A key milestone has passed in the cold war between Disney and DirecTV.
The Jets-49ers game is set to begin on ESPN and ABC's “Monday Night Football,” but the networks' parent company, Disney, has not yet reached a broadcast deal with DirecTV.
The dispute involves ESPN-affiliated networks, FX and the Disney-owned and operated ABC affiliate.
Most DirecTV customers across the country will still be able to watch ABC's “Monday Night Football” this week, but the show has been cut off in major metropolitan areas where Disney owns stations, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco.
All DirecTV customers will not be able to use their accounts to stream games broadcast by ESPN on the network's app.
Since last weekend, the network has been unavailable on DirecTV satellite and streaming services, as well as U-Verse.
While many sports fans can either switch entirely to streaming bundles like YouTube TV, Sling TV or Fubo, or stick with both until the carriage dispute is over, not everyone can make the switch so easily.
DirecTV has many commercial customers such as bars, restaurants, hotels and gyms, and is also one of the few TV providers for rural residents who don't have a proper cable connection where they live.
The controversy continued into Monday night, leaving fans unhappy.
X User Stephen Burns Both companies were asked “Understand that properly!”
Another user posted a photo of a turned off TV, asked “This has to be a joke?!?!?!”
It was clear in late August that the standoff between the two companies could impact the football season, and that became reality when the Disney Channel went offline on September 1, causing sports fans to miss the highly anticipated USC vs. LSU college football matchup and the U.S. Open.
Last weekend, all college football games and the men's and women's U.S. Open finals were played without games.
On Saturday night, DirecTV filed a complaint with the FCC alleging that Disney is negotiating in bad faith.
According to the Wall Street Journal:At the heart of the dispute is how much Disney will charge for its channel bundle and DirecTV's desire to have more freedom in how it packages and sells Disney's channels to subscribers — whether, for example, ESPN could be placed on a tier that would allow non-sports fans to more easily subscribe to entertainment channels without paying a fee.
