Disney ESPN $50 Million YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream Antitrust Class Action Settlement 2026
By Steve Levine
Published: March 9, 2026 · Updated: May 15, 2026
Status
Preliminarily Approved — Claim Form Not Yet Open
No settlement website live yet; both go live July 7, 2026
Claim Deadline
September 8, 2026
Settlement Fund
$50,000,000
non-reversionary, distributed pro rata by subscription length
Proof Required
No
no receipts needed — just your subscription dates / length
Status Update — May 15, 2026
There is no claim form to file yet and no official settlement website to visit yet. Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, Inc. (the court-appointed Settlement Administrator) launches the official settlement website — and the online claim form — on July 7, 2026, which is the Notice Date set by the preliminary approval order. Until then, there is nothing to click, no portal to register on, and no claim ID to enter. Any site that says you can file a Disney YouTube TV / DirecTV Stream class action claim right now is not the official settlement administrator.On March 31, 2026 the court adopted Document 236 — the Proposed Order Preliminarily Approving Class Action Settlement in Biddle et al. v. The Walt Disney Company, Case No. 5:22-cv-07317-EJD, N.D. Cal. That order set the full schedule: Notice Date July 7, 2026, claim & opt-out deadline September 8, 2026, and final approval hearing before Judge Edward J. Davila on January 14, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. PT in Courtroom 4 of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building, San Jose, CA. OCA will post the official Epiq claim-form URL on this page the day it launches.
Schedule At a Glance
Key dates set by the preliminary approval order (Dkt. 236):• March 31, 2026 — Preliminary approval order entered. Court preliminarily certified the YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream Settlement Classes for purposes of settlement only.
• July 7, 2026 — Notice Date. Class notice begins; the official settlement website goes live; the online claim form opens.
• September 8, 2026 — Claim & Opt-Out Deadline. Last day to file a claim or to request exclusion from the settlement (postmark date).
• October 27, 2026 — Motion for Final Approval Filed. Class counsel files motion for final approval of the settlement plus any motion for attorneys' fees and costs.
• December 1, 2026 — Objection Deadline. Last day to file or postmark objections to the settlement or to the fee request.
• December 29, 2026 — Reply Deadline. Class counsel's replies in support of final approval and the fee motion.
• January 14, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. PT — Final Approval (Fairness) Hearing. Judge Davila will consider final approval of the settlement, the plan of distribution, service awards to Settling Plaintiffs, and the attorneys' fees and costs motion. Held in Courtroom 4 of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building, San Jose, CA. The court can adjust the hearing date without further individual notice.
• After Final Approval (timing varies). If the court grants final approval and no appeals are filed, payments are distributed by Epiq under the court-approved distribution plan.
Can I File a Claim Right Now?
No. No claim form exists yet and no official settlement website is live yet. Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, Inc. (the court-appointed Settlement Administrator) launches the official site and online claim form on the Notice Date, July 7, 2026. The claim and opt-out deadline is September 8, 2026 (postmark). OCA will post the official Epiq URL on this page the day it goes live — until then, there is nothing legitimate to file.Do I Qualify?
You likely qualify if you paid for a YouTube TV subscription or a DirecTV streaming subscription at any point between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026 — the class period set by the court's preliminary approval order. It does not matter if you canceled. It does not matter how long you were subscribed. If you paid for even one month of either service during that window, you are a potential class member. The DirecTV streaming class includes subscriptions sold under any of the service's names over the years: DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, or AT&T TV Now. You may qualify for one or both classes if you subscribed to both services at different times.How Much Money Will I Get?
We do not know the exact payout per person yet. Disney is putting $50 million into the settlement fund. After attorney fees and administration costs are deducted, the remaining money will be divided among everyone who files a valid claim. Your share will be based on how long you were subscribed — people who were subscribed for more months will receive more money. The more people who file claims, the smaller each individual payment will be. YouTube TV alone has over 8 million current subscribers, and the class goes back to 2019, so the eligible pool is very large. Individual payments will likely be modest, but the settlement is non-reversionary, meaning Disney does not get any unclaimed money back.What Do I Need to Do Right Now?
Nothing required today, but mark your calendar. The claim form opens on July 7, 2026 at the official Epiq-run settlement website. The claim and opt-out deadline is September 8, 2026. Between now and the Notice Date, it's a good idea to dig up any billing statements, confirmation emails, or account screenshots showing when you subscribed to YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream / DirecTV Now / AT&T TV Now and for how long — payouts are pro rata by subscription length, so the more accurately you can show your subscription window, the cleaner the claim. No proof of purchase is required; the schedule the court adopted lets class members provide their own subscription dates. Watch your email and postal mail starting around July 7, 2026 for the official class notice; the email or postcard from Epiq will include claim instructions and a direct link to the claim portal.What Is This Settlement About?
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it violated federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws by inflating the prices of streaming live pay television services. The settlement covers subscribers to YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream (including the service's earlier names, DirecTV Now and AT&T TV Now) who paid for subscriptions between April 1, 2019 and the date the court grants preliminary approval.Class counsel filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement on March 6, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Edward J. Davila. The $50 million fund is non-reversionary, meaning any unclaimed money does not go back to Disney. The settlement also includes injunctive relief designed to address the alleged harm to competition in the streaming live TV market.
Disney denies all allegations and any wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid the costs and risks of continued litigation.
YouTube TV Class vs. DirecTV Stream Class
There are two separate settlement classes. The YouTube TV Settlement Class covers anyone who purchased a YouTube TV subscription between April 1, 2019 and the date the court grants preliminary approval. The DirecTV Stream Settlement Class covers anyone who purchased a DirecTV streaming live pay TV subscription during the same period, including subscriptions sold under the names DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, and AT&T TV Now. You do not need to be a current subscriber — if you subscribed at any point during the class period and later canceled, you are still a potential class member.What Was the Lawsuit About?
The lawsuit alleged that Disney used its ownership of ESPN — the most expensive channel on any streaming or cable TV platform — and its control of Hulu + Live TV to force anticompetitive agreements on every major streaming live TV provider in the United States. These agreements, known as "carriage agreements," allegedly contained two key provisions that allowed Disney to inflate prices across the entire market.First, the agreements allegedly required that ESPN be included in the base (cheapest) package offered by every streaming live TV provider. This meant that no provider could offer a cheaper package without ESPN, even though surveys showed that more than half of subscribers would have preferred to drop ESPN if it meant saving money.
Second, the agreements allegedly contained "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) clauses that prevented any provider from getting a better deal on ESPN than what Disney gave to others. Because Disney also owned Hulu + Live TV — a direct competitor to YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream — Disney could effectively set a price floor for the entire market simply by raising the price of its own product. Competitors had no way to undercut Disney on price because their single largest cost input (ESPN) was controlled by Disney.
The result, according to the lawsuit, was that streaming live TV prices nearly doubled since Disney took control of Hulu in May 2019. YouTube TV's base package went from $35 to $65 per month. DirecTV Stream's base package went from $35 to $70. And during the brief December 2021 dispute when YouTube TV temporarily dropped Disney channels, YouTube TV publicly stated it would offer an ESPN-less package at $15 less per month — direct evidence of how much ESPN was adding to every subscriber's bill.
Why Did YouTube TV Prices Go Up So Much?
When YouTube TV launched in 2017, it cost $35 per month. By 2022, it cost $65. The lawsuit argued this was not the result of normal market forces but of Disney's deliberate strategy to maintain the "ESPN tax" — the mandatory monthly fee every live TV subscriber pays for ESPN whether they watch sports or not.ESPN has historically been the most expensive channel on any TV platform, costing providers $9 or more per subscriber per month as of 2017. For decades, Disney required that ESPN be included in every basic cable package in America, meaning tens of millions of people who never watched ESPN were subsidizing those who did. When cord-cutting caused millions of Americans to cancel cable and satellite TV, Disney lost subscribers and revenue. Rather than compete on price or launch a standalone ESPN streaming product, Disney allegedly used its new ownership of Hulu to recreate the same mandatory ESPN bundling structure on streaming platforms.
The lawsuit documented how Disney negotiated new carriage agreements with each major streaming live TV provider one by one — first DirecTV in 2019, then YouTube TV in 2021, then Sling TV in 2022 — and after each deal, prices went up industry-wide with no meaningful price competition.
What About FuboTV Subscribers?
The original lawsuit covered YouTube TV subscribers. The case was later expanded to include DirecTV Stream subscribers. A separate class involving FuboTV subscribers was also pursued in the litigation. The settlement notice filed June 6, 2025 indicated the deal settles claims on behalf of YouTube TV, DirecTV, and FuboTV subscribers. However, since Disney acquired FuboTV in early 2025 (merging it with Hulu + Live TV), there are additional complexities around the Fubo class, including Disney's attempt to force Fubo subscribers into arbitration. The Fubo class has separate counsel (DiCello Levitt and Lite DePalma). Check back for updates on the Fubo class status. For a separate consumer privacy case involving Fubo, see OCA’s coverage of the FuboTV VPPA video privacy settlement.Does This Include Hulu + Live TV Subscribers?
No. Hulu + Live TV is owned and operated by Disney. Because Disney is the defendant in this case, Hulu + Live TV subscribers are not part of the settlement class. The settlement covers subscribers to Disney's competitors — YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream — whose prices were allegedly inflated by Disney's anticompetitive conduct.What Is the Injunctive Relief?
In addition to the $50 million cash fund, Disney has agreed to injunctive relief designed to address the alleged harm to competition in the streaming live TV market. The specific terms of the injunctive relief have not been fully disclosed publicly yet. The motion for preliminary approval indicates the relief is intended to change Disney's practices going forward in the streaming live TV market. More details will be available when the court reviews and rules on the preliminary approval motion.How Did the Case Get Here?
The lawsuit was filed on November 18, 2022 by four YouTube TV subscribers — Heather Biddle of California, Jeffrey Kaplan of Arizona, Zachary Roberts of Indiana, and Joel Wilson of Kentucky — through the law firm Bathaee Dunne LLP. The plaintiffs alleged Disney violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and sought treble damages, attorney fees, and an injunction preventing Disney from enforcing its anticompetitive carriage agreements.Disney moved to dismiss. In 2023, the court dismissed several claims but allowed others to proceed, finding that consumers had adequately alleged Disney's actions could have hobbled competition. Disney continued to fight the case, and the plaintiffs amended their complaint to expand the class to include DirecTV Stream and FuboTV subscribers. The case went through extensive litigation before the parties reached a settlement.
On June 6, 2025, a notice of settlement was filed. On March 6, 2026, class counsel filed the motion for preliminary approval with the $50 million non-reversionary fund. On March 31, 2026 the court adopted the proposed preliminary approval order (Dkt. 236), preliminarily certifying the YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream Settlement Classes for purposes of settlement only, appointing Bathaee Dunne LLP as Interim Lead Counsel, appointing Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions as Settlement Administrator, and scheduling the final approval hearing for January 14, 2027.
The October-November 2025 YouTube TV Blackout
While the settlement was being negotiated, Disney and YouTube TV had yet another carriage dispute. On October 30, 2025, Disney channels went dark on YouTube TV after the two sides could not agree on a new carriage deal. The blackout lasted approximately two weeks and cost Disney an estimated $110 million in lost operating profit. YouTube TV offered subscribers a $20 credit during the outage.The companies reached a new multi-year deal on November 15, 2025 that includes access to ESPN Unlimited (Disney's upcoming direct-to-consumer sports product) at no additional cost to YouTube TV base plan subscribers by the end of 2026. The new deal also allows YouTube TV to place selected Disney networks into genre-specific add-on tiers — a significant departure from Disney's historical insistence that all channels be in the base package.
When Will Payments Be Sent?
Payments come after final approval. The court adopted a schedule that puts the final approval (fairness) hearing on January 14, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. PT before Judge Davila in Courtroom 4 of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California. If the court grants final approval at that hearing and no objector files an appeal, Epiq will distribute the Settlement Fund to class members who filed valid claims under the court-approved distribution plan. Typical timing in a clean case is roughly 30 to 90 days after final approval becomes final, but an appeal can push the actual distribution date out substantially. OCA will update this page each time a docket milestone moves the payment date.Related Disney, ESPN, Hulu & Streaming Class Actions
The Disney ESPN antitrust settlement isn’t the only Disney-adjacent case consumers are tracking. Other open or recently-resolved class actions and government enforcement matters involving Disney, its streaming services, or the same streaming live TV ecosystem include:• Disney & California AG — $2.75M CCPA Privacy Settlement. The California Attorney General fined Disney $2.75 million — the largest CCPA settlement in California history — for ignoring opt-out requests on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Government enforcement, no consumer claim form. Read the Disney CCPA settlement breakdown.
• Disney & FTC COPPA Children’s Privacy Settlement. Separate FTC enforcement action over Disney’s handling of children’s data online. Read the Disney FTC COPPA settlement page.
• FuboTV VPPA Video Privacy Settlement. Consumer privacy case involving FuboTV (now Disney-owned) under the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. See the FuboTV VPPA settlement details.
• NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Class Action. Same streaming live TV distribution model and similar antitrust theories — long-running case over the NFL’s out-of-market Sunday Ticket package on DirecTV and YouTube TV. Read the NFL Sunday Ticket class action coverage.
• Other streaming-service class actions. If you subscribed to Peacock, Tubi, or watched a high-profile event on Netflix (Tyson vs. Paul streaming-issues case), those streaming services have their own separate class action and settlement pages.
Case Information
Caption: Biddle, et al. v. The Walt Disney Company, Case No. 5:22-cv-07317-EJD
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division
Judge: Hon. Edward J. Davila
Complaint Filed: November 18, 2022
Settlement Notice Filed: June 6, 2025
Preliminary Approval Motion Filed: March 6, 2026
Preliminary Approval Order: March 31, 2026 (Dkt. 236)
Settlement Amount: $50,000,000 (non-reversionary)
Settlement Administrator: Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, Inc. (court-appointed)
Notice Date / Claim Form Opens: July 7, 2026
Claim & Opt-Out Deadline: September 8, 2026
Objection Deadline: December 1, 2026
Final Approval Hearing: January 14, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. PT (Courtroom 4, Robert F. Peckham Federal Building, San Jose, CA)
YouTube TV Class Representatives: Heather Biddle, Jeffrey Kaplan, Joel Wilson, Laura Molina, Dev Singh, Nicholas Dowd, Angel Hernandez, David Kenward, Utica Cason, David Show, Dustin Shapiro, Tamika Anderson, Connie Harrison, Don Knoch
DirecTV Stream Class Representatives: Michelle Fendelander, Rhonda Lee Haines, Michael Hughes, John Manso, Jasmine McCormick, Angela Heard, Steven Tucker, Scott Thompson, Douglas Yarema, William Gaskins
Defendant: The Walt Disney Company
Interim Lead / Class Counsel: Bathaee Dunne LLP
How Do I Find Class Action Settlements?
Find all the latest class actions you can qualify for by getting notified of new lawsuits as soon as they are open to claims:Official Court Filing (PDF)
Sources
• Biddle et al. v. The Walt Disney Company, Case No. 5:22-cv-07317-EJD, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Hon. Edward J. Davila presiding — Document 236, [Proposed] Order Preliminarily Approving Class Action Settlement and Issuance of Notice (filed March 31, 2026)• Law360 — Disney To Pay $50M To End YouTube, DirecTV Stream Claims (March 6, 2026)
• MLex — Plaintiffs Seek Preliminary Approval for Antitrust Settlement With Disney (March 6, 2026)
• Variety — YouTube TV and Disney Reach Deal Ending Two-Week Blackout (Nov 2025)
• The Wrap — Disney Sports Division Took $110M Hit From YouTube TV Dispute (Feb 2026)
• Deadline — Disney Hit With Antitrust Suit (Nov 2022)
• Court-authorized complaint, Biddle v. Walt Disney Co., No. 5:22-cv-07317-EJD (N.D. Cal.)
Filing Class Action Settlement Claims
Please note that your claim form will be rejected if you submit a settlement claim with any fraudulent information. By providing this information and your sworn statement of its veracity, you agree to do so under the penalty of perjury. If you are not sure whether you qualify, visit the class action administrator's website. OpenClassActions.com is a consumer advocacy and class action news site, and is not a class action administrator or a law firm.
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Submit Claim| Disney ESPN Antitrust Settlement Summary | |
| Status | Preliminarily Approved March 31, 2026 (Dkt. 236) |
|---|---|
| Notice Date / Claim Form Opens | July 7, 2026 |
| Claim & Opt-Out Deadline | September 8, 2026 |
| Objection Deadline | December 1, 2026 |
| Final Approval Hearing | January 14, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. PT (Judge Davila, Courtroom 4, San Jose) |
| Settlement Amount | $50,000,000 (non-reversionary) |
| Estimated Payment | Pro rata based on subscription length |
| Proof Required | No — just provide how long you were subscribed |
| Who Qualifies | YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream / Now / AT&T TV Now subscribers (April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2026) |
| Class Period | April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2026 (date of preliminary approval) |
| Court | N.D. Cal., San Jose Division (Judge Davila) |
| Settlement Administrator | Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, Inc. |
| Settlement Website | Goes live on Notice Date (July 7, 2026) |