The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV. The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV.
ABCDirecTVDisneyESPNBy Arthur Weinstein on

Disney-owned channels, including ABC and ESPN, went dark on DirecTV Sunday night as the two sides were unable to reach a new carriage agreement by the deadline.

The blackout comes after protracted negotiations. And it came at a terrible time for sports fans with a busy night ahead on Disney-owned channels, including the ABC/ESPN+ broadcast of No. 13 LSU vs. No. 23 USC (which affects the Disney owned-and-operated ABC affiliates on the main DTV packages, and all ABC affiliates on DirecTV Stream), the Atlanta Braves-Philadelphia Phillies Sunday Night Baseball game (ESPN), and US Open primetime tennis coverage (ESPN2).


The existing contract expired at 5 p.m. ET, and DirecTV kept the Disney-owned channels on the air for a couple of hours as negotiations continued, but the channels were dropped around 7 p.m.

Disney and ESPN immediately issued a statement calling on DirecTV to “finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”

“Disney chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the US Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season,” the statement read. “While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.

“We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”

Meanwhile, DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun issued his own statement:

“The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DIRECTV. “Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers – making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price.”

“Consumer frustration is at an all-time high as Disney shifts its best producers, most innovative shows, top teams, conferences, and entire leagues to their direct-to-consumer services while making customers pay more than once for the same programming on multiple Disney platforms,” Thun continued. “Disney’s only magic is forcing prices to go up while simultaneously making its content disappear.”

It’s not the first time Disney and DirecTV have tussled over a carriage agreement. Before the two sides agreed to the just-expired five-year deal in 2019, they struggled to reach terms, and Disney ran commercials warning its channels could disappear from DirecTV.

There are other variables involved in this round of negotiations, namely the planned Venu Sports joint streaming venture that would involve ESPN/Disney, TNT Sports/Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox.

While that venture has been temporarily blocked by a judge pending a lawsuit by Fubo, DirecTV is reportedly concerned by the new venture. Bloomberg’s Christopher Palmeri reported that “DirecTV is looking to ease contract terms that have long required cable and satellite-TV distributors to charge customers for channels like Disney’s ESPN, whether they watch them or not.”

Whatever the biggest concerns the two sides had behind closed doors, they couldn’t resolve them by the deadline, leaving fans fuming.


[ESPN]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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