For the second year in a row, ESPN has cut its coverage on major carriers during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and in the middle of the first weekend of college football.
DirecTV’s Disney Entertainment Channel was taken off the air Sunday night after the two sides were unable to reach a new broadcast deal.
The move has angered some sports fans, who have taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction, and the United States Tennis Association is also not happy about the new transportation dispute.
ESPN was broadcasting the fourth round of the U.S. Open, but its coverage ended on DirecTV at 7:20 p.m. ET.
It was 30 minutes before the start of a match between American Francis Tiafoe, a 2022 U.S. Open semifinalist, and Australian Alexei Popyrin, who beat defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday.
“It is unfortunate that pending negotiations between DirecTV and Disney will result in a loss of ESPN and deprive fans and viewers across the country of the opportunity to watch some of our sport’s best athletes compete in the 2024 U.S. Open. We look forward to this dispute being resolved as soon as possible,” the USTA said in a statement.
The incident also occurred 10 minutes before kickoff of a college football game in Las Vegas between No. 13 LSU and No. 23 University of Southern California.
ABC-owned stations in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno, California, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and Raleigh, North Carolina also left DirecTV.
Last year, Disney and Spectrum, the nation’s second-largest cable television provider, were locked in a nearly 12-day stalemate before reaching an agreement just hours before the first Monday night NFL game of the season.
DirecTV said Disney offered it an extension to continue airing the channels in exchange for waiving all future legal claims that its conduct was anti-competitive.
“The Walt Disney Company is once again refusing accountability to consumers, their distribution partners and now the American justice system,” DirecTV chief content officer Rob Sun said in a statement. “Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world and we believe people must earn their own money and be held accountable for their actions. They continue to pursue maximum profits and control at the expense of consumers, making it difficult for consumers to choose the programming and sports they want to watch at an affordable price.”
DirecTV has 11.3 million subscribers, making it the third-largest pay-TV provider in the United States, according to Leichtman Research Group.
Disney Entertainment Co-Chairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, along with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, issued a joint statement urging DirecTV to close the deal.
The statement added, “We are open to offering DirecTV the flexibility and terms we have offered other distributors, but we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programming. We are investing heavily in delivering the No. 1 brand in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve.”
The impasse comes as networks and distributors continue to battle over content, with distributors and subscribers wanting a model that lets them buy channels individually rather than subscribing to bundled packages.
Distributors are also frustrated that production companies are putting some of their premium shows on direct-to-consumer platforms before they air on their channels — DirecTV cited the miniseries “Shogun” airing on Hulu before FX as an example.
“Consumer frustration has never been higher as Disney moves the best producers, the most innovative shows, the top teams, conferences and entire leagues to its own direct-to-consumer service, forcing customers to buy the same shows multiple times across multiple Disney platforms,” Toon said. “Disney’s only magic is raising prices while simultaneously making content disappear.”
All ESPN network channels and ABC-owned stations are no longer available on DirecTV, along with Disney-branded channels Freeform, FX and National Geographic Channel.