Disney and Spectrum Cut New Carriage Deal, Ending Blackout and Returning ESPN and ABC to Lineups

Alex Weprin
·3 min read
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Disney and Spectrum have a deal, just in time for Monday Night Football.

The cable TV giant Charter Communications, which operates the Spectrum cable service, has cut a new carriage deal with The Walt Disney Co., meaning that ESPN, the local ABC stations, FX and Disney Channel will once again be available to its pay TV subscribers, the companies said Monday morning.

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“Our collective goal has always been to build an innovative model for the future,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger and Charter CEO Chris Winfrey in a joint statement. “This deal recognizes both the continued value of linear television and the growing popularity of streaming services while addressing the evolving needs of our consumers. We also want to thank our mutual customers for their patience this past week and are pleased that Spectrum viewers once again have access to Disney’s high-quality sports, news and entertainment programming, in time for Monday Night Football.”

Disney’s channels had been blacked out for nearly 15 million Spectrum subscribers since the evening of Aug. 31, when the channels were pulled in the middle of a U.S. Open tennis match and college football game.

Charter subsequently hosted a conference call with Wall Street analysts, in which it ratcheted up the pressure, telling them it was prepared to abandon its pay TV business and seek alternative video offerings.

“We’re on the edge of a precipice. We’re either moving forward with a new collaborative video model, or we’re moving on,” Winfrey said on the call.

A sticking point for Charter was permission to offer Disney’s streaming services as part of its pay TV packages, as well as more flexibility on what channels it included in different pay tiers.

At least some of those issues were resolved in the new deal, according to the companies.

Disney says that Charter will give its Spectrum TV Select customers access to Disney+ with ads, in a “wholesale arrangement” between the companies. ESPN+ will be provided to Spectrum TV Select Plus customers (Plus being the more sports-centric tier), with the flagship ESPN streaming service being made available to those customers when it launches.

Charter will also market Disney’s streaming services to its broadband customers. As for the ability to tier some of Disney’s channels, the companies say that Spectrum “will maintain flexibility to offer a range of video packages at varying price points based upon different customer viewing preferences.”

There will, however, be significant changes to Disney’s channel offerings. Under the new deal, Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other cable channels, will no longer be carried by Spectrum, which instead will focus on the core ESPN networks, FX, Disney Channel and Nat Geo channels, as well as ABC stations.

In addition, Disney and Charter Spectrum said they had also “renewed their commitment to lead the industry in mitigating the effects of unauthorized password sharing,” suggesting that they will partner to crack down on the habit.

Charter Spectrum, which is the dominant cable operator in both New York City and Los Angeles, is a key player in the pay TV ecosystem.

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