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YouTube’s Disney War

The video platform’s surprise acquisition of a high-level Disney executive is the latest, and most poignant, strategic advance in its high-stakes, ongoing battle to become the go-to hub for the burgeoning sports media multiverse.

Inner Circle Exclusive
Neal Mohan
A few months ago, YouTube C.E.O. Neal Mohan spoke explicitly about the investment the business is making into its Primetime platform, which will offer audiences access to their favorite entertainment outside of YouTube through one unified app, on top of YouTube and YouTube TV. Photo: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Julia Alexander
May 27, 2025

These days, YouTube haunts the hallways of Disney, from Burbank to Hudson Square, and for very good reason. The video platform has doubled its share of total TV minutes watched in the U.S., to more than 12 percent, while Disney+ and Hulu combined have hovered between 5 and 6 percent. So it was hardly a surprise, last week, when Disney unleashed the legal hounds after Justin Connolly, its former head of distribution partnerships, announced that he was decamping to YouTube to lead the company’s sports media business.

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