Current:Home > Contact-usAs football starts, carrier fee dispute pits ESPN vs. DirecTV: What it could mean for fans-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
As football starts, carrier fee dispute pits ESPN vs. DirecTV: What it could mean for fans
View Date:2024-12-23 18:44:24
Disney and DirecTV are on the clock.
The two companies are negotiating a new content carriage contract and the inability to reach an agreement could result in ESPN and the Disney Channel going dark in millions of homes come Sept. 1.
The talks come as ESPN prepares for the college football season. The network's broadcasts include USC vs. LSU at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1, and Boston College vs. Florida State at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 2. A full slate of games the next week includes Texas vs. Michigan on Sept. 7.
The NFL season begins next week, too, and ESPN Monday Night Football kicks off on Sept. 9, with the New York Jets vs. San Francisco 49ers.
Other channels that could be lost on DirecTV include ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN News, ACC Network, SEC Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FX, FX Movie Channel, FXX, Freeform, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, and BabyTV, noted Phil Swann, publisher of The TV Answer Man website.
Bud Light:Which 26 teams got limited-edition college football team cans?
DirecTV wants to offer 'smaller, more tailored' TV packages
These negotiations also take place amid the backdrop of a judge's issuance of a temporary injunction preventing the launch of Venu, a new sports streaming platform by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, saying the service could cause "irreparable harm" to sports streaming service Fubo and to consumers.
A federal judge said in the order issuing the injunction that Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery "for the first time ever" were giving rights to sports content not bundled with other programming -- but were only offering it through their joint venture.
Most contracts have required pay TV distributors to charge subscribers for all of a content companies' channels, whether customers watch them or not. For instance, many DirecTV subscribers may watch ESPN, ESPN 2 and other sports channels, but not the Disney Channel or Disney Junior channel – and vice versa.
That Venu development may give DirecTV leverage in seeking some flexibility in how it offers many of Disney's channels to customers, Bloomberg reported, citing persons familiar with the discussions.
DirecTV also wants to offer "smaller, more tailored packages at prices that reflect" value to consumers, wrote Rob Thun, DirecTV's chief content officer, in a blog post last week.
DirecTV's requirement to include all of a content provider's channels into its service forces "pay TV customers to subscribe to many channels they may not watch, which have yielded ‘fat bundles’," Thun wrote. "At the same time, programmers have reserved flexible genre-based offerings solely for themselves, eroding the price-value proposition for pay TV customers by shifting the best programming to (their own direct-to-customer streaming) services while raising programming fees on pay TV."
Pay TV providers vs. media companies – the constant clash
DirecTV and other pay TV providers have lost millions of customers as streaming services have siphoned off subscribers. DirecTV lost an estimated 1.8 million subscribers in 2023, leaving it with an estimated 11.3 million at the year's end – and down from 16 million subscribers at the end of 2019, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
"The pay TV industry, which has lost millions of subscribers in the last decade to cord-cutting, is seeking to reinvent the program bundle to attract cost-conscious consumers who have turned to streaming," Swann said. "Disney and other networks have been resistant because fewer subscribers to their channels means fewer carriage fees."
An impasse between Disney and DirecTV could affect the DirecTV Stream streaming service and U-Verse TV and result in the removal of Disney-owned local networks such as ABC7 Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, ABC7 New York, ABC7 San Francisco, ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, ABC13 Houston, and ABC30 Fresno, Swann said.
A carriage dispute between Disney and Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum Cable, led to a nearly two-week blackout at about this time last year.
Five years ago, Disney and DirecTV had a "heated negotiation" before signing the deal that expires Sept. 1, wrote John Ourand on the journalism site Puck.com.
"With Venu up in the air, pretty much all of (Warner Bros. Discovery), Disney, and Fox’s dealings with distributors will take on a new flavor," he wrote.
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
veryGood! (4571)
Related
- Pie, meet donuts: Krispy Kreme releases Thanksgiving pie flavor ahead of holidays
- Tori Spelling’s Ex Dean McDermott Says She Was “Robbed” After DWTS Elimination
- 'Wolfs' review: George Clooney, Brad Pitt bring the charm, but little else
- Empowering Investors: The Vision of Dream Builder Wealth Society
- How Kim Kardashian Navigates “Uncomfortable” Situations With Her 4 Kids
- As many forests fail to recover from wildfires, replanting efforts face huge odds -- and obstacles
- Man convicted in 2021 fatal shooting of Illinois police sergeant
- 'Cowboy Carter' collaborators Shaboozey, Post Malone win People's Choice Country Awards
- 2024 'virtually certain' to be warmest year on record, scientists say
- Mark Zuckerberg faces deposition in AI copyright lawsuit from Sarah Silverman and other authors
Ranking
- College football top five gets overhaul as Georgia, Miami both tumble in US LBM Coaches Poll
- The Bear's Jeremy Allen White Kisses Costar Molly Gordon While Out in Los Angeles
- Trevon Diggs vs. Malik Nabers: Cowboys CB and Giants WR feud, explained
- Led by Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, New York Yankees clinch AL East
- Man charged with murder in fatal shooting of 2 workers at Chicago’s Navy Pier
- Former Denver Broncos QB John Elway revealed as Leaf Sheep on 'The Masked Singer'
- Carly Pearce Weighs In on Beyoncé’s Country Music Association Awards Snub
- Richmond Fed president urges caution on interest rate cuts because inflation isn’t defeated
Recommendation
-
Police capture Tennessee murder suspect accused of faking his own death on scenic highway
-
Carly Pearce Weighs In on Beyoncé’s Country Music Association Awards Snub
-
Boeing and union negotiators set to meet for contract talks 2 weeks into worker strike
-
Missy Mazzoli’s ‘The Listeners’ portraying life in a cult gets U.S. premiere at Opera Philadelphia
-
Massive dust storm reduces visibility, causes vehicle pileup on central California highway
-
All the Country Couples Enjoying Date Night at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards
-
Best Kitten Heels for Giving Your Style a Little Lift, Shop the Trend With Picks From Amazon, DSW & More
-
Biden approves major disaster declaration for northeastern Vermont for late July flooding