Disney, YouTubeTV come to their senses, strike a deal to restore channels

Comes after a fifteen-day blackout

The long national nightmare is over. 

After fifteen days of back-and-forth and allegations, Google’s YouTube TV and The Walt Disney Company finally reached a deal Friday night, restoring nearly twenty channels to the virtual provider, including ABC, ESPN, Freeform, and National Geographic. This comes after Disney pulled its channels from YouTubeTV on October 31 in a carriage dispute, with popular programming such as college football, Monday Night Football, and Dancing With The Stars vanishing from the platform.

The dispute also saw ABC’s 200+ affiliates vanish from the platform, including ABC 7 Chicago (WLS-TV) and its top-rated newscasts. Since the network negotiated on all its affiliates’ behalf, all stations disappeared, no matter who owned the ABC station in your town. Disney owns eight ABC stations outright, including six of the top ten markets. 

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers,” YouTube said in a statement. “Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN, and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf.”

“We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football,” Disney Entertainment co-chairs Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a separate statement.

Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed. ESPN’s new Unlimited app, a main sticking point in negotiations, will be made available to YouTube TV subscribers by the end of next year at “no additional cost” (which means your YouTube TV bill will likely go up.)  A selection of live and on-demand events from ESPN Unlimited will also be made available to subscribers, and the Disney+, Hulu bundle will be part of select YouTube offerings, plus certain genre-specific packages, known as “skinny bundles”, something DirecTV and Fubo recently created.

YouTube TV has grown into the nation’s third-largest provider, behind cable rivals Comcast and Charter, with ten million subscribers. In the last two years, YouTube TV had similar impasses with Paramount, NBCUniversal, and Fox Corporation, but these were resolved before any channels were pulled. 

Despite Disney’s channels returning to YouTube TV, TelevisaUnivision remains off the platform, as its dispute drags on into its second month.