More than two weeks after having its channels go dark on the streaming TV service, Disney has resolved its big, expensive carriage fight with Google’s YouTube TV. Driven by the only pressure that actually seems to get anything done in American life—the fear that a percentage of the population might be asked to go without college and Monday Night Football for a desperate handful of days—the two giants have come to an agreement on how much YouTube will pay to offer Disney’s various channels to its ever-growing number of subscribers.
Among other things, the new deal will apparently lead to even further sports offerings for YouTube TV subscribers, as they’ll now be offered the content from the Unlimited tier of ESPN’s new standalone digital streaming service at no additional cost, to migrate over to YouTube TV by the end of 2026. Google’s service will also be allowed to offer the Hulu/Disney+ bundle to subscribers as part of “select YouTube offerings,” in case you were currently living a life where not enough online entities were trying to sign you up for Disney+.
Notably, all ABC and ESPN content is expected to return for YouTube TV subscribers within the next day. (Including any content that users had saved in their virtual DVRs, which was unavailable for the duration of the fight.) The carriage battle was apparently the longest in Disney’s history, stretching for 15 days—with much of the blowback landing on YouTube, which sent out $20 credits to subscribers earlier this week in an effort to mollify those saying they were planning to cancel their subscriptions. Both companies issued statements in the aftermath of reaching their new multi-year deal, although it feels worth noting that only the Disney one specifically mentioned college football, the great fulcrum upon which all multi-million TV arguments apparently must rest.
[via Deadline]
