- Disney on Monday revealed the impact of its prolonged carriage dispute with YouTube TV.
- Disney said the 15-day blackout caused a $110 million hit to its sports division’s operating income.
- The fallout left YouTube TV customers unable to access ESPN, ABC, and other Disney channels.
Disney is counting the cost of its prolonged dust-up with YouTubeTV this past November.
The Mouse House said Monday that the carriage dispute, which saw Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, unavailable to watch on YouTube TV for 15 days, caused an approximately $110 million operating income hit to its sports segment in its most recent fiscal quarter.
Overall operating income for its sports division came in at $191 million, down 23% from the year-ago quarter, the company said. The company said this reflected the YouTube TV fallout, higher programming and production costs, and a decrease in subscription and affiliate fees.
The showdown centered on a dispute over how much the Google-owned TV service was prepared to pay to carry ABC, ESPN, and Disney’s other TV networks.
Disney claimed YouTubeTV wasn’t assigning a fair value to its content, including its highly valuable sports rights, such as “Monday Night Football” and college football. YouTube argued that paying higher rates would force it to raise prices for its own customers. (Google gave YouTube TV subscribers a $20 bill credit as the fight dragged on.)
The high-profile skirmish was the longest blackout in Disney’s history.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley had estimated that Disney was losing $30 million in lost revenue a week, or about $4.3 million each day, from the YouTubeTV standoff. Disney’s disclosure, which concerned bottom-line operating income and not topline revenue, suggested the impact was deeper.
Disney’s earnings call is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. ET on Monday. Executives could share more details on how the numbers fell.
In its earnings, Disney also disclosed that it had generated record streaming profits for the quarter, boosted by recent price increases.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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