UPDATE: The Disney Channel, ESPN, ABC, and many more channels have disappeared from your TV, and DirecTV is going on the warpath.
In a new statement sent to Inside the Magic, DirecTV revealed that Disney has pulled its suite of channels from the satellite company after negotiations to sign a new carriage deal have failed. That means popular ABC shows like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Good Morning America, and Jimmy Kimmel Live are now unavailable to over 11 million households across America.
Arguably, even more urgently, ESPN and its coverage of college football and the upcoming NFL season (kicking off on September 9) have gone dark. Read more here.
Rob Thun, chief content officer at DIRECTV, is pulling no punches. He says:
“The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system. Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers – making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price.”
The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV (which is majority-owned by the telecommunications giant AT&T) are currently playing a high-stakes game of chicken, five years in the making.
At some point today, the carriage deal between the two, which allows the satellite TV company to offer Disney channels to its subscribers, will expire. If the two companies don’t make a deal to renew it, over 11 million households across America will lose a whole bunch of content they paid for, and they’re already furious about it.
Understandably so! The beef between Disney and DirecTV ultimately boils down to the Mouse having a long-term policy to force distributors (like the satellite company, its rival Dish Network, or cable companies like Spectrum) to offer only channel packages that are stuffed with little-viewed channels like NatGeo Wild and Freeform.
Basically, if you want to watch ESPN and the SEC Network, Disney demands you have to pay for other stuff too, because they will get paid whether you use it or not.
That means that DirecTV passes the buck to consumers, who have been increasingly frustrated at the rising costs of trying to watch Monday Night Football. Now, the satellite company has put its foot down and is stonewalling Disney over the new deal, risking angering their mutual customers even more. It’s a risky strategy, but we’ll see how it pays off for them.
DirecTV provided a statement to Inside the Magic regarding the imminent collapse of their relationship with Disney, saying:
“We remain in active discussions to provide customers with more flexible packages and lower-priced alternatives in one simple experience. Learn more at UnbundleDisney.com.”
The above website can best be described as a sustained attack on Disney and its business practices. Although it may be a bit obviously biased, it is actually hard to argue against its point that “Disney is threatening to drop its content from DIRECTV unless you pay for channels that you may not watch.”
DirecTV breaks down its grievances with the Mouse into five basic statements. The satellite company is airing its digital dirty laundry, claiming that Disney is harming consumers by:
- Moving your favorite content from one Disney-controlled platform to another, making you purchase them all.
- Shutting down its apps that DIRECTV customers use their pay TV subscription to access — ABC, DisneyNow, Freeform, FXNow, and Nat Geo TV.
- Forcing consumers to pay twice for the same content across multiple services to drive viewers to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.
- Airing the same programming across multiple Disney-owned channels at the same time like Monday Night Football.
- Threatening to remove its content from DIRECTV platforms, depriving you of election coverage, sports, the Emmys and a range of entertainment and news coverage.
Again, as much as DirecTV is clearly trying to sway public opinion against Disney, it is actually being pretty factual. As Inside the Magic has reported, the Mouse House is indeed shutting down free apps that give customers access to content they’ve paid for via satellite or cable packages, like DisneyNOW.
Effectively, the company is trying to push people to sign up for Disney+ and Hulu out of convenience; nastily, it is focusing on child-oriented channels, arguably to get stressed-out parents to pay for streaming services out of convenience.
That’s not the only complaint DirecTV has with Disney streaming services. Since Disney+ was launched in 2019, the Mouse has been obsessed with turning itself into the world’s most powerful streaming company. It has pretty much failed every step of the way.
The service has doubled its prices, added advertisements, deleted whole swathes of content, canceled innumerable shows, and basically done everything it can to prove CEO Bob Iger right when he called it “not sustainable.”
The straw that broke the satellite dish has been the recent federal court ruling against Venu Sports, the streaming joint venture between Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox that is attempting to take over the streaming sports market.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett described Venu as a “multi-year monopolistic runway they have created for themselves will provide powerful incentives to thwart competition and hike prices on both consumers and other distributors.”
As you might expect, DirecTV is maaaaad. The company’s Chief Content Officer, Rob Thun, openly attacked Venu, saying, “These guys lied to us. When you pulled back the curtain and saw what they were really doing — wow. They really just want to disintermediate all of pay TV and drive everyone to themselves. It’s horrific.”
Thun said elsewhere:
“We absolutely have to find our way to offering something smaller and less expensive than what we have today…I’m not sure what the wake-up call is going to be, frankly, for the programmers to realize this isn’t good … If I drive pay TV out of business, the gravy train is over.”
That’s what’s happening now: DirecTV is demanding that Disney allow it to offer “skinny” channel packages that don’t overload customers who just want to watch sports with unwanted content. After all, if they can offer that with Venu, why not for satellite TV?
Disney and DirecTV have now gone public about their battle/negotiations. On Twitter/X, the satellite company posted, “Disney wants to force you to have all its channels, even if you don’t use them. Not cool with us. The “one-size-fits-all” model is outdated. That’s why we’re fighting for greater flexibility, choice and value and the ability to watch all your favorite content in one place.”
Disney wants to force you to have all its channels, even if you don't use them. Not cool with us. The “one-size-fits-all” model is outdated. That's why we're fighting for greater flexibility, choice and value and the ability to watch all your favorite content in one place.
— DIRECTV (@DIRECTV) August 31, 2024
Disney is fighting back. Last night, DirecTV customers were treated to the following message across their channels, “DirecTV customers, don’t lose these networks [ESPN, Freeform, Disney Channel, National Geographic, FX], call 833-KEEP-MY-NETS or keepmynetworks.com”
🚨 Are Disney/ABC/ESPN networks going dark on DirecTV tonight? $DIS @DIRECTV pic.twitter.com/eFr8u35L21
— Rich Greenfield, LightShed 🔦 (@RichLightShed) September 1, 2024
The website above leads to a similar propaganda site to DirecTV, in which Disney asserts, “As you may already be aware, we are regularly in negotiations with distribution partners that offer our networks to their customers. If we are unable to reach fair agreements, you could lose some of these networks. It is our sincere goal to avoid this outcome.”
Disney continues, obliquely blaming companies like DirecTV, Dish, and Spectrum.
It says, “We continuously work with our Cable, Satellite, Telco and Streaming distribution partners to continue to offer fans our networks on their TV channel lineups. Disney Entertainment has a highly successful track record of negotiating with providers of all types and sizes across the country and is committed to reaching fair, market-based rates and terms.”
However, the Mouse House isn’t helping any accusations that it is attempting to cut its long-term distribution partners out of the market to try to push consumers to its failing streaming services. At the bottom of the site is a section labeled “You Have Choices,” with a link that suggests you “Get ABC, the ESPN networks, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks, the National Geographic channels, and more.”
Naturally, there are links to streaming services right up at the top, with links to cable and satellite partners requiring a bit of scrolling. Disney is not going to beat the allegations on this one anytime soon.
Related: Disney+ Got Massive Bailout After $11 Billion Streaming Loss, Report Reveals
As one might expect, DirecTV subscribers are also starting to freak out about the possibility that the carriage deal will fall through, causing them to miss football and Mickey Mouse. For example, Twitter user @Breck12 threatened, “Bottom line….if you drop ESPN, I will 100% drop DirecTV. Won’t think twice.”
Bottom line….if you drop ESPN, I will 100% drop DirecTV. Won’t think twice.
— Mike Breckenridge (@Breck12) August 31, 2024
Better not get negotiating with Disney and ESPN if I miss a football weekend because you guys can’t work together I will switch to someone else.
— matthew lewelling (@mlewelling22) August 31, 2024
@lawyerkev said, “@DIRECTV you are on notice. I have suffered without my local Fox & CW stations for 2+ yrs now. Now you are screwing around with ESPN & Disney. If you fail to make this deal by Sunday I will be canceling on Monday. I’ve had it.”
@DIRECTV you are on notice. I have suffered without my local Fox & CW stations for 2+ yrs now. Now you are screwing around with ESPN & Disney.
If you fail to make this deal by Sunday I will be canceling on Monday. I've had it.— L (@lawyerkev) September 1, 2024
Presumably, representatives from both The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV are hard at work in a room somewhere, trying to find some kind of deal that will allow them to avoid public displeasure.
That very well might not happen, and Disney (and associated properties) will likely go dark on your TV set later today. Last year, Disney was locked into a similar carriage deal situation with Charter Communications, one of the largest cable providers in the United States, once again over the Mouse’s insistence on forcing unwanted channels onto consumers.
Eventually, Disney and Charter (which operates as Spectrum, check your bills!) were able to come to an agreement, but not before millions of customers were cut out for days. Even when a new deal was signed, many of those subscribers lost access to Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild, and Nat Geo Mundo. Even if not everyone wanted those channels, it’s nice to have the option.
The clock is ticking down for Disney and DirecTV. We’ll see if either company blinks before it’s too late.
Will you subscribe to DirecTV if they lose ESPN or the Disney Channel?