Disney, Google announce new agreement for ESPN, YouTube TV

Disney announced today it has struck a new deal with Google to bring its channels back to YouTube TV, a day after they were pulled from the service. Disney has already begun the process to restore access to their channels across the streaming service.

ESPN returning to YouTube TV

“We appreciate Google’s collaboration to reach fair terms that are consistent with the market, and we’re thrilled that our robust lineup of live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming is in the process of being restored to YouTube TV subscribers across the country,” Disney said in a statement.

“We’re happy to announce that we’ve reached a deal with Disney and have already started to restore access to channels like ESPN and FX, and Disney recordings that were previously in your Library,” YouTube said in their own statement. “Your local ABC station will also be turning on throughout the day.”

While details aren’t out fully regarding the terms of their new deal, YouTube did state that their digital package would return to the original $64.99 price point. Following the initial blackout of Disney’s content, they had announced their monthly price would drop by $15 to reflect the lack of content.

YouTube also stated that impacted members of their service would still receive a one-time $15 discount for the issues.

The failure to reach a new deal came at an extremely busy time for subscribers who view live sports on the service. Disney’s ESPN owns the rights to broadcast many of the college football bowl games, leaving YouTube TV subscribers with no avenue to watch them.

Now, fans will not have to worry as the streaming service regains access to ESPN content. Google launched YouTube TV in 2017 as an alternative to cable. Previously, the only major service interruption that was close to happening involved a possible blackout of NBCUniversal’s programming. However, a new deal was struck before an actual disruption of content occurred.