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Our two-week national nightmare has ended.
Google’s YouTube TV and Disney announced a multi–year carriage agreement on Friday night that brings ESPN back to the service.
Disney’s networks, including ESPN and ABC, went dark at midnight on Halloween as tense negotiations between the two sides failed. Sports fans missed a number of marquee football games over the past two weeks, including every SEC game—ESPN holds exclusive rights for the conference—and Packers–Eagles on Monday Night Football earlier this week.
Ten days into the standoff, YouTube TV issued $20 credits to its subscribers.
The service is restored just in time for viewers to watch games like Notre Dame–Pittsburgh, South Carolina–Texas A&M, Oklahoma–Alabama, Florida–Ole Miss, and Texas–Georgia on Saturday.
The crux of the dispute involved carriage fees, but there were other factors including that YouTube poached ESPN executive Justin Connolly and made him their global head of sports. As part of a settlement between the two companies, Connolly was required to recuse himself from negotiations.
Similar to the deal that Disney reached with Charter’s Spectrum cable operator, the YouTube TV pact includes ESPN Unlimited, which gives viewers access to all of WWE’s premium live events, including WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble. It is not immediately clear exactly when the ESPN Unlimited access will begin, but it will be at no additional cost to base-package YouTube TV subscribers by the end of 2026.
The deal includes all of Disney’s channels, including National Geographic, FX, and Freeform, but also includes a carve-out for YouTube TV to offer networks in genre-specific tiers. There is also the ability to bundle the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services.
“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,” a YouTube spokesperson 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.”
“This new agreement reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment and evolving with how audiences choose to watch,’’ Disney entertainment co-hairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “It recognizes the tremendous value of Disney’s programming and provides YouTube TV subscribers with more flexibility and choice. 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.”
