Disney and DirecTV reached an agreement over the weekend to restore service to the Mouse House's “entire portfolio of networks,” including ESPN and ABC, with college and pro football season in full swing.
The agreement follows a two-week ban by DirecTV of the Disney-owned network that included the U.S. Open, various college football games, the season premiere of “Monday Night Football” and even the ABC-hosted presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
DirecTV's 11 million subscribers have been unable to watch Disney-owned channels since Sept. 1, when license renewal talks collapsed, beginning a two-week standoff between the two companies.
At issue was whether DirecTV customers had more flexibility in choosing which channels to include in their packages with Disney. The company argued that the streaming company allows such flexibility.
Most contracts require pay-TV distributors to charge subscribers for all of the company's channels whether they want them or not. For example, DirecTV subscribers can watch Disney-owned ESPN and ESPN 2, but not the Disney Junior channel or FX.
The new deal will allow the satellite provider's customers to choose more genre-specific packages, such as sports and family programming, to better compete with streaming services. DirecTV customers will also be able to add Disney's streaming services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ to their packages.
“Through this first-time partnership, DirecTV and Disney will enable customers to customize their video experience through more flexible options,” the companies said in a joint statement on Saturday.
DirecTV Chief Marketing Officer Vince Torres said on the company's earnings call Thursday that the company lost customers during the two-week outage, without giving specific figures. Defections are “not unimportant.”
The departure comes as DirecTV has seen its subscriber base soar in recent years as customers cancel their cable TV packages in favor of streaming.
A transportation dispute between Disney and Spectrum's parent company, Charter Communications, which caused a nearly two-week blackout around this time last year, was resolved just hours ago. ESPN's “MNF” opener The Jets faced off against the Buffalo Bills.
