YouTube TV subscribers win in lawsuit against Disney over driving up streaming costs

Ben Schoon | Jun 24 2026 - 6:45 pm PT

There’s no one not frustrated by the cost of YouTube TV and services like it, but prices keep on going up. In a small victory, though, YouTube TV subscribers that sued Disney over its role in driving up the cost of streaming have won in court, with Disney settling for $50 million.

It just won’t change your bill.

As ArsTechnica reports, a group of YouTube TV subscribers filed a class action complaint in late 2022 against Disney for the company’s role in driving up the cost of streaming live TV services such as YouTube TV and Disney’s own Hulu + Live TV. The lawsuit accused Disney of entering “anticompetitive agreements” through actions such as requiring its partners to distribute ESPN in base packages, which in turn drives up the cost of those packages.

The complaint filing reads in part:

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… these carriage agreement mandates—which now cover all of Disney’s leading competitors in the SLPTV Market—allow Disney to use ESPN and Hulu to set a price floor in the SLPTV Market and to inflate prices marketwide by raising the prices of its own products. And this is exactly what Disney has done in the past three years, since it took operational control of Hulu.

The complaint was filed around the time that YouTube TV’s price jumped to $65, a huge hike from its original $35 price tag, upon adding Disney-owned channels including the aforementioned ESPN. During a 2021 dispute, YouTube TV effectively (but not outrightly) said that its base service would be $15 cheaper without Disney’s programming.

In a tweet at the time, YouTube TV hinted that networks requiring carriage of a “full portfolio of channels” increased the “overall price of the service.”

While Disney is not admitting to any wrongdoing, the media giant has agreed to a $50 million settlement. Anyone who subscribed to YouTube TV (or DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, and/or AT&T TV Now) between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026, will be eligible for a portion of the settlement.

The agreement also says that Disney must “consider” offering its distributor partners, such as YouTube TV, the option to carry fewer channels including ESPN, but there seems to be no actual requirement.

This comes after YouTube TV and Disney had another very public feud in late 2025 where the same issues were brought up – a YouTube TV exec called Disney “unnecessarily aggressive” during the negotiation process. Disney’s programming was off the air for YouTube TV subscribers for almost two weeks until a new deal was reached.