Ridiculous! Minutes Before LSU Vs. USC, DirecTV Pulls Disney Channels Including ESPN Due To Contract Dispute

Just as fans were preparing on Sunday night to watch the LSU vs. USC game and Major League Baseball, DirecTV decided it was the perfect time to yank every channel from the Disney-ESPN networks, stemming from another dispute over money. 

In one of the pettiest moves, customers that use DirecTV as their source to watch sporting events watched as their screens went dark, with a message that stated that the two sides could not come to an agreement on broadcasting rights. 

Personally, I was watching the SEC Network, as they were airing a pregame show for the LSU vs. USC game that was taking place in Las Vegas on Sunday evening. In the middle of the broadcast, the screen went dark, with a message from the provider. 

This comes just a year after Disney-ESPN channels went dark on Charter-Spectrum for two weeks due to a contract dispute. 

In a statement released as the channels went dark, DirecTV put all of the blame on Disney. 

"The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system," said Rob Thun, CCO of DirecTV, in a statement following the channels going black. "Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers – making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price."

Whatever, this is just another example of the greed that these networks are exploiting, and fans were nothing short of agitated on social media. 

ESPN-Disney Release A Statement Regarding The Ongoing Dispute

Fans across the country that were preparing for either the college football game, MLB Sunday night or even a tennis match were not in the mood for this nonsense. Just as the channels went dark on customers, Disney and ESPN released a statement regarding the financial dispute. 

"DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the US Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season," Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, Co-Chairmen, Disney Entertainment, and Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman, ESPN said in a statement. While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming."

I don't care what type of bickering these two sides want to do on social media, fans that pay more than enough money to not have to deal with this nonsense, and should not have to worry about not being able to enjoy a slate of sporting events on Labor Day Weekend. 

DirecTV decided to yank the switch at the most opportune time to piss off folks around the country that are subscribers. 

GET IT TOGETHER! .