Disney Responds to Channel BLACKOUT That Disrupted “One of the Biggest TV Weekends of the Year”

Recently, a dispute arose between Disney and the Spectrum/Charter TV network.

Millions of Spectrum/Charter customers have been left without Disney’s cable channels, such as Disney Channel, ESPN, and more. Now, Disney has released a statement about this contract dispute.

To catch you up, all Disney-owned channels have been pulled from the Spectrum/Charter Communications feeds, leaving millions of people without access to channels like ESPN and FX and programming like the U.S. Open, college football, and potentially “Monday Night Football.” The decision was made to pull the channels due to contract disagreements between the companies.

Charter/Spectrum has an estimated 14.7 million customers in 41 states, and now they’ve all lost access to ABC, ESPN, FX, and the Disney Channel. Disney has now released a statement breaking down the situation.

In the statement, Disney states that disputes between companies and content providers aren’t new, but they understand many consumers are frustrated and confused, especially with it being Labor Day weekend (one of the largest weekends for sports in the United States).

They also shared a statistic saying 71% of Spectrum/Charter cable users tune into Disney’s channels, and that although “Charter claims that they value their customers, they declined Disney’s offer to extend negotiations.” Disney then stated that continuing negotiations would have allowed the channels to stay available to consumers during this important sports weekend.

Disney continues to say that Charter/Spectrum is demanding Disney’s direct-to-consumer services for free, which “does not make economic sense,” and that it doesn’t make sense for consumers who wish to have their streaming platforms individually.

Disney completed their message with the following statements:

Charter executives recently stated they pushed for a new deal with Disney that would allow customers to receive access to Disney+ and ESPN+ at no additional cost. They added that they had already accepted Disney’s request for higher fees at the time.

At this time, it’s unclear when — or if — access to these channels will become available again to Charter/Spectrum customers. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on this situation, so stay tuned to AllEars.

Read all about how this dispute began here

How do you feel about this current situation? Tell us your thoughts below.