Thirteen days after a bitter retransmission consent impasse left DirecTV and U-Verse subscribers unable to access any broadcast or cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company, a fresh agreement was signed by both parties — putting an end to a battle that saw the direct broadcast satellite TV service provider take an aggressive stance in seeking its demands for a la carte pricing and flexibility.
It appears DirecTV got a lot of what it has been advocating for.
In a joint statement distributed on Saturday, DirecTV and the parent of ABC Owned Stations announced “an agreement in principle” — one that “provides greater choice, value, and flexibility” to their mutual customers.
As a result, Disney’s full linear suite of networks has already been restored to DirecTV, the DIRECTV stream and to U-Verse customers while both parties work to finalize a new, multi-year contract.
The timing of the restoration came just as a full slate of college football games was scheduled to air across Disney-owned properties, and ahead of the Sunday airing of the 76th annual Emmy Awards live on ABC.
For some market observers, a lengthy absence of the Disney-owned stations from DirecTV was expected. Over the past two weeks, a “good faith” complaint was filed with the FCC by DirecTV against Disney. That came on September 7, and was done on the grounds that Disney violated the Commission’s “Good Faith” mandates by predicating any licensing agreement on DirecTV’s waiving any legal claims on Disney’s past, current, or future anticompetitive actions, including its ongoing packaging and minimum penetration demands.
A Tuesday request to temporarily bring back all ABC Owned Stations for a three-hour period in prime-time so that DirecTV subscribers could watch the network’s U.S. presidential debate was rejected by the DBS provider. DirecTV responded by saying that would only create viewer confusion, and that the only way this would happen was to allow all channels to come back through September 16 while a new formal agreement was hashed out. Disney said no.
Then on Thursday, Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington entered the fray, arguing, “We must balance the scales. A future Commission should take seriously the question of its own uneven hand in the media marketplace. We must either unleash the video marketplace from outdated rules or balance it with smart and targeted reforms.”
What DirecTV Gets
The new agreement gives DirecTV continued carriage “at market-based terms” of Disney’s entertainment, sports and news programming from its linear portfolio.
This includes the following ABC Owned Television Stations:
- WABC-7 in New York
- KABC-7 in Los Angeles
- KGO-7 in San Francisco-Oakland
- WLS-7 in Chicago
- WPVI-6 in Philadelphia
- WTVD-11 in Raleigh-Durham
- KTRK-13 in Houston
- KFSN-30 in Fresno-Visalia-Merced
Cable channels included in the new agreement are comprised of all ESPN-branded networks, all Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks, and all National Geographic channels.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the new accord, which replaces a five-year deal signed in September 2019 between DirecTV and Disney, is how DirecTV appears to have won its argument that Disney do away with “bloated bundles.”
That’s because the new carriage agreement affords DirecTV the opportunity to offer multiple genre-specific options — sports, entertainment, kids & family — inclusive of Disney’s linear networks along with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
In fact, Disney’s three direct-to-consumer streaming services — Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ — to be included in select DirecTV packages under a wholesale agreement. The trio of OTT services will also be made available on an a la carte basis.
Lastly, DirecTV has the right to distribute Disney’s “upcoming ESPN flagship” D2C service upon its launch at no additional cost to DirecTV customers.
In a joint statement, the two companies commented, “Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DirecTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to tailor their video experience through more flexible options. DirecTV and Disney have a long-standing history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement furthers that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney’s content and the evolving preferences of DIRECTV’s customers.”
Lastly, DirecTV and Disney thanked “all affected viewers for their patience” as DirecTV restored all of the impacted channels in time for NCAA football and Sunday’s Emmy telecast.
