ESPN parent company Disney said that its carriage standoff with YouTube TV, which reached a 14th day Thursday, “could go for a little while.”

The company provided no specific update on its contract talks with the No. 4 U.S. pay-TV distributor, calling it an “active negotiation,” but it said it has built a financial hedge in preparation for a potentially extended blackout.

“In terms of our [financial] guidance, we built a hedge into that with the expectation that these discussions could go for a little while,” Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said Thursday morning during a call with analysts to detail the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. 

The YouTube TV–Disney blackout, which began Oct. 31, had been a closely watched issue as Disney approached its earnings report. There are still active negotiations happening between the two sides, YouTube TV has started issuing $20 credits to subscribers, and Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr is beginning to apply public pressure, as he has in other carriage disputes. There remains no deal in place, though. 

The company’s 10K filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission also listed the YouTube TV dispute as one of its stated risk factors and said “the company cannot predict how long this service blackout will last.” Morgan Stanley estimated Disney is losing $30 million per week from the dispute. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger ended the analyst call on a somewhat more optimistic note regarding YouTube TV, but reiterated that it is “not trying to break any new ground” with the distributor compared to its pacts with other providers. 

“It’s imperative that we make sure we agree to a deal that reflects the value that we deliver. … We are trying hard and working tirelessly to close this deal, and we are hopeful we will be able to do so on a timely enough basis to give consumers the opportunity to access our content over their platform,” Iger said. 

Initial ESPN DTC Pickup

As planned, Disney did not break out in the earnings report its subscriber totals for the direct-to-consumer version of ESPN that debuted in August. Iger, however, lauded the initial consumer adoption of the service, both in raw volume and in accessing the array of included features. He also said that about 80% of the ESPN DTC subscribers are also signed up for the entire Disney streaming bundle.

“In almost every way you look at it, it’s worked,” Iger said. “As we look ahead, we believe we’ve created a product that is very, very consumer-friendly and very advertiser-friendly. … It’s a very positive step for the future of ESPN.”

Third-party data provider Antenna said last month that the ESPN DTC service garnered 2.1 million sign-ups between the Aug. 21 start and Sept. 30.

Broader Results

Disney, meanwhile, closed out its fiscal year with a mixed set of financial results, but still a hopeful outlook. The company posted flat revenue of $22.5 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter, while operating income fell 5% to $3.48 billion. 

The company’s sports segment, which is dominated by ESPN, had similar results. Revenue grew 2% during the latest quarter to $3.98 billion, and operating income decreased 3% to $908 million, due in part to an increase in programming and production costs for its sports content, as well as marketing around the ESPN DTC debut.

For the full year, the sports segment was flat in revenue at $17.67 billion in revenue, while operating income grew 20% to $2.88 billion. 

There were other bright spots for Disney, though. Its total number of Disney+ and Hulu subscribers increased by 12.4 million during the quarter, reaching a combined total of 195.7 million and beating Wall Street expectations. Disney is projecting growth in many of its operating segments, including sports, during its fiscal 2026. 

Johnston, meanwhile, said “I wouldn’t expect us to make any significant move” in mergers or acquisitions. TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is up for sale, but Disney hasn’t been widely mentioned in a group of suitors that includes Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix.

The Padres are officially up for sale, with the Seidler family, who owns the club, making a surprise announcement of its intent to “explore strategic options.”

The club said Thursday that it has retained merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners to advise the Seidlers on a potential sale of all or part of the franchise. The move arrives just one day shy of the second anniversary of the death of former club owner Peter Seidler. 

“We will undertake this process with integrity and professionalism in a way that honors Peter’s legacy and love for the Padres and lays the foundation for the franchise’s long-term success,” Padres chair John Seidler said in a statement. Seidler had just been approved in February as the Padres’ designated control executive for league purposes.

Other Major League Baseball clubs, including the Twins, Nationals, and Angels, went through a similar process, only to ultimately decide not to sell the franchise. The Pohlad, Lerner, and Moreno families still control those three franchises, respectively.

The dynamics of the Padres situation, however, are different. Since the death of Peter Seidler, an intrafamily dispute has surrounded the franchise. Peter’s widow, Sheel Seidler, sued the brothers who run the team, and as that legal action is still active, the decision to consider a sale moves the dynamic in an entirely different direction. The bank that the Seidlers hired is also the one that helped execute sales of the Celtics and White Sox. 

Market Dynamics

In the meantime, the club has the difficult task of trying to compete, both on and off the field, with the neighboring Dodgers, who spent a record sum this year en route to a repeat World Series title. The Padres have carried a hefty payroll, with a $273.1 million luxury-tax payroll ranking sixth in the league, and have incurred significant debt. The club was also the first cut in the bankruptcy of the former Diamond Sports Group, now Main Street Sports, and the club’s local rights are part of MLB’s in-house media model.

There are plenty of positive attributes with the Padres, however. The club, a playoff participant three of the last four years, plays in Petco Park—consistently one of the most revered ballparks in the sport. The Padres also drew a franchise-record 3.43 million in attendance this season, second best in baseball behind only the Dodgers and far beyond what the population and geographic confines of the San Diego market would suggest. 

Any sale, should it happen, would likely require the Padres to stay in San Diego. The club’s current lease at Petco Park runs to 2033. The team also recently hired Craig Stammen as its new manager, marking the ninth such person under Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. 

The current Padres ownership group originally gained control of the team in 2012 in an $800 million deal. The franchise is now estimated to be worth $1.95 billion.

Major League Soccer is ending the separate MLS Season Pass streaming subscription product, and instead will make its games available through the main Apple TV service beginning in 2026.

The shift marks a major recalibration of the groundbreaking, 10-year rights deal worth $2.5 billion that was originally struck in 2022, and went into effect the following year. League officials are looking to make the MLS matches more accessible and more in line with other sports content on the service, such as Formula One and Major League Baseball.

The change was approved Thursday by the MLS Board of Governors.

“Our partnership with Apple has always been about innovating for our fans,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “Bringing every match to Apple TV takes that vision to the next level by making it easier for fans everywhere to watch, connect, and be part of the game.”

The MLS Season Pass subscription had cost $14.99 per month, or $99 per season, or $79 on top of an Apple TV subscription. That standard Apple TV subscription fee is $12.99 per month, or $99 annually, but obviously has much more content. 

Since the original Apple rights deal was struck, industry debate has been fervent about its impact and return. The agreement undoubtedly served as a bellwether for many other streaming-based deals in sports that followed, while also providing an expansive international footprint for MLS. The structure of this deal, however, also meant an initial and sizable retreat in exposure for the league compared to its prior, linear-based model in the U.S. 

Speaking this past summer at the Front Office Sports Huddle in the Hamptons event, Garber said “media and pundits don’t get it yet,” but also stressed a need for accelerated progress in the consumer adoption of MLS matches on Apple. 

Garber also said this past summer that MLS Season Pass viewership had grown by about half this season to an average of 120,000 per match. He also acknowledged, though, that a deal that has been largely shrouded in secrecy needed far better levels of transparency, and the audiences for those matches on Apple TV have not been part of any standard and audited measurement process.

“We and Apple believe we need to share more information,” Garber said. “It’s the beginning, not the end.”