A carriage dispute involving Disney and DirecTV left thousands of customers in the dark during the U.S. Open and just before the LSU-USC game Sunday night.
DirecTV and Disney were unable to agree to a deal, so the satellite TV giant cut a number of Disney channel feeds, including ABC and ESPN.
“DirecTV 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,” ESPN said in a statement. “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.”
Statement from The Walt Disney Company and ESPN regarding DirecTV
More: https://t.co/KYeyXFlU9u pic.twitter.com/jRZ8v7tz7N
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 1, 2024
DirecTV has seen more than half its customers find service elsewhere over the past decade. It fell from a peak of 21 million subscribers to just under 9 million.
“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, in a statement. “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. Disney’s only magic is forcing prices to go up while simultaneously making its content disappear.”
A statement from the US Open: pic.twitter.com/tFz95RPJbb
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 1, 2024
Week 1 of Monday Night Football in eight days between the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers will also be in jeopardy.
This story will be updated.
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(Photo: Federico Parra / Getty Images)
