OAN Staff Avril Elfi
September 14, 2024 (Saturday) 9:59 AM
DirecTV has signed a deal with Walt Disney Co. ESPN and A.B.C.We have added stations that we own to the service.
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DirecTV and Disney announced in a joint statement Saturday that they had reached an agreement after nearly two weeks of disputes that led to a network blackout for millions of viewers across the country.
“Through this first-time collaboration, DIRECTV and Disney will enable customers to customize their video experience through more flexible options,” the companies said in a joint statement. “DIRECTV and Disney have a longstanding history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement further strengthens that commitment by recognizing both the great value of Disney's content and the changing preferences of DIRECTV customers. We thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to be able to restore Disney's entire portfolio of networks in time for this weekend's college football and the Emmy Awards.”
September 1ststESPN, Disney Channel, FX and other Disney-owned channels are no longer available on DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse TV systems after DirecTV's five-year deal with Disney ended.
As a result, approximately 11 million DirecTV subscribers lost access to those channels, as well as ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN News, ACC Network, SEC Network, Disney Junior and National Geographic.
The outage also affected eight Disney-owned ABC stations, including those in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Due to streaming agreements, all ABC affiliates are not available on DirecTV Stream.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but some were imposed, including allowing DirecTV to include Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ in certain plans, as well as “genre-specific” programming packages such as sports, entertainment and kids/family.
DirecTV will also be able to offer ESPN's upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service to subscribers at no additional cost.
DirecTV chief content officer Rob Toone said in a blog post published on August 21:stDirecTV said it is in negotiations to offer “smaller, more customized packages at lower prices” by 2024 that don't require it to bundle all of its channels from content providers into “fat bundles.”
“We appreciate our customers' patience as we negotiate this difficult but critically important agreement, which will give them more flexibility and choice in a seamless entertainment experience,” DirecTV said.
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