Disney channels, including ESPN, go dark on Spectrum. Will it affect Sept. 2 Badgers game?
Just in time for the start of the college football season, ESPN and other Disney-owned cable channels have gone dark on Spectrum cable, one of the largest pay-television carriers in Wisconsin.
The channels' fade to black on Spectrum is the result of a dispute over carriage fees between Disney and Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum.
Thursday night, Disney pulled programming for its stations — including ESPN, ESPN2, Freeform, Disney Channel, FX and National Geographic — from Spectrum. In its place, Spectrum posted a message asserting that Disney had removed its programming from the cable system after demanding an "excessive" increase in retransmission fees and "forcing" subscribers to take channels they don't want, a reference to programming giants like Disney bundling their channels in deals with cable companies to ensure more of their channels are included.
The blackout hits during the U.S. Open tennis tournament, for which ESPN has the broadcast rights, and just at the start of the 2023 college football season. Saturday's Wisconsin Badgers game against Buffalo is scheduled to air on Fox Sports 1, which as of Thursday night was not affected by the blackout.
The blackout affects Disney-owned ABC affiliates in other parts of the country, but it doesn't affect any local stations in Wisconsin, which are owned by other companies.
The breakdown in negotiations affects 15 million TV viewers around the country.
In a statement to entertainment news site Deadline, Disney said: "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."
Disputes between programming providers and cable TV systems have broken out frequently over the years. But the stakes are pretty high this time around, as cable providers aim to rein in programming costs while programmers are dealing with a tougher advertising climate.
Sometimes, the disputes get resolved quickly; other times, not so much. Nexstar Media Group, which owns the largest portfolio of local television stations along with the CW Network, has kept its channels off DirecTV for three months in a similar carriage fee dispute.
In an investors call Friday morning, Charter officials framed the dispute as a conflict between Disney's demands for higher fees and channel-bundling and Charter's desire for a hybrid model combining streaming and cable services.
"I'm sorry that Disney's removed its programming from your lineup," Chris Winfrey, president and CEO of Charter Communications, said in the investors call. "And for the majority who don't actively watch Disney content, I'm sorry that Disney has made you pay for channels you don't watch."
In the call, Charter officials noted that cable-TV subscriptions overall (including Charter) have declined 25% over the past five years.
In a statement sent to entertainment news site The Wrap on Friday, Disney countered that it had proposed "creative ways" to make its streaming services available to Spectrum TV subscribers, but claimed that Charter/Spectrum is "demanding these services for free as they have stated publicly. Charter is depriving consumers of that content because they are failing to ascribe any value in exchange for licensing those services.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Disney channels, including ESPN, fade out on Spectrum cable systems
