Disney-Owned Channels Have Gone Dark on YouTube TV


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Update: Edited to include YouTube TV’s message to subscribers

With Disney and YouTube TV unable to compromise on terms for renewing a carriage agreement, Disney-owned channels have gone dark on YouTube TV, just before the midnight deadline.

YouTube TV let subscribers know that they were in danger of losing the channels, including Disney, ESPN, and ABC affiliates, when the companies were disagreeing on terms of their carriage agreement earlier this week. In a note to subscribers, YouTube TV said “Disney is an important partner for us. We are in active conversations with them and are working hard to keep their content on YouTube TV. Our ask of Disney, as with all of our partners, is to treat YouTube TV like any other TV provider – by offering us the same rates that services of a similar size pay, across Disney’s channels for as long as we carry them.”

The following channels and related VOD content have been dropped:

  • Your local ABC channel
  • ABC News Live
  • Disney Channel
  • Disney Junior
  • Disney XD
  • Freeform
  • FX
  • FXX
  • FXM
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild
  • ESPN
  • ESPN2
  • ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)
  • ESPNU
  • ESPNEWS
  • SEC Network
  • ACC Network

Because the two were unable to come to an agreement, YouTube TV has pledged to lower the price of the streaming service by $15 per month.

YouTube TV posted the following message to subscribers:

We’ve held good faith negotiations with Disney for several months.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before our existing one expired.

As of December 17, 2021, end of day Eastern Time, all Disney-owned channels, including ESPN and your local ABC station, are unavailable on YouTube TV. Members will not be able to watch live or local content from Disney and will also lose access to any previous Library recordings from these channels, including 4K content that is available as part of the 4K Plus add-on.

We will be decreasing our monthly price by $15, from $64.99 to $49.99, for the Base Plan while this content remains off of our platform. No action is needed on your part. A credit of $15 per month will automatically be issued. Once the content is unavailable, this credit will be applied to your next bill after December 17 and will only be visible to family managers in Settings > Billing after the charge has taken place. Please note that if you have a promotional price with YouTube TV, you can still expect a $15 credit. Members who are in a paused state will receive this credit one month after their first charge. Should we come to an agreement with Disney, we will adjust the price accordingly and will notify members via email beforehand.

We know this is frustrating news, and it is not the outcome we wanted. We will continue conversations with Disney to advocate on your behalf in hopes of restoring their content on YouTube TV.

If you want to switch to a different live TV streaming service to keep the channels that have been dropped from YouTube TV, we recommend these four alternatives:

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