Hugh Johnston is ready to go 12 rounds — maybe 15.
The Disney CFO said on CNBC on Thursday morning that his company, in the midst of a carriage battle with YouTube TV, is “ready to go as long as they want to.”
Ding, ding.
“We’re in the middle of negotiations right now,” Johnston said on the cable business network shortly after Disney reported in fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financials. “Things are live, they’re happening…and we’re ready to go as long as they want to.”
The timing for the strong statement is curious as, just yesterday, sources indicated to THR that talks between the two media giants — YouTube TV is owned by Alphabet, formerly known as Google — had picked up and been more productive in recent days.
On Wednesday, Tom Rogers, who co-founded CNBC, joined the same program to preview Disney’s Q4 earnings. Rogers said the power of legacy media, like Disney, has “lost some of its real punch in terms of marketplace strength.” Johnston was asked to respond.
“I think that’s an exaggeration a bit more than it’s a reality,” Johnston said.
On a conference following his CNBC appearance, Johnston elaborated on the YouTube TV situation a bit. He told media analysts that Disney “built a hedge” into its Q1 2026 guidance “with the expectation that these discussions could go for a little while in terms of the dollar impacts.”
Keep in mind, there’s two pieces to it,” Johnston said. “There’s the piece that we’re not getting paid for, and then the piece that we’re picking up by virtue of subscribers moving elsewhere.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger also weighed in on the standoff during the call. Read his uninterrupted comments below:
“First of all, obviously, we care deeply about our consumer and our priority has always been to remain on their service without interruption, to close a deal on a timely basis so that interruption does not occur. The deal that we have proposed is equal to or better than what other large distributors have already agreed to. So we’re not trying to really break any new ground.
And while we’ve been working tirelessly to close this deal and restore our channels to the platform, it’s also imperative that we make sure that we agree to a deal that reflects the value that we deliver, which both YouTube, by the way, and Alphabet, have told us is greater than the value of any other provider.
So we’re not trying to break new ground. The offer that’s on the table is commensurate with deals that we’ve already struck with, actually, distributors that are larger than they are. We’re trying really hard, as I said, working tirelessly, to close this deal, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to do so on a timely enough basis to at least give consumers the opportunity to access our content over their platform.”
