If Disney can’t come to an agreement with DirecTV to give 11 million Americans back the channels they have already paid for, they will block a huge number of people from watching the upcoming Presidential Debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
This last Sunday, September 1, the carriage agreement that allowed DirecTV to carry Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, Disney Junior, and ABC, expired. That means those channels abruptly disappeared from millions of televisions, leaving a whole bunch of paying customers very, very upset with both Disney and DirecTV.
And a lot of subscribers weren’t that happy to begin with! For years, pay-TV companies like DirecTV and Dish have been passing down the costs of inflated channel packages to their customers, blaming content companies like Disney and NBCUniversal for forcing them to add numerous unwanted channels without any “skinny” options for people who just want to watch Monday Night Football on ESPN or Bluey on The Disney Channel without paying for everything else.
Consumers are very aware that both Disney and DirecTV are milking them for everything they’ve got, but this latest blackout of channels might finally wipe out whatever patience they had left.
Related: DirecTV Offers Refunds for Yanked ESPN Channels, Disney Justifies Failed TV Deal
The Mouse is banking a lot on the idea that Disney entertainment is essentially irreplaceable and that DirecTV will cave to their (alleged) demands to be outside of antitrust laws because people will be furious to miss even a single NFL game. However, if Disney doesn’t get its act together, a lot of people won’t be able to watch the upcoming debate between Trump and Harris, and that’s arguably an even bigger problem.
Twitter users recently clocked that the Disney-DirecTV debacle meant that the presidential debate would be blocked for millions. @Naomi__Levy summed things up nicely, saying, “Just learned that @Disney is having a dispute with @ABCNetwork, which Disney owns, of course, and @DirectTV and@Uverse and customers CANNOT NOW WATCH ABC which is carrying the 9/10 Presidential Debate. If not resolved in time, must find another way to watch.”
Just learned that @Disney is having a dispute with @ABCNetwork, which Disney owns, of course, and @DirectTV and @Uverse and customers CANNOT NOW WATCH ABC which is carrying the 9/10 Presidential Debate. If not resolved in time, must find another way to watch.
— Naomi Levy-Morris, PhD (@Naomi__Levy) September 4, 2024
Related: Disney+ Gives up on Streaming Content, Swerves Back to Cable
Obviously, America is in one of the more contentious election years in a long time (which is really saying something), and for millions of potential voters to be unable to watch a momentous debate via their satellite packages is a pretty big deal. ABC News says of how to watch the debate:
The debate will start at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday and is expected to last 90 minutes. It’s being moderated by World News Tonight anchor David Muir and Prime anchor Linsey Davis.
ABC News is carrying the debate live on its broadcast network as well as its streaming platform ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. Several networks have also agreed to carry the event live.
Naturally, there is not a suggestion for what to do if the parent company of the channel hosting the debate is locked in a petty brawl with its own media distributor and won’t let you watch the channels you’ve paid for. While a lot of people can probably hop down to the nearest bar or whatnot to watch the debate, should they have to?
How will you watch the upcoming presidential debate?