What you need to know
- YouTube TV offers aggressive discount to win back subscribers after recent channel blackout.
- YouTube TV and Disney reach agreement, restoring Disney channels for nearly 10 million subscribers.
- Upcoming sports bundle excludes MLB.TV, moving to ESPN app in 2026.
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YouTube TV and Disney finally reached a new multi-year agreement after a two-week standoff that left almost 10 million subscribers without access to Disney's channels. And now the streaming giant is trying to woo its lost subscribers with a promo. The new deal brings back all the channels, including ESPN, ABC, and more, to the streaming platform.
This 15-day blackout created unnecessary disruptions for subscribers who were caught in the middle of these streaming giants. YouTube TV did issue credits to its users for the inconvenience caused.
But the timing of it all was particularly disruptive for sports fans, who missed major live sports programming on ESPN and ABC, including college football matchups, NBA, and NFL games.
$60 Promo to Return from r/youtubetv
This, in turn, caused several subscribers to ditch the platform to look for other means to watch these sports events. According to several reports, a significant percentage of YouTube TV's estimated 10 million subscribers either cancelled or considered cancelling their service during the blackout.
The subscribers who left the service started getting emails from YouTube TV asking them to return for $60 off the first month, according to a user on Reddit (as spotted by 9to5 Google).
With the base plan costing $82.99, this discount slashed the first month's cost to just $22.99, a huge incentive for people who come back. Several people on the Reddit thread confirm getting these emails, but a few users who canceled their subscriptions haven't seen them yet.
This move only goes to show that YouTube TV is clearly prioritizing the recovery of lost subscribers, as evidenced by this "win-back" approach—one of the streaming industry's most aggressive tactics.
In other news, YouTube TV’s lower-cost sports bundle is possibly coming next year; however, MLB.TV, a crucial sports add-on for cord-cutters, will not be in the new bundle.
Major League Baseball made a separate deal to move MLB.TV into the ESPN app starting in 2026, consolidating its out-of-market games under ESPN's direct-to-consumer platform instead of third parties like YouTube TV. This means YouTube TV, despite carrying more ESPN content, will not offer MLB.TV.
