Disney Channels Like ABC & ESPN Pulled In Major Dispute

The Disney channels blackout happened during a rather busy night for sporting events, with the US Open tennis tournament and a new college football season kicking off, with ESPN broadcasting. What really angered the 11.3 million people—who didn’t spare any words of displeasure on social media—is the fact that the blackout happened during the US Open fourth-round matches, and only 10 minutes before the start of the football game between the University of Southern California and Louisiana State University.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened; it’s actually the second straight year Disney channels were pulled from satellite TV during the US Open. The alleged reason behind this is, of course, is corporate greed. According to Ray Carpenter, the DirecTV Chief Financial Officer, Disney is taking an anti-consumer approach by demanding that its new deal with DirecTV includes bundle services, which is something DirecTV is reluctant to agree to, as it conflicts with their own business model.

For context, DirecTV allows customers the possibility to pick smaller bundles of networks while subscribing, which allows the provider to lower their costs and makes the bundles more accessible to consumers. Disney, of course, doesn’t like this idea, and it’s not above cutting access to any part of its programming to force providers and, subsequently, consumers to buy their own bundles, only to gain access to a few Disney channels that would otherwise be cheaper to access. It’s like cable TV—you pay for access to 500 channels, but you’re only watching a handful.

Unfortunately, there’s no resolution in sight for DirecTV users; it’s currently unclear whether Disney owned channels will be restored to DirecTV. The satellite provider is currently offering compensation credits of at least $20 to its customers for DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-Verse services as the blackout stretches into its fourth day. We’d like to point out that people are now spending an average of $552 on streaming services annually—at least according to Forbes—of which the typical consumer spends about $270 on Disney channels alone.

These disputes, like the one between House of Mouse and DirecTV over Disney channels, can often last weeks, months, and sometimes even years, and the cause of these blackouts, at least in recent years, is the push for various subscription models by Big Media.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter