The ongoing Disney–YouTube TV blackout has stretched past the two-week mark, and both sides are reportedly taking major financial hits, to the tune of $60 million in losses for Disney over 14 days, according to Morgan Stanley.
Read the full Deadline breakdown here: https://deadline.com/2025/11/disney-youtube-tv-blackout-each-side-losing-1236614462/
Since October 30, ABC, ESPN, and other Disney networks have gone dark for YouTube TV’s 10 million subscribers, cutting off high-profile broadcasts like Monday Night Football and college game days. The standoff highlights the ongoing tug-of-war between content owners and digital distributors, where both are fighting for control over audience access, ad revenue, and platform leverage.
With Disney now owning major stakes in Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, and YouTube TV holding rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, this blackout is more than a business dispute; it’s a sign of how fragmented the streaming and live-TV landscape has become.
Even industry analysts note: the question isn’t just who wins, but what gets lost in these corporate battles, from ad dollars to consumer trust.
As more distribution power shifts between major platforms, what do you think these standoffs mean for the future of content distribution, especially for independent creators and smaller networks trying to get their projects seen?
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It's funny to see not getting more money characterized as an actual loss. IMO this is not fragmentation, this is the drawing of lines between the studio cartel (legally so, now), and Google, who is a defacto (though still illegal) monopoly over internet search results wanting to extend its power over serious entertainment media. Google's influence on advertising over the decades has made it both accessible to everyone, and unprofitable for those of us in the independent space. Mainstream has maintained, for the most part, it's price level for advertising, because they don't sell ads through Google. Google wants to destroy that because it wants to control all revenues and all information. This isn't conspiracy, this is the real strategy they have followed over the last two decades and the reason the DOJ is investigating them . So this has less, indeed nothing, to do with distribution per se. Google, if it were to win this and future tug-of-wars, would ensure that no film makes money unless the majority of revenues land in Google's lap; That's the stakes.