Both the cable TV industry and the Walt Disney Company are dealing with fleeing subscribers and worsening coffers, so you’d imagine now wouldn’t be a great time to upset their user bases. But that’s just what Disney and Spectrum owner Charter Communications did last night when dozens of Disney-owned channels were suddenly yanked from Spectrum’s offerings.
Worse, as the Associated Press reports, is that the channels included Disney’s ESPN offerings, which were in the middle of broadcasting a number of college football games and the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
The reason why Disney-owned channels have gone dark for Spectrum’s subscribers? Another carriage dispute, where the owner of the content (Disney, in this case) feels that the cable service (here, Charter/Spectrum) is not paying them what their content is worth.
Carriage disputes have become fairly common in recent years with two happening in 2021: the first being between NBCUniversal and Google’s YouTube TV service and the second being between Nexstar Media Group and Dish Network.
Spectrum customers have been voicing their displeasure on social media, with a steady stream of angry tweets pouring in as of Friday morning. Many are pointing out that they have been left unable to watch the channels they pay for at a critical time.
This latest Disney-Charter/Spectrum carriage dispute impacts Spectrum’s 14.7 million subscribers. Here’s the list of channels they have lost access to (via Deadline):
- 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
- ABC7 Chicago
- ABC7 Los Angeles
- ABC7 New York
- ABC7 San Francisco
- ABC11 Raleigh-Durham
- ABC13 Houston
- ABC30 Fresno
In a statement, Disney Entertainment said, “Disney Entertainment has successful deals in place with pay TV providers of all types and sizes across the country, and the rates and terms we are seeking in this renewal are driven by the marketplace. We’re committed to reaching a mutually agreed upon resolution with Charter and we urge them to work with us to minimize the disruption to their customers.”
Charter told its customers, “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. 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.”
But as Disney and Charter continue to squabble over costs, it’s their customers who pay the price.
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