Disney has filed for a temporary restraining order against former distribution executive Justin Connolly, who was recently hired to lead YouTube’s global sports division despite having negotiated a new multiyear deal with Disney late last year.
Last week, it was reported that Disney had filed a lawsuit against YouTube over the latter’s poaching of Connolly, a top executive who oversaw major distribution deals for ESPN and other Disney-owned television networks. Connolly spent 25 years with Disney and ESPN and is intimately familiar with the company’s negotiations with distributors such as Comcast, DirecTV, and crucially, YouTube, with whom Disney is entering negotiations with in the coming months.
Awful Announcing has now learned that Disney is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Connolly and YouTube citing a “competitive disadvantage” in their forthcoming negotiations given Connolly’s insider knowledge of Disney’s finances, business strategies, and negotiation tactics.
In a filing to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, Disney claims, “Connolly’s departure would leave Disney exposed to the competitive disadvantage of having a key executive switch sides mid-deal with inside information,” and that “Disney would incur those disadvantages despite having secured Connolly’s exclusive services until March 2027, at considerable expense, in a recently signed and binding fixed-term employment agreement.”
The filing claims that Connolly, prior to his departure from Disney, was the “architect and ultimate responsible party on four critical negotiations with YouTube.”
Should Disney be granted the temporary restraining order, Connolly would effectively be sidelined by YouTube until the legal process runs its course or, more likely, gets settled between the two companies out of court.
In separate filings also issued to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, official communications between Disney and YouTube over Connolly’s employment date back to at least April of this year. The correspondences between the two companies show that YouTube told Disney that Connolly would not work on any prospective deal involving the two sides, but rather be used for a number of other deals not involving Disney, freeing up other YouTube employees to focus on the Disney deal.
Disney found that position to be untenable, even mentioning that the company had offered to allow Connolly out of his Disney contract “well before” the March 2027 opt-out date, but after Disney and YouTube had completed their forthcoming negotiations.
Clearly, those pleas fell on deaf ears, and Disney is now pursuing legal remedies for the situation.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.