After more than 10 days of a contentious blackout of ESPN and ABC stations, viewers can now breathe a sigh of relief as Walt Disney Co. and Charter Communications have finally reached an agreement.
The two companies successfully ironed out a new deal on Monday morning, which has led to the restoration of Disney channels to the Spectrum pay-TV service, much to the delight of their customers.
The blackout began on August 31, leaving viewers frustrated and angry at the loss of their favourite programs.
This was particularly concerning for Charter’s largest market, New York City, where customers were blocked from ESPN’s coverage of the US Open tennis championships in Queens and Monday Night Football games, which featured the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills.
The breakthrough agreement came just hours before Monday Night Football, which featured quarterback Aaron Rodgers leading his new team, the New York Jets, against the Buffalo Bills.
The pressure had been mounting for the two companies to resolve the dispute, with politicians such as New York Governor Kathy Hochul urging them to end their disagreement and restore services as soon as possible.
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Although scant details are available yet on the agreement, it is confirmed that it includes ESPN and ABC.
The specifics of the deal will matter, as Charter has stated that they would only agree to Disney’s proposed per-subscriber rate hikes if Disney would provide free subscriptions to their direct-to-consumer services such as Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
Charter has referred to this as a “glide path” to address a “broken” system where multichannel video providers were affected by programmers moving content to over-the-top subscription services.
Charter has particularly cited concerns about Disney’s plan to offer full linear ESPN DTC beginning in 2025 or 2026.
Meanwhile, Disney has pushed back, presenting viewership claims on their linear programming, comments from their personalities, and other discussions about the value of their OTT services.
It will be interesting to see if this is a short-term agreement that ends before the ESPN linear OTT launch, or if there are any provisions around current and future streaming services.
There is one report that the Charter-Disney deal may involve at least reduced-cost access to Disney+.
A Charter-Disney deal may have major impacts on other programmers and MVPDs, as the dispute was seen as highly significant for other media companies and the future of sports television and the linear cable bundle.
The terms of whatever deal was reached here will certainly matter well beyond these companies. Nonetheless, Charter subscribers can now access ESPN again, just in time for Monday Night Football’s season debut.