Disney's Super Bowl Multiplatform Strategy Cuts Into ABC Affiliate Ad Revenue by Up to 35%

ABC station owners are pushing back against Disney's decision to air Super Bowl LXI across a wide array of platforms simultaneously, with one station group CEO estimating the move could reduce advertising revenue associated with broadcast viewership by as much as 35% compared to last year.

The game, which Disney holds broadcast rights to this season, will air on ABC and ESPN — but also on Disney+, ESPN2, ESPNU, NFL Network, Disney Channel, and Disney XD. ABC last carried the Super Bowl in 2006, returning to the rotation after Disney struck a media rights deal with the NFL in 2021.

The financial stakes are significant. Super Bowl LX, held in February 2026, drew 125.6 million viewers. Fox said last year that Super Bowl advertising generated more than $800 million in gross revenue across all platforms.

For a standard broadcast network carrying the game, the math is straightforward: roughly 85 thirty-second spots at an average of $8 million each amounts to approximately $680 million. About 3% of a typical local affiliate station's annual advertising revenue comes from the Super Bowl when the game airs on its network, according to a person familiar with the matter. For large-market owned-and-operated stations, that figure can reach around $10 million per game, according to a separate source familiar with the matter.

At the core of the dispute is a structural problem with Disney+. Unlike NBCUniversal's Peacock, Fox's Tubi, and Skydance's Paramount+ — all of which have streamed the Super Bowl in prior years — Disney+ does not support geofenced dynamic advertising insertion, or DAI. That technology allows local affiliates to sell commercials to streaming audiences in their markets. Without it, local stations lose a revenue stream that has historically been tied to broadcast exclusivity.

Disney is also airing several alternative broadcasts of the game. ESPN2 will carry the "ManningCast" with Eli and Peyton Manning, ESPNU will feature "Super Bowl LXI Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show," and NFL Network will run "Super Bowl LXI Playbook with Next Gen Stats." A "Star Wars"-themed alt-cast will air on Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney+. The "Star Wars" broadcast will be ad-free.

Disney defended the approach in a statement: "The Super Bowl is the year's most-watched telecast, and our broad distribution across ESPN, ABC, and Disney+ will give fans everywhere more ways than ever to enjoy the game. Making marquee live events available via streaming is a well-established industry practice. Fox and NBC have recently offered the Super Bowl on Tubi and Peacock, and we've similarly streamed 'The Oscars' on Hulu and 'Dancing with the Stars' on Disney+, for example. There's nothing unprecedented about this approach as we are meeting the modern consumer where they are."

A Disney spokesperson also confirmed that nationally sold commercials will run identically across all platforms.

The affiliates' frustration reflects a broader tension in the broadcast industry. Local station groups — including Sinclair, Nexstar, and Tegna, which own the vast majority of ABC affiliates — pay Disney a reverse retransmission fee for the right to carry network programming. Those fees have historically been justified, in part, by the exclusivity of marquee live events like the Super Bowl. Diluting that exclusivity across streaming and cable platforms undermines the financial logic underpinning those arrangements.

ESPN's primary "Monday Night Football" announcing duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will call the game, reinforcing the cable network's prominence in the production even as ABC remains the official broadcast home.

The dispute signals a widening fault line between legacy broadcast infrastructure and media conglomerates increasingly focused on growing their streaming subscriber bases — a tension that is unlikely to ease as the NFL's media rights landscape continues to evolve.

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