Disney agrees to pay $50 million to YouTube TV and DirecTV subscribers
YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream customers may be eligible for a cash payout, after Disney agreed to pay $50 million to settle claims that it forced the services to increase their subscription prices. Anyone who was subscribed to YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream between April 1st, 2019, and March 31st, 2026 is eligible to claim under the proposed settlement agreement.
All claims must be submitted to the online settlement portal by September 8th, 2026, and you can find more information regarding claim eligibility in this court authorized notice. There’s no mention of how big the payout could be per user, but payments are expected to be distributed after the final approval hearing, which will take place on January 14th, 2027, Alabama news outlet AL.com reports.
The agreement follows a class action lawsuit filed against Disney by four YouTube TV subscribers in 2022, alleging that terms within Disney’s carriage agreements with streaming live pay television (SLPTV) competitors gave it “pricing power over the entire market.” The case argued that Disney’s ownership of ESPN and Hulu — the latter being the second largest SLPTV provider behind YouTube — allowed it to influence prices across the streaming market by inflating the cost of its own products. Rival distributors were also reportedly forced to include ESPN in their standard channel packages, which prevented them from offering cheaper bundles.
The settlement agreement was reached in March, with the US district court in Northern California preliminarily approving the agreement later that month, though Disney denies any wrongdoing.
This development follows several carriage disputes between Disney, YouTube, and DirecTV that have resulted in Disney temporarily pulling its channels from the rival streaming companies. The 15-day blackout for Disney-owned channels on YouTube TV last year was believed to have cost Disney $110 million in lost revenue — more than double the compensation it’s now expected to pay YouTube and DirecTV subscribers.
