The YouTube TV carriage dispute last fall cost Disney’s sports division $110 million in operating profit, according to its latest financial disclosure on Monday, which translates to around $7.8 million per day.
The standoff, which left viewers looking to watch programming from ESPN’s networks, ABC, Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and National Geographic channels in the dark for two weeks, was resolved back in November.
On the sports side, operating profit tumbled 23% to $191 million. In addition to the YouTube TV carriage right, sports subscription and affiliate fees were also impacted by the Star India transaction. Also weighing on the segment’s profit was an increase in programming and production costs driven by contractual rate increases and costs for new sports rights, partially offset by the timing of NBA and college sports rights costs under new agreements, including the impact of fewer
regular season NBA games
On the entertainment side, operating profit fell 35% to $1.1 billion. Disney+ and Hulu’s combined profit grew 72% to $450 million, while the remaining entertainment businesses’ total combined profits fell 55% to $650 million. Disney did not disclose how much the YouTube TV carriage fight specifically impacted results on the entertainment side.
Disney and YouTube TV’s new carriage agreement includes carriage of all of ESPN’s networks, ABC, Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and National Geographic channels.
It will also make ESPN Unlimited available to YouTube TV base plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026, and provides access to a selection of live and on-demand programming.
The deal also preserves optionality for the distributor for future programming packages with Disney, along with other content partners. That includes select networks in various genre-specific packages and the ability to include the Disney+-Hulu bundle as part of select YouTube offerings.
