Disney Headlines for November 18th, 2025
Disney’s winning right now, but no one will notice it for a few months.
You’ll hear plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking about the now-resolved YouTube TV squabble and a dramatic post-earnings report stock price drop.
That story shouldn’t change in the next three months, as I’m about to explain.
Still, this week’s Disney headlines are universally positive. People just don’t know it yet.
The Theme Park Wars?
Disney earnings – Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Disney’s most recent earnings report acted like a Rorschach test, especially in the Disney Experiences segment.
Since that core includes the theme parks, it’s the one we care about the most.
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Most analysts have suggested that Disney performed well for the quarter, but they’re underselling this particular showing of strength.
This was Disney’s first full quarter since the opening of Universal Epic Universe.
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Remember how that park was supposed to trigger the theme park wars and directly impact Disney’s earnings?
Yeah, none of that happened.
Instead, the quarter played out just as Disney had predicted and even a little bit better.
Disney Experiences earned nearly $8.8 billion, an improvement of 6 percent year-over-year.
Photo: Universal
As a reminder, Epic Universe wasn’t open a year ago.
So, if the new theme park hurt Disney, it’s almost entirely hidden by the data.
Disney vs Epic Universe
The one knock was that Walt Disney World attendance dropped slightly, but there’s no discernible evidence that guests went to Epic Universe instead.
I wrote about Universal’s earnings on Universal Parks Blog, and they were… fine.
Photo: Universal
Nothing in the data suggested that Epic is off to some sort of scorching attendance pace.
Then, we have the more important consideration, which is Disney’s operating income.
Photo: Getty
For the quarter, the Experiences division increased by 13 percent, suggesting no material impact from the competition.
Importantly, Disney’s overall operating income for fiscal 2025 was slightly less than $17.6 billion.
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Experiences, which is only one of Disney’s three cores, netted almost exactly $10 billion on its own.
Yes, Disney’s theme park division gained 56 percent of the company’s total profit for fiscal 2025.
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Folks, the theme park wars were always a fabricated media story.
Nobody’s knocking Disney off its perch for the next decade. If a pandemic couldn’t do it, nothing else will.
Nobody Won in This Fight
The biggest news of the week arguably occurred the day after the earnings report.
That’s when YouTube TV and Disney announced that they’d come to terms on a carriage renewal agreement.
Walt Disney Company
People will analyze this deal indefinitely, and it’s impossible to say who won right now.
Still, we know that both sides got something they wanted during the negotiations.
The Walt Disney Company
Also, Disney was as good as its word at holding firm on some aspects of the negotiation.
For starters, this is a multi-year agreement, after YouTube TV attempted to negotiate a one-year extension.
Photo: Pexel.com
Had that occurred, the fight would have begun anew during the 2026 football season.
Why did YouTube TV seek such a minimal contract extension?
Anadolu/GettyImages
Google officials believe that the company will become the biggest cable vendor over the next 12 months.
At that point, they will have a stronger bargaining position.
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Also, a year from now, former Disney/ESPN executive Justin Connolly could be involved in the negotiations on Google’s side, which an October agreement ostensibly prevented from happening this time.
Disney didn’t want this to be a Groundhog Day scenario, as it’s already absorbing tons of criticism for having multiple contract battles over the last three years.
Photo:Joe Faraoni/ESPN
The negative PR from these conflicts is starting to take a toll in the court of public opinion.
Even most Disney fans seemed to take the side of YouTube TV this time, so Disney should work hard to prevent potential blackouts for the next several years.
Photo: YouTube
Disney reportedly wanted YouTube TV subscribers to gain access to the new ESPN app.
The company’s goal here is simple. That’s 10 million automatic signups for ESPN the app.
While not all those subscribers will use the streaming service, and in fact some may never glance at it, plenty will.
YouTube TV’s Goal in the Compromise
ESPN
In the process, Disney onboards new customers to the ESPN app and teaches them the new way to watch live sports.
You would think YouTube TV would want that as well, as it increases subscriber value at no additional cost.
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That’s missing the forest for the trees, though, as YouTube TV pushed back hard.
If customers watch the ESPN app for live sports, what do they need with YouTube TV?
The Walt Disney Company
At some point, those consumers would notice that the ESPN app costs a fraction of YouTube TV.
Here’s where the compromise happens.
ESPN
Google earned the ability to integrate features of the ESPN app in its own product, YouTube TV.
This step safeguards YouTube TV from the potential trojan horse of the ESPN app.
The Walt Disney Company
Of course, one other aspect matters greatly to both companies, and it’s probably the true source of conflict.
When Disney entices customers into using the ESPN app, it keeps the data for itself.
Photo: ESPN
Since Google’s the company that popularized data mining, you can understand why it’s reticent to let that happen.
Nobody is saying this yet, but I suspect that Google held such a hard line to specifically protect its data collection on YouTube TV.
YouTube
Let’s be clear that YouTube doesn’t really need that, as most adult consumers interact with Google products daily anyway.
Still, this is Google protecting its turf.
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Ultimately, the winner here is finally the customer, as YouTube TV subscribers can access the ESPN app however they like now.
While YouTube TV immediately restored all Disney programming, the ESPN app access will take some time for the reasons I just enumerated.
Disney’s No Good, Very Bad Quarter
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In the short term, Disney’s stock has sunk, and there’s actually a good reason for a change.
Near the top of its earnings report, Disney alerted investors to the fact that it’s having a quarter right now.
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The company is facing a perfect storm of single-quarter financial setbacks.
Disney must pay the final cost of the Disney Destiny and docking costs for the new ship, the Disney Adventure, which recently suffered a modest setback.
Credit: Disney
That’s only the tip of the iceberg, as Disney Entertainment is operating at a $400 million deficit from this quarter in 2024.
The changes are due to the rapid decline of linear network revenue and an unfavorable movie comparison in the quarter.
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Then, we have the final fallout of Disney’s Star India debacle and a lack of political advertising revenue in this non-election year.
Overall, Disney has started this quarter with a deficit of $763 million, so that’s the real reason the stock has dropped and may remain stagnant into early 2026.
Photo: Bank rate
Still, everything we’ve discussed today represents good news for Disney long-term.
Disney Experiences appears wholly unflappable, while Disney has addressed its major carriage agreements for (hopefully) the next two years at a minimum.
Walt Disney
As for the quarterly shortfall, it’s just a calendar configuration issue.
Disney’s finances look quite strong on paper, and the addition of two new cruise ships in the inventory will strengthen the Experiences division even more.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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