Disney/ESPN's DirecTV Carriage Dispute Could Cause Fans To Miss Starts Of College Football And NFL
Disney and DirecTV are locked in a carriage dispute that could cost cable viewers the start of the NFL season.
If the new sides do not reach an agreement by Sept. 1, 11 million subscribers will lose access to ESPN. This means they won't be able to watch the season premiere of Monday Night Football on Sept. 7, featuring Aaron Rodgers' Jets vs. the 49ers.
College football fans would be just as agitated.
DirecTV subscribers would also lose the ability to watch ESPN's broadcasts of USC vs. LSU on Sunday, Sept. 1 and Boston College vs. Florida State at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 2.
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
For those expecting a deal to quickly develop, remember that a carriage dispute between Disney and Charter Communications last year at this time led to a nearly two-week blackout and was not resolved until hours before the Monday Night Football opener.
So, while we'd bet on the two sides coming to an agreement by Sept. 7, don't be surprised if DirecTVers are unable to watch college football this Sunday and Monday.
Then again, the negotiations between Disney and DirecTV are more complicated than the standard cable dispute.
Further, DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun said in a blog post last week that his current negotiations with Disney are colored by New York’s Southern District's temporary injunction preventing the launch of Venu, a new sports streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
"The judge said the service could cause ‘irreparable harm’ to sports streaming service Fubo and to consumers, adding that Venu would be giving rights to sports content that was not bundled with other programming — ‘for the first time ever,’ the New York Post reports.
FSU offers fans free tickets. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Thun says he wants to offer "smaller, more tailored packages at prices that reflect" value to consumers – noting that ESPN charges subscribers a $9.42 per sub per month (the highest in cable) if the channel is included in their cable package, whether they watch ESPN or not.
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.