Disney, which owns ABC, plans to spread this season's Super Bowl across its ecosystem: ABC and ESPN, a stream on Disney+, and alternate feeds on ESPN2, ESPNU and NFL Network. Disney has the broadcast rights this year after rejoining the NFL's rotation in a 2021 media deal. ABC last carried the Super Bowl in 2006.
The alt-casts are a full slate. ESPN2 will feature Eli and Peyton Manning's "ManningCast," ESPNU will run "Super Bowl LXI Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show," and NFL Network will carry "Super Bowl LXI Playbook with Next Gen Stats." A "Star Wars" themed version will air on Disney Channel and Disney XD and will also appear on Disney+. A Disney spokesperson said the national commercials would not differ by platform, and the "Star Wars" feed will be ad free.
ABC station owners say the plan chips away at a long standing broadcast edge. One station group CEO, citing private analysis, said local advertising tied to broadcast viewing may fall by up to 35% from last year and added, "Any time you fragment distribution, you're destroying value for each of the individual platforms," while arguing there has been no acknowledgment of local losses.
The concern is significant enough to be under discussion at the ABC affiliate board, an elected group of broadcast executives who liaise between local stations and the network. It is unclear how, or if, affiliates will be compensated. Several station executives privately said they want Disney to work with them to keep more viewing on broadcast. Some ABC stations are Disney owned, but most are part of groups such as Sinclair, Nexstar and Tegna.
Last year, Fox said Super Bowl ads, when counted across every platform, generated gross receipts topping $800 million. For the main broadcast, the math is simple: around 85 thirty second spots at an average of $8 million equals roughly $680 million.
Most buys are national, though some brands target only big markets, which lets smaller markets sell local ads. A typical primetime show draws about 8 million viewers, and the Super Bowl can be roughly 15 times larger. Super Bowl LX reached 125.6 million viewers on Feb. 8, 2026, when quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
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Disney says this is about reach. "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," a spokesperson said, noting that Fox and NBC have also streamed the Super Bowl and that Disney has streamed other marquee events.
It is reasonable to expect ESPN will draw meaningful viewing because the production is led by ESPN's "Monday Night Football" crew of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Disney+ will carry the game even though it is not typically a sports hub, and unlike Peacock, Tubi and Paramount+, Disney+ does not offer geofenced dynamic ad insertion that lets affiliates sell local ads to streamers. "Our ABC affiliates are important partners and we always take that into careful consideration when making these decisions," a Disney spokesperson said. "We've successfully navigated similar situations in collaboration with the governing board many times before, and this is no different." The chairman of the ABC Television Affiliates Association Board of Governors offered no comment.
Two swing factors: how the audience splits and how the ad plumbing works. If ESPN absorbs a chunk of viewing and Disney+ adds scale without local ad insertion, more dollars tilt to national sales and away from some local inventory. That matters for station groups that count on reverse retransmission fees and Super Bowl spikes.
The bottom line: the Super Bowl concentrates huge ad budgets into a few hours. How Disney slices distribution this year could shift who captures those dollars inside the TV stack, from Disney's national haul to affiliates' local take. Whether affiliates are compensated remains an open question.
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