Boycotting Disney is hard. There was a call to boycott Disney last fall after the ABC network took Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air over comments Kimmel made about responses to Charlie Kirk’s murder, sparking free speech concerns. As a reporter, I supported the protest but found truly boycotting Disney harder than expected.
Canceling Disney+ was simple, but Disney also owns Hulu, which streamed my favorite shows like American Dad, Futurama, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Boycotting also meant avoiding ABC, FX, and ESPN channels, plus content from franchises like Avatar, Alien, and Die Hard. A year later, the difficulty of avoiding Disney still perturbs me.
Once, protesting ABC meant not watching ABC. Now, after years of media conglomeration, it means boycotting a massive entity controlling streaming, broadcast TV, comedies, sci-fi, video games, and children’s programming. The boycott reportedly financially impacted Disney, but mergers and acquisitions are intensifying in the streaming age, consolidating power under fewer owners.
This makes it harder to end business with a provider you oppose. Disney settled an antitrust lawsuit through acquisition, buying Fubo in January 2025 after Fubo sued Disney, Fox Corporation, and Warner Bros. Discovery over plans for a sports streaming app. Fubo accused Disney of “monopoly power” and forcing it to buy unwanted content.
Disney declined to comment at the time. Fubo’s CEO David Gandler said the companies “cheat consumers from deserved choice.” The merger, Disney argued, would bring “more choice.”.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing