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The programming blackout occurred in the middle of ESPN’s coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and just hours before ABC’s broadcast of the USC-LSU football game. The service interruption was due to the expiration of the transmission agreement between Disney Corp. and DirecTV at the end of August.
DirecTV service interruption affects multiple channels including ESPN, ABC, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform and National Geographicwhich left more than 11,000,000 subscribers without content.
According to a statement on ESPN’s website, “DirecTV has chosen to deny access to millions of subscribers to our content just as we approach the final week of the US Open and prepare for the college football season and the start of the NFL.”
For its part, DirecTV argues that the conflict is not just about transmission ratesbut also the freedom to pursue future disputes. According to a lengthy post on its website, the company explained that “just hours before today’s expiration, Disney demanded that, in order to reach any licensing agreement or extend access to its programming, DirecTV must agree to waive all claims that Disney’s behavior is anticompetitive.”
Meanwhile, Comcast customers on the West Coast also experienced problems. They were blocked from watching games broadcast on the Big Ten Network involving the Oregon and Washington teams. The situation stems from a dispute over the network’s placement in Comcast’s channel lineup in the conference’s new markets.
With Oregon and Washington now part of the Big Ten’s “core territory,” the conference wants cable companies in those states to move the Big Ten Network to its basic service tiers, rather than the more expensive sports tiers. All other West Coast cable companies, as well as satellite TV companies, agreed to the change, except Comcast, which refused to move the network to the basic tiers, thus maintaining limited access.
Millions of customers were affected by the problems between the companies.
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Possible solutions for the millions of customers experiencing television problems in the United States
As detailed News Nation Now, DirecTV is looking for ways to “unbundle” channels to offer cheaper packagessomething he says Disney has rejected, even as it attempts to launch a new sports-only streaming service alongside Fox and Warner Bros.
For its part, Comcast said in a statement that they are aware of the problems generated and that are in talks with Fox and Big Ten Network to find solutions“We hope to be able to reach an agreement to be able to offer these events to our clients,” the company said in the statement.
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