Movies Anywhere announcement about Google TV/YouTube
November 11, 2025
The carriage agreement spat between Disney and YouTube TV has resulted in a casualty in the transactional space.
In a brief note on the Movies Anywhere site, the digital rights locker service — which syncs consumers’ online video collections from participating studios across a variety of retailers such as Fandango at Home, Apple TV and Prime Video — announced it no longer has Google Play/YouTube as a retail partner.
Movies Anywhere is operated by Disney, though it has deals with several studios and transactional services to consolidate consumer digital purchases.
“Effective Oct. 31, Google Play/YouTube will no longer participate in the Movies Anywhere program,” read the Movies Anywhere note.
The move comes after a carriage agreement dispute erupted between Disney and Google-owned OTT pay-TV platform YouTube TV. As of Oct. 31, Disney’s channels were removed from YouTube TV after the two companies failed to reach a new agreement. The dustup leaves YouTube TV subscribers unable to watch content from Disney networks, including ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel, FX, National Geographic and Freeform.
“Last week Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers,” read an Oct. 30 YouTube TV blog. “They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live-TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.
“We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV. If their content remains off YouTube TV for an extended period of time, we’ll offer subscribers a $20 credit.
“We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content on YouTube TV. Unfortunately, Disney is proposing costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices, while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products — like Hulu + Live TV and, soon, Fubo. Without an agreement, we’ll have to remove Disney’s content from YouTube TV and if it remains unavailable for an extended period of time, we will offer subscribers a $20 credit.”
“With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor,” Disney told the Associated Press.
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