculate that YouTube TV might be encouraged to hold out longer to save even more in carriage fees to offset the credit expenditure. We’ll see…
Tony, I hope that answers your question. Happy viewing and stay safe!
Please consider making a donation to The TV Answer Man site here at the Buy Me a Coffee site. Any donation size is appreciated and will help me continue to provide these articles to you.
Have a Question? Ask The TV Answer Man!
Have a question about a favorite show, streaming service or new TV product? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
Discover more from The TV Answer Man!
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
