As the carriage dispute between Disney and Charter continues to drag on, both sides are upping the rhetoric and aren’t mincing words in public.
On Thursday, it was Disney’s turn. In a statement, Disney turned its knives on Charter, asking if the company cared about its subscribers and what they wanted.
Here’s the full statement.
As the US Open reaches the men’s and women’s finals, and fans gear up for a weekend of college football and the opening of the NFL season, it’s unfortunate that Charter decided to abandon their consumers by denying them access to our great programming. While they have stated their “indifference” to the needs of millions of paying customers, we will not lose sight of what is most important – investing in the highest-quality stories, news and sports for our audience. The question for Charter is clear: Do you care about your subscribers and what they’re telling you they want – or not? Disney stands ready to resolve this dispute and do what’s in the best interest of Charter’s customers.
Disney also noted that Charter rejected offers to keep its channels on the air while negotiations continued and that the company sought Disney’s direct-to-consumer services for free.
In response to Charter’s alleging that just “a quarter of their subscribers view Disney’s networks and owned stations,” Disney claims “71% of Charter subscribers tune in to Disney’s networks or stations” in the average month and “consumed more than 3.3 billion hours of content” over the last year.
We’ll see how long this carriage battle continues and if there’s a resolution in the near future.
