How to watch college football on ABC, ESPN this Saturday if you're a YouTube TV subscriber

Thursday marked two weeks of the ESPN and ABC blackout on YouTube TV as the Disney carriage dispute continued. However, the two sides struck a deal – and the channels returned Friday night.

YouTube TV’s roughly 10 million subscribers have missed two full Saturdays of games as a result of the blackout. More notable games are on ABC and ESPN’s schedule for this week, headlined by the primetime showdown between Texas and Georgia on Saturday night.

Friday night, both sides announced a multi-year agreement to restore all networks. That includes library recordings, as well, according to YouTube.

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers,” a YouTube TV spokesperson said in a statement to On3. “Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf.”

In addition to restoring the channels, ESPN’s full lineup of sports – including content from the ESPN Unlimited app, launched earlier this year – will be made available to YouTube TV’s base plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026. Networks and recordings should start returning within the next 24 hours, just in time for kickoff of Week 12. Disney also released a statement Friday after the news broke.

“As part of the new deal, Disney’s full suite of networks and stations – including ESPN and ABC – have already begun to be restored to YouTube TV subscribers,” the statement read.

The deal between YouTube TV and Disney was due to expire Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET. That night, at approx. 11:27 p.m. ET, ESPN and the rest of the Disney networks went dark on the service. A blackout had begun after the two sides failed to reach a deal.

The blackout continued through Week 11 of the college football season and through the start of college basketball season. It also resulted in NFL fans missing two Monday Night Football games – the Dallas Cowboys vs. Arizona Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers vs. Philadelphia Eagles.

If the disruption went on for “an extended period of time,” YouTube TV said it would offer customers a $20 credit. That offer came Nov. 9, and the service later sent subscribers a link to claim it.