Looks like YouTube TV expects prepaid NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers to eat the cost of games they can’t watch amid ESPN blackout

If you got your NFL Sunday Ticket bundled with your YouTube TV subscription, I’m pissed on your behalf. YouTube pulled Disney’s catalogue of networks — including ESPN and ABC — from its popular live TV streaming service after a distribution deal between the companies expired on Friday. NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers are now stuck with either canceling their plans or paying for a YouTube TV service that no longer comes with the NFL games they signed up for. Worse, if you prepaid for the season up front or bundled NFL Sunday Ticket with your YouTube TV subscription to save a few bucks, it looks like you can kiss that money goodbye. Consider it a donation to the “Help YouTube and Disney settle their differences” fund, I guess.

As if it wasn’t already annoying enough for sports fans to be stuck in a carriage dispute during Week 9 of the NFL season. For those who are unfamiliar with the NFL-only streaming service, the Sunday Ticket gives you access to every regular season out-of-market game. For new customers, a monthly Sunday Ticket subscription costs $85 by itself or $72 when bundled with YouTube TV (for the first three months at least, at which point it jumps up $10 to $82/month).

You can buy the Sunday Ticket standalone through YouTube Primetime Channels without a YouTube TV subscription, but a season-long subscription is pricy at $480 for returning customers (already up $31 from last year, I should add). Or you can save $102 by adding NFL Sunday Ticket to your YouTube TV plan, which brings the price down to $378 for a season-long subscription.

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Here’s the catch that could really screw NFL fans over if this ESPN blackout keeps up: With that bundle, your access to NFL Sunday Ticket is tied to your YouTube TV subscription. Cancel YouTube TV, and you’re forfeiting Sunday Ticket access — and eating the cost if you paid for the full season upfront.

Several subscribers who canceled their YouTube TV plans expressed their frustration in posts on X, claiming they were not offered refunds for the nine weeks of games left that they paid for but can’t watch until Disney and YouTube strike a deal.

What really annoys me is I already paid for a full season of NFL Sunday Ticket ON YOUR SERVICE but now I have to buy someone else’s service to watch College Football? This isn’t right. https://t.co/wqeomDpP1KOctober 31, 2025

“What really annoys me is I already paid for a full season of NFL Sunday Ticket ON YOUR SERVICE but now I have to buy someone else’s service to watch College Football? This isn’t right,” wrote podcaster Alex Donno on X. Football reporter Nick Underhill described it as “extortion by everyone involved.”

It’s got frustrated NFL fans looking for the best live TV services to switch to until YouTube and Disney can settle on a deal. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to watch ESPN without YouTube TV, so you don’t have to miss any college football or Monday Night Football games in the meantime.

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We’ve reached out to YouTube for comment and will update this article once we hear back. On Friday, YouTube said subscribers could be offered a $20 credit if Disney’s networks remain unavailable for “an extended period.” That’s not even a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of dollars subscribers stand to lose. Don’t be surprised if YouTube goes into full damage control duty come Monday morning.

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