Disney, Charter reach agreement to end ESPN, ABC blackout – Orange County Register

Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, has yanked its channels, including ESPN and ABC, from Charter’s Spectrum TV service, depriving that company’s 14 million viewers of popular shows and sporting events, including possibly the coming NFL season. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

By Scott Moritz | Bloomberg

Cable giant Charter Communications and Walt Disney Co. reached an agreement ending a blackout of ESPN for millions of pay-TV customers, hours before the sports network’s first broadcast of the new NFL season’s Monday Night Football.

The agreement will restore popular Disney channels including ABC and FX to Charter’s 14.7 million customers.

The channels had been off the air for Charter customers for more than a week as a result of a fee dispute between the companies. The Wall Street Journal reported on the agreement earlier Monday.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t immediately known. Disney had been pressing for an increase in the amount Charter pays to carry its channels. Charter, the No. 2 US cable provider, wanted more freedom to offer packages without ESPN and wanted to include Disney streaming services like Hulu and ESPN+ for free.

In a statement, Charter said the deal included:

• Disney+ Basic (with ads) will be provided to customers who buy the Spectrum TV Select package;
• ESPN+ will be provided to Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers;
• The ESPN direct-to-consumer service will be made available to Spectrum TV Select subscribers on launch
• Charter will offer a range of video packages at varying price points based on different customer’s viewing preferences.

Shares of Disney rose as much as 2.9% to $83.85 in trading in New York. Charter added as much as 3.5% to $437.35.

Disney pulled its channels, including ABC and Nat Geo, off the Charter systems late last month after the two sides failed to reach a new distribution agreement. Charter, which operates under the Spectrum brand, provides TV service in major cities like New York and Los Angeles.

The dispute meant many Charter customers couldn’t watch the US Open tennis tournament or college football as the new season began. Channels went dark in the middle of a US Open match between Lloyd Harris and Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish tennis star who went on to reach the semifinals. The finals weren’t available to Charter customers.

The fight amounted to a showdown over the future of pay-TV between the world’s largest entertainment company and the largest US cable TV provider behind Comcast Corp. Pay-TV distributors have been losing subscribers to a new generation of streaming services, many of them operated by the same companies that operate cable channels.

Charter Chief Executive Officer Chris Winfrey argued that the media companies have been encouraging customers to switch by putting some of their best programming on their streaming services and the industry should instead work together to offer a combined cable-streaming offering.