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YouTube TV’s Four Corners Offense

With the informal deadline of Thursday’s earnings in the rearview, YouTube TV and Disney are still negotiating to find a deal. But the open items—ingestion (quelle horreur!), the ESPN app, and obviously pricing—suggest the divergence in their endgames.

Bob Iger
As Bob Iger alluded to on the call, price continues to be the main issue. YouTube wants a new, lower rate to kick in when they eventually become the country’s largest distributor over the next few years. Naturally, Disney wants to hold the fee structure, since their most-favored nations obligations would force them to open up their other distribution deals with other providers to renegotiation. Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg/Getty Images
John Ourand
November 13, 2025

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Last night, mere hours before Disney released its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, C.E.O. Bob Iger and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro were laser-focused on one particular business issue: their YouTube TV distribution deal. Disney’s channels, including ABC and ESPN, had been dark on YouTube TV since October 30—practically eons in broadcasting time, and veritable light-years during football season. Facing an informal deadline of this morning’s earnings call, they led their negotiating team to make more progress with YouTube in a matter of hours than had been achieved cumulatively in the previous two weeks.