Milberg’s Disney Settlement Payout: Eligibility, Amounts, and Dates

The Disney streaming settlement is a $50 million class action deal for people who subscribed to YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026. To get paid, you must file a claim at onlinetvsettlement.com by September 8, 2026. No money has been distributed yet. A federal judge in San Jose will decide whether to give final approval at a hearing on January 14, 2027, and payments can only follow that ruling.¹

Who Qualifies

Two groups are covered by the settlement in Biddle v. The Walt Disney Company:

Anyone who purchased a YouTube TV subscription between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026.
Anyone who purchased a DirecTV streaming live pay TV subscription during the same period, including services branded DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, and AT&T TV Now.

If you subscribed to both services, you can claim on both.² Plaintiffs’ counsel estimated the class at 11 million to 17 million people.³

One geographic exclusion: Illinois residents cannot participate, because the Illinois antitrust statute bars indirect purchaser class actions.²

How to File a Claim

Claims can be submitted online at onlinetvsettlement.com or by mail. The deadline is September 8, 2026.⁴

If you’re in the class, you should receive notice by email and by postcard mailed to your physical address.³ You don’t need to wait for that notice to file. Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions is administering the claims.²

How Much You Might Get

There is no fixed dollar figure per claimant. The $50 million is non-reversionary, so nothing goes back to Disney if claims are light.²⁵

What’s left is split by state. Ninety percent goes to claimants in states with Illinois Brick repealer laws, which permit indirect purchasers to bring state antitrust claims. The remaining ten percent is reserved for claimants in states without those laws, where the underlying claims are legally weaker.²

Within each pool, individual payouts are pro rata based on how long you subscribed, using fixed one-year tiers. Your final payment depends on how many valid claims come in.² Plaintiffs’ counsel expects a claim rate of roughly three to five percent of the class.³

When Payments Will Arrive

Nothing has been paid out. The final fairness hearing is scheduled for January 14, 2027 at the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California, where U.S. District Judge Edward Davila will decide whether the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate.⁶

If the court grants final approval, distribution follows. No specific payment date has been announced, and processing claims for a class this large takes time.

What the Lawsuit Alleged

The case, filed in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accused Disney of using its market power over ESPN to force streaming platforms to carry the channel in their cheapest packages, driving up what subscribers paid. Plaintiffs pointed to a 2021 carriage dispute in which YouTube TV had offered to lower its base package price from $65 to $50 per month if it could drop ESPN, suggesting the channel added roughly $15 a month to subscriber bills.⁷

Subscribers also alleged that “most-favored-nation” clauses in Disney’s carriage agreements acted as an industry price floor, and that Disney’s joint ownership of ESPN and Hulu + Live TV let it set terms that protected its own streaming service from being undercut.⁸⁹ Disney denies wrongdoing; settling ends the litigation without an admission.

If You Don’t Want to Participate

You can opt out of the settlement entirely and keep your right to sue Disney on your own, but you must do so by September 8, 2026, the same date as the claims deadline.⁴

If you want to stay in the class but tell the court you disagree with the deal, you can file an objection until December 1, 2026.⁴ Doing nothing means you stay in the class and give up your right to sue, but you won’t get paid unless you file a claim.

Key Dates

Claims deadline: September 8, 2026
Opt-out deadline: September 8, 2026
Objection deadline: December 1, 2026
Final fairness hearing: January 14, 2027, 9:00 a.m., San Jose, California
Official settlement website: onlinetvsettlement.com

1
Media Play News. Judge Approves $50 Million Class Action Settlement Against Disney Regarding Excessive Streaming Costs
2
ClassAction.org. Disney Motion for Preliminary Approval
3
Courthouse News Service. Disney Settles Livestream Subscriber Class Action for $50 Million
4
Online TV Settlement. Biddle v. The Walt Disney Company Settlement
5
Bloomberg Law. Disney, Consumers Ink $50 Million Settlement in Streaming Case
6
GovInfo. Biddle v. The Walt Disney Company, Proposed Order Preliminarily Approving Class Action Settlement
7
Stream TV Insider. Judge Allows Lawsuits Brought by DirecTV, YouTube TV Customers Against Disney to Move Forward
8
The Hollywood Reporter. Disney Antitrust Law
9
ClassAction.org. $50M Disney Settlement to End Litigation Over Alleged Antitrust Violations Linked to Live Streaming Prices