Tech News
← Back to articles

As Disney's YouTube TV Outage Drags On, Viewers Have Few Options for Football

read original related products more articles

An ongoing contract dispute between YouTube TV and Disney has led to the removal of ABC, ESPN and other top broadcasting channels from the live streaming service, with no indication when they'll be restored.

As the NCAA football season heats up and college basketball begins, this weekend could be the second in a row that YouTube TV viewers are shut out of the biggest games.

The disagreement causing the ABC and ESPN outage stems from the "carriage fee" that YouTube TV pays Disney to broadcast its channels. Disney has faced similar negotiating standoffs with other broadcasters in recent years, including a 2021 outage on YouTube TV that was resolved in two days.

Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Disney says YouTube TV is not paying enough to stream its channels. YouTube TV, owned by Google, has the most subscribers of all other internet TV providers, more than 9 million. Hulu, owned by Disney, is second with 4.3 million subscribers through its Hulu + Live TV offering.

In a blog post Monday, YouTube asked Disney to consider "immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate," with no public response from Disney.

Which Disney channels aren't available on YouTube TV now?

Sports fans aren't the only viewers left sidelined by the loss of Disney channels from YouTube TV. Here are all the channels that have been removed from the streaming service:

ABC

ABC News Live

... continue reading