Round 4 p.m. PST Sunday, a blackout of Walt Disney Co.-owned channels on DirecTV affected almost 11 million properties.
This included ESPN and ABC, stations airing highly-anticipated sporting occasions, together with a significant faculty soccer matchup and primetime on the U.S. Open tennis event. The blackout got here after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations concerning the charges Disney requires to host its content material on DirecTV’s platforms led to a stalemate, per the Los Angeles Occasions.
On Sunday night, the businesses issued dueling statements blaming the opposite.
DirecTV’s Chief Content material Officer, Rob Thun, stated that Disney was chasing income.
“They need to proceed to chase most income and dominant management on the expense of customers — making it tougher for them to pick the reveals and sports activities they need at an affordable worth,” Thun stated in an announcement.
Disney, in the meantime, issued an announcement from Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairmen of Disney Leisure, and Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN urging DirecTV to “do what’s in the most effective curiosity of their prospects and finalize a deal that might instantly restore our programming.”
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The assertion stated DirecTV is “undervaluing” its content material.
“DirecTV selected to disclaim tens of millions of subscribers entry to our content material simply as we head into the ultimate week of the US Open and kit up for school soccer and the opening of the NFL season,” the assertion learn. “Whereas we’re open to providing DirecTV flexibility and phrases which we have prolonged to different distributors, we won’t enter into an settlement that undervalues our portfolio of tv channels and applications.”
How you can Get DirecTV’s $20 credit score
Clients should go to https://www.directv.com/tvpromise/ and fill out the wanted fields (location, service, and many others.). The credit score may seem in two separate billing cycles, per the web site.
The period of the blackout is unsure; nonetheless, a earlier dispute with Constitution Communications resulted in a 12-day channel suspension.
