Sinclair has weighed in on the ongoing carriage dispute between Disney and YouTube TV, calling the feud an “antitrust issue” and asking for Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and antitrust regulators to step in.
“We as local broadcasters have no say in whether our content and the content we pay to air will be distributed to local viewers. This was clearly not the intent of the Communications Act, and seems to be, from our perspective, an antitrust issue as well,” Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said during the company’s third quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “This dispute and others likely continue to hurt local viewers and local journalism, the ecosystem of local journalism.”
“As we and many broadcasters have discussed with the FCC and antitrust regulators, we believe this practice needs to be stopped,” he continued. “Disney, ABC and other networks should not be able to dictate to us whether we can or cannot distribute content to YouTube TV or even Hulu and Fubo, which coincidentally are now also owned by Disney.”
Ripley noted that the FCC has opened an investigation into “hurtful network affiliation practices.”
“We’re seeing those hurtful practices play out in front of our eyes as viewers are missing local news and local sports. Particularly concerning is that consumers are now being forced to buy more streaming services from one of the parties in the dispute to get the content that they literally already paid for,” he added. “We call on Congress, the FCC and antitrust regulators to further review this and stop the harm to local broadcasters and local viewers.”
YouTube TV pulled the media giant’s networks from its platform on Sept. 30 after the two sides failed to reach a deal prior to their previous contract’s expiration. It also came just days after the two sides settled a lawsuit over YouTube TV’s hiring of former Disney platform distribution president Justin Connolly, who previously led the company’s carriage negotiations.
Disney’s senior leadership has blasted YouTube TV and Google for being “not interested in achieving a fair deal.” They also accused them of using their “power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content that helped them build their service.”
YouTube TV fired back that Disney used the threat of a blackout as a negotiating tactic to “force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers” and rejected offers to keep their networks on the platform. They added that Disney’s proposals “fundamentally disadvantage” YouTube TV, while “preserving preferential terms and content” for their own services and that they asked for economics that would “significantly raise costs” on subscribers and rates that would “hinder its ability to compete with other distributors.”
Earlier this week, Disney asked YouTube TV to restore ABC’s programming during Election Day to ensure its subscribers had access to the results. YouTube denied the request to restore ABC and ESPN during the blackout as the two sides continue to negotiate, arguing that Disney’s proposal would “cause customer confusion among those who may briefly see ABC on YouTube TV only to lose it again shortly after.” It also called on Disney to come to the table to “get a fair deal done.”
In the meantime, YouTube TV has offered their subscribers a $20 credit if Disney content remains off the platform for an extended period of time.
The latest carriage dispute comes after Disney resolved a 13-day programming blackout with DirecTV in September 2024, a 10-day dispute with Charter Communications in 2023 and a 48-hour dispute with Dish in 2022, while YouTube TV recently reached agreements with Fox and NBCUniversal.
In addition to Disney, YouTube TV has yet to reach a deal with TelevisaUnivision, whose programming has been dark on the platform since Sept. 30. President Donald Trump weighed in on the latter dispute, urging YouTube TV to restore the Spanish-language network’s programming.
With over 8 million subscribers, YouTube TV is one of the largest pay TV operators alongside Charter Communications, Comcast and DirecTV. It is the largest virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).
