Power outage battle between major cable companies charter communications and disney finished.
Hours before “Monday Night Football” airs on Disney’s ESPN, the two companies reached a deal that will allow millions of charter cable customers to watch the game.
CNBC’s David Faber reported, citing people familiar with the deal, that the terms of the deal include discounts on wholesale prices for subscribers to Disney’s streaming service and increased marketplace or subscriber fees paid to Disney. It is said to be included.
of news release Because the agreement states that it includes:
- The Disney+ basic ad-supported product is available to customers who purchase the Spectrum TV Select package.
- ESPN+ is available to Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers.
- The long-awaited ESPN streaming service will be available to Spectrum TV Select subscribers at launch.
Charter and Disney stocks and media peers warner bros discovery and paramount global Prices rose on Monday morning.
The dispute has been ongoing since late August, when vehicle renewal negotiations between the two companies broke down and millions of customers lost access to Disney TV channels, including ESPN, FX and the Disney Channel.
At the time of the outage, Charter had approximately 14.7 million customers.
As a result, Charter has seen some of its Spectrum pay-TV customers ditch the bundle in favor of internet TV options such as Disney’s Hulu + Live TV. GoogleYouTube TV. In the days following the outage (which occurred during the start of the U.S. Open and college football seasons featured on ESPN), Disney announced that sign-ups for Hulu + Live TV were up more than 60% than expected.
The controversy lingered past Thursday’s NFL season kickoff, but it likely won’t affect fans as it will end in time for Monday Night Football.
Shipping disputes and power outages are common. But Charter argued that the moment when Disney’s networks went dark was a more significant moment, as Disney declared the pay-TV model dead.
Hours after the power outage began, Charter executives held an investor conference call and offered Spectrum pay-TV customers free access to Disney’s ad-supported streaming apps Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. requested a review of the contract with Disney.
This point in particular seems to have caused a deadlock in negotiations.
Disney responded that streaming networks and television networks are not equivalent because original content premieres only on live television and because of billions of dollars invested in exclusive streaming content.
The public spat has highlighted the problems facing media companies. Cord cutting is rampant and consumers are rapidly switching to streaming services. Media companies are using content from pay-TV channels for streaming services, likely accelerating the transition.
However, the fees charged by pay-TV providers like Charter to carry live networks remain strong, even with fewer customers in bundles, supporting cash flow and profitability for media companies. I am. Media companies like Disney are still trying to make streaming a profitable business.
Providing pay-TV services has long been part of Charter, but broadband has usurped Charter as the basis for its profitability and business. Consumers can cut the TV cord but remain broadband customers.
Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said the company plans to seek similar terms in future negotiations with other content companies.
In the days after the outage, Winfrey spoke at an investor conference and said such discussions with other media content companies had already begun.
He also reiterated the company’s position that the pay-TV model is broken and at a tipping point.
