ESPN, Disney-owned networks go dark on YouTube TV

It seems the ongoing carriage dispute between Disney and Google is going into extra innings.

Late on Thursday night, less than an hour before a midnight ET deadline, both companies released statements indicating that they have not reached a new distribution deal, and that Disney-owned networks, including the ESPN family of networks, will go dark on YouTube TV.

Statement regarding Google’s YouTube TV pic.twitter.com/qev5AQGewS

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 31, 2025

ESPN’s statement read as follows:

“Unfortunately, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC. Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sports — anchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend. With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor. We know how frustrating this is for YouTube TV subscribers and remain committed to working toward a resolution as quickly as possible.”

YouTube TV says the following:

“We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV. If their content remains off YouTube TV for an extended period of time, we’ll offer subscribers a $20 credit.”

By all accounts, the main sticking point in this negotiation is the per-subscriber fee YouTube TV will pay Disney. Per a report by Puck’s John Ourand, YouTube TV is angling for a price in line with other major distributors, like Comcast and Charter. Typically, carriers with more subscribers are able to negotiate lower rates. Disney, on the other hand, wants to keep YouTube TV’s fee in line with other similarly sized distributors.

However, with YouTube TV continuing to grow while traditional cable and satellite distributors shrink due to cord-cutting, the Google-owned service is projected to become the largest pay TV distributor in the country sometime next year.

Unfortunately for YouTube TV customers, if the dispute extends into the weekend, they’ll be at risk of losing key college football games.

YouTube TV has been involved in multiple other high-profile carriage agreements in recent months, one with Fox and another with Comcast. Neither resulted in any blackouts.