Disney was estimated to be losing about $4.3 million per day during the YouTube TV blackout last fall, according to one Wall Street analyst. In fact, the carriage fight cost the Mouse House much more than that.

The 15-day blackout of the ESPN suite of networks on Google’s YouTube TV resulted in a decline of $110 million to ESPN’s operating income for the year-end quarter. That works out to a loss of more than $7 million per day, just for ESPN. Disney made the disclosure in announcing earnings for the year-end quarter.

ABC and Disney’s entertainment TV networks also suffered a revenue drop because of the YouTube TV blackout but the company didn’t quantify that. In fact, Disney is no longer reporting revenue or operating income for its linear TV business as of the December 2025 quarter, which is the media conglom’s Q1 of fiscal 2026.

In the YouTube TV blackout, ESPN and other Disney nets went dark on the internet service just before midnight ET on Thursday, Oct. 30. The dispute was largely over price hikes Disney was seeking. The two sides finally reached an agreement restoring the channels on Nov. 14.

Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, on the company’s Nov. 13 earnings call, said that regarding “the dollar impact” of the YouTube TV blackout, while Disney was indeed losing money because it networks were unavailable on the streamer, it was garnering incremental revenue “by virtue of subscribers moving elsewhere.”

It’s likely the two-week YouTube TV blackout pushed some subscribers to sign up for ESPN Unlimited, the streamer that for the first time includes everything from ESPN’s networks and services. But Disney has not detailed ESPN Unlimited subscribers or revenue.

With the launch of ESPN Unlimited in August, Disney initially offered a bundle with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Unlimited for $29.99/month for the first 12 months — the same price as the standalone version of ESPN Unlimited. According to Disney, in the September 2025 quarter, 80% of ESPN Unlimited customers took the three-way bundle, which isn’t surprising given the major discount of the promo offer. (The Disney+/Hulu/ESPN bundle is now priced starting at $35.99/month.)

For the year-end 2025 quarter, overall revenue for ESPN was $4.9 billion, up 1%. The sports segment’s operating income was $191 million, down 23% year-over-year. According to Disney, ESPN advertising revenue growth of 10% was more than offset by higher programming and production costs and a decrease in subscription and affiliate fees, including the loss of revenue because of the YouTube TV blackout.

According to Disney, in the year-end 2025 quarter, ESPN captured more than 30% of all sports viewership across networks, including via ESPN on ABC programming, an industry-leading share.

Separately, on Saturday, Disney and the NFL confirmed they closed a deal that gives the NFL a 10% ownership stake in ESPN, which will in exchange gain control over NFL Network and the popular NFL RedZone highlights service. Disney licensed rights to operate NFL Network and NFL RedZone through 2033.

Disney’s NFL deal has an estimated fair value of $3 billion, according to the media company’s quarterly 10-Q filing Monday with the SEC. After July 2034, based on the performance of the NFL assets, Disney may have the right to reacquire the NFL’s interest in ESPN in exchange for a 10-year security at 70% of the then-fair market value of the NFL’s interest in ESPN. Alternatively, the NFL may have the right to acquire up to a 4% additional equity interest in ESPN at a purchase price equal to 70% of the then-fair market value of ESPN.

With the NFL deal, Disney now holds an effective 72% interest in ESPN. Hearst owns 18% and NFL Enterprises LLC holds 10%.