Disney DirectTV Dispute Settled: Carriage Battle Ends in Time for Emmys

Disney and DirecTV have ended a 13-day broadcast crisis, with ABC, ESPN and 14 other networks back on air in time for Saturday’s college football games and Sunday’s Emmy Awards broadcast.

While the return of linear service will be a relief to millions of subscribers, the other terms of the agreement will undoubtedly catch the attention of the broader media industry as it grapples with the complexities of the streaming era.

The two parties have agreed to bring “multiple genre-specific options” to market for lower-priced channel bundles, though no specific pricing or proposed channel lineups were mentioned in a press release this morning. The new offerings will include sports, entertainment, kids and family, with bundles including Disney’s linear networks as well as Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming services, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, will also be included in the selection.
DierectTV packages under the wholesale agreement, which will also be made available on On demand
basis.

The agreement also gives DirecTV the rights to distribute Disney’s upcoming flagship ESPN service directly to consumer at launch at no additional cost to DirecTV customers. The planned mid-2025 launch of ESPN is expected to be a major event for the media industry as it sorts out the new pay-TV economy.

“Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DirecTV and Disney are giving customers the power to customize their video experience with more flexible choices,” the companies said in a joint statement. “DirectTV and Disney have a long history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement reinforces that commitment by recognizing the tremendous value of Disney content and the evolving preferences of DirecTV customers. We would like to thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to have the entire Disney network portfolio restored in time for college football and the Emmy Awards this week.”

16 Disney networks, including ESPN, have stopped airing their programming on the pay-TV provider since September 1., More than 11 million subscribers denied first appearance Monday Night FootballUS Open tennis, college football and Single The Emmys cutoff could have been extremely embarrassing for Disney, as it not only took its turn broadcasting the awards show, but it was poised to dominate the night thanks to its main contenders. The bear and Shogun.

The fight comes exactly one year after Disney engaged in a high-profile battle with a different pay-TV operator. In September 2023, the media giant and Spectrum parent company Charter Communications engaged in a 10-day standoff that ended just hours before last season was set to premiere. Monday Night Football The result of the charter decision was a new model agreement that dropped linear distribution for Freeform and a handful of other networks in exchange for integrating and promoting Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ on Spectrum.

But DirecTV, now a private company owned by AT&T and private equity firm TPG, has a very different business model than Charter. It doesn’t offer broadband, wireless or any other services other than video. Video services are available via traditional satellite as well as the Internet as an old cable system formerly known as U-verse TV, which stopped accepting new customers years ago.

In addition to ABC and ESPN, Disney’s television network portfolio includes ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, ACC Network, SEC Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FX, FXX, FX Movie Channel, Freeform, National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild. The Burbank-based company also has O&O businesses in eight major television markets including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Early in the carriage battle, DirecTV CFO Ray Carpenter acknowledged that the dispute was more “existential” for his company than it might be for a more diversified pay-TV operator. During a conference call with analysts, Carpenter said the current “bloated” bundle of more than 100 channels needed to be trimmed to between 10 and 50 to be more consistent with viewing habits in the streaming era.