For a second consecutive season, a major college football opener has been blacked out in millions of pay TV homes amid a huge program licensing impasse.
Just minutes before the kickoff of Sunday's game between USC and LSU, DirecTV announced that ABC, ESPN and other Disney channels have been removed from the program guides of its nearly 11 million pay TV subscribers.
Both sides had been negotiating a new master channel licensing deal down to the wire, with the current agreement expiring Sunday.
According to a DirecTV source, Disney made a last-minute demand that the operator drop all future legal action against the media conglomerate. Currently, DirecTV is involved in Fubo's antitrust suit against Venu Sports, resulting in the Disney's joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery being hit with a preliminary injuntion.
“The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV, in the operator's official statement. “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.”
Responded Disney: "DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the US Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season. While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming."
Disney and Charter Communications had a fraught negotiation a year ago, which resulted in ESPN being blacked out minutes before a Thursday-night opening -season game between Florida and Utah.
In 2022, Disney was blacked out on Dish Network, resulting in Dish and Sling TV subscribers missing out out on September games.
