Continued Disney Troubles: ESPN, ABC and More Channels Go Dark Over Rights Fees

Poor Disney.

They just can’t seem to catch a break.

Their movies are bombing at the box office, filled with woke DEI propaganda.

Their Disney+ subscribers are plummeting.

Their attendance at their parks are dropping.

And they’ve been exposed by O’Keefe Media for not hiring Whites but only Jews for upper management.

Now DirecTV has pulled the plug on their cable channels.

One wonders if we need to set up a GoFundMe for them.

Maybe we should all send CEO Bob Iger a card. “Go woke, go broke. Get well soon. Yours truly, your ex-supporters.”

DirecTV has pulled all ABC, ESPN and Disney channels over rights fees, and The Big Ten Network blacked out two football games in a separate fight over the network's profile on Comcast systems. https://t.co/b2OtfBvgO2

— NewsNation (@NewsNation) September 2, 2024

News Nation reports:

Sports fans from coast to coast welcomed the first full weekend of college football, and the mid-point of tennis’ U.S. Open – except for some customers of Comcast and DirecTV.

In the middle of ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage and hours before ABC’s coverage of the USC-LSU football game, the channels went dark on the satellite and streaming service. The carriage agreement between Disney Corp. and DirecTV expired at the end of August, and so far, the two firms have failed to agree on a new deal.

In a separate conflict, Comcast (branded as Xfinity) customers in Oregon and Washington were blocked from watching the Ducks and Husky games Saturday on the Big Ten Network because of a fight over the network’s demand for higher carriage fees in its new markets.

DirecTV vs. 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,” read a statement on ESPN’s website.

The DirecTV service interruption affects the ESPN networks, ABC, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform and National Geographic. DirecTV has more than 11 million subscribers.

DirecTV says the fight is over more than just carriage fees, but also the freedom to raise future disputes. “Just hours before today’s expiration, Disney demanded that to reach any licensing agreement or to extend access to its programming, DIRECTV must agree to waive all claims that Disney’s behavior is anti-competitive,” DirecTV said in a lengthy post on its website.

DirecTV has also been pursuing ways to “de-bundle” channels to offer cheaper tiers, something it says Disney has resisted even as it is trying to launch a new sports-only streaming service with Fox and Warner Bros.

“A proposed sports-only streaming service is exactly what consumers want and DIRECTV has sought from Disney, along with other genre-specific bundles such as kids, entertainment and news,” the DirecTV statement added.

Disney’s last blackout conflict with a carrier was a year ago. The carriage fight with Charter Communications lasted about one week before the two sides reached what they called a “transformative agreement” for Charter’s nearly 15 million subscribers.