DirecTV Says It Will Fight “As Long As It Needs To” In Carriage Dispute With Disney

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DirecTV Says It Will Fight “As Long As It Needs To” In Carriage Dispute With Disney

As a long-time DirecTV subscriber, I must say I’m finding myself squarely on Team Carpenter in this Disney dispute. I’ve been with DirecTV for years, and I’ve grown accustomed to the convenience of having all my favorite channels at my fingertips. The recent blackout of ABC and ESPN has certainly disrupted my viewing routine during the U.S. Open and college football season.

DirecTV CFO Ray Carpenter said the company will continue to fight “as long as it needs to” amid a carriage dispute with Disney, which has caused a number of Disney channels including ABC and ESPN to go dark for DirecTV customers.

During a meeting with journalists and financial experts on Tuesday, Carpenter stated that Directv is aiming to offer “lean, genre-focused” plans, where subscribers can pick the type of content they wish to pay for, grouped by categories such as news, family, and sports. Additionally, Directv is advocating for more flexibility in selecting channels and including direct-to-consumer content within these packages. Furthermore, Directv is emphasizing the need for “affordable pricing” and providing access to content immediately upon release, rather than making customers wait.

The television channels stopped broadcasting on September 1st, during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and before the LSU-USC college football game that day. When questioned if DirecTV would give in to their stance prior to the first Monday Night Football game of the season featuring the New York Jets against the San Francisco 49ers on September 9th, Carpenter stated that they wouldn’t yield, considering this as a critical or fundamental negotiation for the company.

“Carpenter stated that this disagreement isn’t typical. It’s not about negotiating minor adjustments to rates, but rather transforming the system in a manner that instills faith among all parties that our industry will endure.”

In a call filled with barbs against Disney, Carpenter blamed the disruption of the programming on the media conglomerate. 

“He stated that we had requested them to maintain the signal, which is typically necessary in similar scenarios, but unfortunately, Disney refused to consider this. In reality, it seemed as though they strategically chose to remove the content at a time that would cause the most inconvenience and disruption for our customers.”

On September 1st, Dana Walden, Alan Bergman (co-chairmen of Disney Entertainment), and Jimmy Pitaro (chairman to ESPN, successively placed the blame for the blackout on DirecTV. They expressed readiness to negotiate terms, but were unwilling to do so at a reduced price.

“Directv decided to prevent millions of viewers from accessing our content at a crucial time when the US Open is ending, college football starts, and the NFL season kicks off. However, we’re willing to give them flexibility and terms similar to what we’ve provided other distributors. We refuse to sign an agreement that doesn’t fairly compensate our television channels and programs.”

This year’s approach, which involves contacting the media, bears a striking resemblance to the media-related disagreement between Charter Spectrum and Disney that took place last year, known as their carriage dispute.

For approximately two weeks, Disney’s channels were inaccessible for Charter Spectrum viewers due to a disagreement. Charter argued that the issue was about shaping the future of television packages. Eventually, they reached an agreement where Disney+ and ESPN+ became free additions for Charter Spectrum subscribers. However, this deal also required Disney to remove some of its cable channels from the package.

Carpenter observed similarities, yet emphasized a key difference: whereas Charter offers not just internet, mobile service, but a variety of other amenities, DirectTV’s primary concern lies exclusively with its video subscribers. This distinction makes their ongoing negotiation all the more crucial and critical.

When inquired aboutheer’s about whether it is essential for Charter to incorporate Disney+, ESPN+, and eventually the upcoming consumer-direct ESPN platform for its users as part of their services, Carpenter clarified that not all customers may desire this offering. Therefore, he prefers a tailored deal instead of one that requires every customer to pay for it.

“He emphasized that there’s worth in this idea. However, it shouldn’t be identical to the one that led us here, which required full or a substantial payment from all customers. Instead, giving customers the freedom and option to choose is essential for us.”

Essentially, Carpenter stated that DirecTV aims to provide customers with greater programming flexibility and custom pricing, implying a willingness to lower prices, potentially impacting their profit margins. Additionally, he emphasized the importance of improving the user experience by simplifying content discovery. This move follows a trend of more content shifting towards direct-to-consumer services, as per Carpenter’s observation, which has resulted in a decline in the perceived value of traditional paid TV packages.

“He stated that it’s important to enable programmers who are trying to provide their services independently from distributors like us, but currently, this independence is hindering our ability to offer these services to our customers. Furthermore, we aim to create a smoother experience for accessing content, managing it, and discovering new content. This way, our customers can fully enjoy and benefit from the pay TV service they’ve come to expect.”

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2024-09-03 19:58