Millions of subscribers to Charter Communications' pay-TV services lost access to several Disney networks, such as ESPN, because of a disagreement over fees. This means they are unable to watch the U.S. Open and the first week of the NFL season, which includes “Monday Night Football.” Charter considers the current pay-TV model to be flawed, and believes that Disney and comparable companies have contributed significantly to the decline of cable cord-cutting.
Charter Communications and Disney are in a heated dispute over contract fees, leaving millions of people without access to U.S. Open, college football and potentially "Monday Night Football" as the NFL's season moves closer. On Thursday, Disney revealed that the two companies have been in negotiations yet to reach a resolution, committing Charter's customers to the loss of ABC and pay-TV channels such as ESPN and FX. This caused the stocks of both companies to dip by 2% Friday. Spectrum TV, a Charter service, holds 14.7 million customers across 41 states including key TV markets New York, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta. Such disagreements between pay-TV providers and companies are common today, yet this one is different. As stated by Charter CEO Chris Winfrey on Friday's investor call, "This is not a typical carriage dispute." He reported a 25% decrease in industry customers over the course of the last five years. To amend this, Charter proposed a restructured deal with Disney to give its cable customers access to Disney's ad-supported streaming services such as Disney+ and ESPN+ free of charge, although this was not accepted by Disney. Winfrey mentioned that this was a "stretch too far" for Disney, yet he suggested a "glidepath" forward through a traditional bundle with a lower cost for customers and increased viewership of Disney's streaming services. Disney CEO Bob Iger recently suggested the possibility of unloading traditional TV assets with ESPN classified as independent from this. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro declared during a CNBC event that ESPN's future would not exclude pay-TV distributors, as the traditional TV model has been "very good to Disney." Disney has said that it has found success in other pay-TV companies and is still working towards an agreement with Charter.
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