DirecTV, Disney strike new carriage agreement
Signals return in time for Emmys and MNF
After thirteen days, The Walt Disney Co. and DirecTV settled their beef with a new tentative carriage agreement, restoring Disney’s sixteen channels to the service, including ABC and ESPN. The settlement also returns those channels – including all ABC affiliates nationwide, to DirecTV Stream and U-Verse. The signals returned Saturday morning just in time for college football action.
Disney also won the right to distribute Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, and ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer offering to DirecTV customers, something they have been pushing for.
“Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DirecTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to tailor their video experience through more flexible options,“ the companies said in a joint statement. “DirecTV and Disney have a long-standing history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement furthers that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney’s content and the evolving preferences of DirecTV’s customers. We’d like to thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to restore Disney’s entire portfolio of networks in time for college football and the Emmy Awards this weekend.”
The points agreed to were:
– Continued carriage of all Disney networks from its vast portfolio including ESPN, Freeform, and the ABC-owned stations in eight markets including ABC 7 Chicago
– The right to offer genre-specific packages such as sports, entertainment, and kid-friendly family programming and Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Plus and DTC
– Offering the streaming services in select DirecTV packages under a wholesale agreement, including a la carte options
– The right to offer ESPN’s new DTC service to DirecTV customers when it becomes available in 2025
This is mostly the same deal Disney offered Charter last year, with one exception – some channels that were blacked out during the Disney-Charter impasse never returned.
The deal was agreed upon after news of talks between DirecTV and rival Dish regarding a potential merger surfaced on Friday night, as first reported by Bloomberg. Both providers have lost consumers over the years due to widespread “cord-cutting” as streaming services become more popular.
The Disney settlement comes after the Sun-Times reported Thursday that DirecTV was in advanced talks with the new Chicago Sports Network for carriage. No official deal has been reported yet. Last week, DirecTV announced it was raising prices, meaning the Ultimate TV tier – where CHSN would likely go if a deal were to be made, would cost nearly $120 per month.
Last week, Charter and Warner Bros. Discovery reached a deal to offer Spectrum customers the company’s streaming services at no additional cost to subscribers, including Max and Discovery +.