Disney pulls ESPN,
Disney pulls ESPN, FX and other channels from Charter Spectrum service
Walt Disney Co. pulled its channels, including ABC stations and ESPN, from Charter Spectrum’s pay-TV service on Thursday in a festering distribution fee dispute.
“We’ve been in ongoing negotiations with Charter Communications for some time and have not yet agreed to a new market-based agreement,” Disney said in a statement. “As a result, their Spectrum TV subscribers no longer have access to our unrivaled portfolio of live sporting events and news coverage plus kids, family and general entertainment programming from the ABC Owned Television Stations, the ESPN networks, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels.”
ABC affiliates in Rochester and Buffalo remained on air and showing ABC programming as the stations are not Disney-owned channels. The outage means Spectrum customers immediately lost access to popular programming. The outage also comes during the first week of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, a highlight for many tennis fans.
A Charter spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for a comment.
A four-slide rotating message posted on the Disney-owned channels by Spectrum said: “The Walt Disney Company, the owner of this channel, has removed their programming from Spectrum which creates hardship for our customers.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to negotiate in good faith in order to reach a fair agreement.
“We offered Disney a fair deal, yet they are demanding an excessive increase.
“They also want to limit our ability to provide greater customer choice in programming packages forcing you to take and pay for channels you may not want.
“We are very disappointed with their position, which has negatively impacted our customers
“Spectrum is on your side and fighting to keep costs down while protecting and maximizing customer choice.
“The rising cost of programming is the single greatest factor in higher cable TV prices, and we are fighting hard to hold the line on programming rates imposed on us by companies like Disney.
“Our negotiations are about one thing – reaching an agreement that is fair to our customers.
“We understand this is an inconvenience and hope to return this programming soon.
“We appreciate your loyalty and look forward to continuing to serve you.”
The message directs customers to an online landing page, https://disneyespnfairdeal.com/, where they could send an email to Disney with the subject line “Restore my channels.”
It’s unclear how long the outage might last, but the start of college and professional football could prompt the two sides to hammer out an agreement.
Disney-owned channels and stations affected by the outage are ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN News, SEC Network, ACC Network, Longhorn Network, FX, FX Movie Channel, FXX, Freeform, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, BabyTV.
ABC On Demand programming and local ABC stations affected are ABC7 Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, ABC7 New York, ABC7 San Francisco, ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, ABC13 Houston, ABC30 Fresno.
The Charter Spectrum outage isn’t the only ongoing cable fee dispute. Since early July, DirecTV customers have been without Nexstar TV stations.
Charter said it would hold a conference call with investors Friday to discuss the Disney dispute.
WHAM-TV, channel 13 in Rochester, is owned by Deerfield Media Inc and receives certain services from an affiliation of Sinclair Broadcast Group. WKBW-TV, channel 7 in Rochester, is owned by E.W. Scripps Co.
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Includes reporting from the Los Angeles Times via Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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