Big Cable Claims Victory Over Disney+, Says Customers Are Done “Paying Twice”

Charter Communications, one of the biggest cable companies in the United States, is claiming a victory over Disney+, saying that a landmark agreement between them and the streaming service will prevent customers from “paying twice” for the same content by creating a “skinnier bundle” of options.

Credit: Disney

At the recent UBS Media and Communications Conference in New York, Charter Communications CFO Jessica Fischer told an audience (per Deadline), “We’re not willing to make our customers pay twice for content…What that means is, if there is a programmer who is making their programming available in a direct-to-consumer streaming service and our customers are paying for that content in the linear service, our expectation is that that DTC service would be part of our bundle.”

Put even more simply, the landmark distribution bargain between Disney and Charter Communications made streaming content a base part of a cable bundle, instead of something that subscribers would have to purchase in addition to getting linear TV.

Fischer continued, saying that “creating a skinnier bundle, where customers get the content that they want for a price that they’re capable of paying, creates value.” A huge sticking point in the distribution agreement between Disney and Charter was that customers should have more options in their cable bundles, something that the latter company now is boasting as the way of the future for both streaming and cable TV.

Credit: Charter Communications

Earlier this year, Charter Communications, which operates a vast cable network in America under the name Spectrum, came into conflict with the Walt Disney Company over carrier contracts. Unlike previous years, Disney and Spectrum were unable to come to an agreement about which channels would be carried on which cable packages, which ultimately led to millions of cable customers losing all Disney channels for days.

Unsurprisingly, this led to a huge backlash from Spectrum cable subscribers, not to mention Monday Night Football watchers who suddenly found ESPN disappearing from their cable bundle. The outage lasted for ten days while the company and Charter Communications negotiated, during which millions of people lost access to the Disney Channel, ABC, ESPN, Nat Geo, FX, and many more.

Credit: Disney/Inside the Magic

It is estimated that the Mouse may have lost up to $1.4 billion dollars over the Spectrum cable outage fiasco, not to mention the loyalty of many former customers who were angered by the sudden loss of Disney-owned channels they had previously subscribed to. Many of those customers also permanently lost access to channels they had originally signed up for.

Under the leadership of CEO Bob Iger, the company is committed to prioritizing streaming services like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ over traditional linear TV. However, it does not seem that cable companies like Charter Spectrum are going to go easily or without demands for their subscribers.

Do you prefer streaming or cable TV? Is Disney pushing its streaming content too hard? Let us know in the comments below!