ESPN Blackout on YouTube TV Sends Sports Fans to Sling TV, Fubo

Sports fans who have YouTube TV aren’t just sitting around and crying over ESPN’s removal from the platform. They’re finding other ways to get their sports fix.

Due to a contract dispute between Disney and YouTube TV, ESPN has been unavailable on the Google-owned premium TV service since October 30.

Where are fans going to watch college football and the NFL? New data from the analytics firm Apptopia gives some clues.

Apptopia ran an analysis of cross-app overlap to see the percentage of YouTube TV users who also use other apps that carry ESPN. The dataset included Sling TV and DirecTV, as well as three streamers either owned or controlled by Disney: Fubo, ESPN, and Hulu.

The data has some limitations. It only tracks mobile apps and doesn’t include cable TV services that may also have benefited from the blackout. However, Apptopia says that, in backtesting and correlating its findings with public reports from companies, it has found that mobile app behavior is indicative of behavior across devices.

The Apptopia data also cannot separate Hulu + Live TV, the pay-TV service that carries ESPN, from the main Hulu streaming service, because they share an app.

Still, it can provide some directional insight. After October 30, usage of the Sling TV, Fubo, and DirecTV apps by YouTube TV users spiked to over 35% each. The NFL and ESPN apps showed smaller gains. Hulu didn’t show a benefit, though that could be because Hulu + Live TV has only a fraction of the users the main service does.

The YouTube TV versus Disney dispute comes as sports dominate the most popular TV programming charts. Sports are also making up a bigger share of streaming as tech companies like Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix join the race for sports rights.

Disney and YouTube TV both stand to lose from the blackout. YouTube TV has offered its roughly 10 million subscribers a $20 discount. Disney loses money every day its channels aren’t available on YouTube TV. One back-of-the-envelope calculation estimated that Disney could lose roughly $5 million in fees per day during a blackout.

The blackout could also encourage fans to skip the games in favor of watching highlights or seeking out the full games on illegal piracy sites. Disney’s control of other sports destinations like Fubo and the ESPN flagship service could help cushion the blow in the short term, however.