Florida State, Boston College game impacted by Disney-DirecTV dispute
Over 11 million DirecTV subscribers were left without access to Disney channels on Sunday night, including ESPN and ABC, as the two parties began a carriage dispute.
The broken talks over a new distribution deal left millions of customers without access to the U.S. Open and Sunday night’s primetime, top-25 LSU–USC matchup in Las Vegas. As of Monday morning, Disney and DirecTV have yet to agree on a new deal.
It’s the second consecutive college football season Disney has been in a stalemate with a broadcasting company. The entertainment company was in a dispute with Charter Spectrum a year ago that lasted more than a week.
Disney’s standoff with DirecTV will impact the one college football game scheduled for Monday night. Boston College is set to visit No. 10 Florida State for a 7:30 p.m. ET kick on ESPN. According to The Wall Street Journal, the dispute centers around an increase in fees that Disney is looking for to carry popular channels plus DirecTV’s desire to have more flexibility in how it sells those channels to customers.
Week 1 of the NFL season kicks off Thursday night, with the New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers set for next Monday on ESPN and ABC. That date will be a driving factor in the two sides reaching an agreement.
“We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve,” Disney and ESPN executives said in a statement. “We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”
How can you watch college football games on ABC, ESPN?
Last year, Disney urged Spectrum customers to cut the cord and switch to Hulu + Live TV. If the dispute with DirecTV carries on, the entertainment giant could make a similar push.
YouTube TV could emerge as the winner of this. At $72.99 a month, it is a tad pricey but the streaming service now holds the Sunday Ticket TV package. It is currently running a $ 64.99-a-month promotion for the user’s first four months.
Fubo offers live sports at $79.99 a month but is also offering a free trial.
Xfinity, Big Ten Network also in dispute
An ongoing carriage dispute between Xfinity and the Big Ten Network left fans from the new West Coast Big Ten schools without access to Week 1 games. The Big Ten Network, owned by Fox, is pushing for Xfinity to add the channel to its basic tier across the West Coast. But the telecommunications company has not given in.
Instead, Xfinity subscribers in markets for Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington cannot watch college football games at the moment on Big Ten Network, even if they paid for an elevated Xfinity sports tier.
“The issue is that the Big Ten Network is trying to get inner-market rates in the states of Washington, Oregon and California (similar to what they get in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc.) and Comcast isn’t interested in playing ball,” a veteran TV source told On3 last week. “The same thing may happen with ESPN attempting to drive ACC Network rates in San Francisco because that conference now has Stanford and Cal.”