ESPN goes dark on YouTube TV as carriage dispute shuts out more than 10 million subscribers

nypost.com ^ | Oct. 31, 2025 | Christian Arnold

[V_TWIN]

YouTube TV customers watched ESPN go dark Thursday night as talks between the Google-owned platform and sports network broke down, leading the channel — along with other Disney-operated channels — to disappear from the platform.

A deal between the two sides could not be reached, and by late Thursday night, the stations, which include ABC, FX, Disney Jr. and National Geographic, along with ESPN channels, went dark for more than 10 million YouTube TV customers, escalating the prolonged back-and-forth between the two sides.

At the heart of the issues is pricing, according to Sports Business Journal, with both sides pointing the finger at the other in dueling statements released on Thursday night.

[moviefan8]

Does Berman have the Milton Berle contract?

[Tell It Right]

Here in my neck of the woods the contract for ABC to broadcast Bama games includes no longer airing it over the air with the local ABC affiliate. And that tends to be the big SEC games that week (ESPN taking over the contract that CBS had for years to have first dibs on that week's SEC game). With Bama doing well this year, and going through a stretch of playing 4 ranked teams in a row (3 of them unbeaten), that meant no air broadcast of the games we wanted to watch most.

Seeing that ahead of time, at the start of football season I started paying for a Directv streaming subscription. Multiple generations in my family get together (usually at my house) for big game Saturdays and it's a family gathering, an excuse to see the grandbaby an extra day of the week, with only one household paying for the subscription. Pretty much like I grew up watching football (it was very much a social affair instead of just sitting solo and cheering on the game). With only one of us paying for the subscription (unfortunately the closest we can get to free TV like we used to watch the games). The only other thing is I set my mesh Wi-fi to give my Roku device priority on network traffic (cat videos on your phone aren't allowed to interfere with streaming the game LOL).

[OrangeHoof]

They always wait for football season to have these carriage fights. That or March Madness.

Somebody knows when the most viewers are watching.

[V_TWIN]

Berman is 70....I guess you never saw the video of him throwing an absolute caniption fit like a 6 year old back in the day.....what a jackass.

*caution* extremely foul language!

https://youtu.be/3TLG_LtWhj4?si=yQsVrogAwShQVE68

[V_TWIN]

Of course, timing is everything.

If not for youtube tv having the seamless feature of also carrying my local channels I would have dropped them a long time ago....and still might over this and go to sling tv and just use my ota antenna for local programming.

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

Your local ABC affiliate gets punished — which is the point. On a normal CATV service, you get the local affiliate (ours is independently owned by Beverly Poston). She negotiates the deals. In YouTube TV, Mrs. Poston isn’t paid a penny — Google only talks to Disney so effectively you paid for New York.

[discostu]

Seems pretty legit to me. You’re not supposed to be distracting the person that’s actually on the air. It’s basic TV rules from the earliest days. Really only the camera guys should be moving, and ONLY as directed to get the desired shot. And he does apologize in it. So he knew he was going off. Everybody goes off sometimes. Just most of us are lucky enough to not have it caught on tape.

[discostu]

Of course football season runs from August through February. And March Madness bleeds into April. So that leave May, June and July as the only months contracts can end without running into those. And of course the NBA and NHL playoffs are May and June.

[P8riot]

Last year it was Disney vs. DirectTV. Lasted about a week.

[Doctor Congo]

Is YoutubeTV a good way to watch a month of college football bowl games? I would only want it for a month.

[dfwgator]

Difference is now Disney has their own competitor streaming service. They want to get YouTube TV customers to come over to Fubo TV.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Again, which one is worse-youtube or Disney? Isn’t one owned by Google?

[dfwgator]

All media companies are woke to a degree.

[Zack Attack]

Years ago I cut the cord from cable and went roku. Now it feels like everything is repeating, merger here, merger there.

[CrimsonTidegirl]

It’s NOT a win for me.

College football and Alabama basketball are the only American sports I watch. If not for college football, why even subscribe to YouTube TV? I don’t watch movies.

I’m beyond furious. I guess the Premier League and the Bundesliga are my only TV entertainment. Being unable to watch the Crimson Tide has me in orbit.

[circlecity]

Other than the actual NFL games, I couldn’t care less about ESPN.

[Zathras]

if ESPN falls in the woods, does anyone care?

[Big Red Clay]

Disney owns Hulu Streaming (at least for now. I understand they are spinning that off next year. They purchased Fubo as well. I have had Hulu Streaming since I cut the cord in ‘18. For the same price as YouTube streaming you get all the same cable channels, ESPN Plus and Disney Plus. Plus tons of other content like streaming movies and series. Not trying to pimp for Disney but it is a better service for the $ in my opinion if you are looking to replace cable. My buddy just cut the cord and got YouTube streaming even though I tried to talk him out of it. He is one of those guys that is always right so that didn’t work. Glad the Husker game is on NBC tomorrow night. We are going to his place to watch the game.

[moviefan8]

No, I haven’t. Thank you for sharing the video.