{"id":444732,"date":"2026-02-02T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444732\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:24:07","slug":"espn-took-110-million-hit-from-youtube-tv-blackout-last-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444732\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Took $110 Million Hit From YouTube TV Blackout Last Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney was estimated to be losing about $4.3 million per day<\/a> during the YouTube TV<\/a> blackout last fall, according to one Wall Street analyst. In fact, the carriage fight cost the Mouse House much more than that.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 15-day blackout of the ESPN<\/a> suite of networks on Google\u2019s YouTube TV resulted in a decline of $110 million to ESPN\u2019s operating income for the year-end quarter. That works out to a loss of more than $7 million per day, just for ESPN. Disney made the disclosure in announcing earnings for the year-end quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tABC and Disney\u2019s entertainment TV networks also suffered a revenue drop because of the YouTube TV blackout but the company didn\u2019t quantify that. In fact, Disney is no longer reporting revenue or operating income for its linear TV business as of the December 2025 quarter, which is the media conglom\u2019s Q1 of fiscal 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the YouTube TV blackout, ESPN and other Disney nets\u00a0went dark on the internet service just before midnight ET on Thursday, Oct. 30<\/a>. The dispute was largely over price hikes Disney was seeking. The two sides finally reached an agreement restoring the channels on Nov. 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney CFO Hugh Johnston, on the company\u2019s Nov. 13 earnings call<\/a>, said that regarding \u201cthe dollar impact\u201d of the YouTube TV blackout, while Disney was indeed losing money because it networks were unavailable on the streamer, it was garnering incremental revenue \u201cby virtue of subscribers moving elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s likely the two-week YouTube TV blackout pushed some subscribers to sign up for ESPN Unlimited, the streamer that for the first time includes everything from ESPN\u2019s networks and services<\/a>. But Disney has not detailed ESPN Unlimited subscribers or revenue.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the launch of ESPN Unlimited in August, Disney initially offered a bundle with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Unlimited for $29.99\/month for the first 12 months \u2014 the same price as the standalone version of ESPN Unlimited. According to Disney, in the September 2025 quarter, 80% of ESPN Unlimited customers took the three-way bundle, which isn\u2019t surprising given the major discount of the promo offer. (The Disney+\/Hulu\/ESPN bundle is now priced starting at $35.99\/month.)<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the year-end 2025 quarter, overall revenue for ESPN was $4.9 billion, up 1%. The sports segment\u2019s operating income was $191 million, down 23% year-over-year. According to Disney, ESPN advertising revenue growth of 10% was more than offset by higher programming and production costs and a decrease in subscription and affiliate fees, including the loss of revenue because of the YouTube TV blackout.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Disney, in the year-end 2025 quarter, ESPN captured more than 30% of all sports viewership across networks, including via ESPN on ABC programming, an industry-leading share.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeparately, on Saturday, Disney and the NFL confirmed they closed a deal\u00a0that gives the NFL a 10% ownership stake in ESPN<\/a>, which will in exchange gain control over\u00a0NFL Network\u00a0and the popular NFL RedZone highlights service. Disney licensed rights to operate NFL Network and NFL RedZone through 2033.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s NFL deal has an estimated fair value of $3 billion, according to the media company\u2019s quarterly 10-Q filing Monday with the SEC. After July 2034, based on the performance of the NFL assets, Disney may have the right to reacquire the NFL\u2019s interest in ESPN in exchange for a 10-year security at 70% of the then-fair market value of the NFL\u2019s interest in ESPN. Alternatively, the NFL may have the right to acquire up to a 4% additional equity interest in ESPN at a purchase price equal to 70% of the then-fair market value of ESPN.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the NFL deal, Disney now holds an effective 72% interest in ESPN. Hearst owns 18% and NFL Enterprises LLC holds 10%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney was estimated to be losing about $4.3 million per day during the YouTube TV blackout last fall,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,352,92,72175],"class_list":{"0":"post-444732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-tv","11":"tag-youtube-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}