Disney-YouTube TV row now makes it even harder to watch all your movies in one place

Over the past few weeks, Google and Disney have been quarreling over licensing fees, which resulted in Disney recently removing its live TV channels from YouTube TV and discontinuing the option to purchase its shows and movies on Google’s platforms. Neither giant is backing down, and the punches won’t stop landing.

In a more recent setback, Google is losing access to Movies Anywhere — a digital library management platform that allows you to sync your content from different apps into a single library. Movies Anywhere recently shared a brief update on its support page, stating that Google Play and YouTube are no longer participating in its library-sharing program. That means if you use Movies Anywhere, your purchases from Google Play or YouTube will no longer be visible along with other content from distributors, such as Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, Fandango at Home, etc.

The evident reason behind the step, as 9to5Google notes, is that Disney owns Movies Anywhere, and this appears to be another strike in the ongoing fight. While the update does not mention Disney, the date coincides with Disney’s decision to pull its channels, including those under the ABC, ESPN, and Nat Geo labels, from YouTube TV last month.

9to5Google confirms that while the dissociation would mean your new purchases from YouTube or Google Play will no longer appear on Movies Anywhere, your existing purchases that are already in the library should remain safe, and you should be able to stream or download them elsewhere. This may not be permanent since you must validate the Google Play link with Movies Anywhere every couple of years. However, if Google and Disney don’t make up soon, you may no longer be able to access your Google Play content library from Movies Anywhere.

That could be huge, considering Disney holds ownership of a massive library of content, not just produced under its label, but also under other studios it has acquired over the years, including 21st Century Fox, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, among other popular names.

While we’d like to hope that this is only temporary, no resolution appears to be in sight, especially with YouTube rejecting Disney’s plea to temporarily reinstate ABC on YouTube TV for Election Day 2025 coverage or calling out Disney publicly over demands to raise prices. Meanwhile, it has proposed to pay some users up to $60 as compensation for losing access to those 21 TV channels and other Disney content.