The Walt Disney Company has imposed a channel blackout on millions of DISH TV and SLING TV subscribers.
- Disney initiates channel blackout, holds viewers hostage for negotiation leverage
- Disney ignores DISH’s extension offers, walks away from table
- Disney demands nearly a billion dollar increase
After failing to secure a new carriage agreement on Saturday, the Walt Disney Company has dropped a dozen channels from Dish Network’s satellite platform and streaming service Sling TV.
Dish Network revealed the outage in a statement issued to media early Saturday morning.
“Disney has exploited its market position to increase fees without regard for the public viewing experience,” Brian Neylon, the executive vice president of Dish TV, said on Saturday. “Clearly, Disney insists on prioritizing greed above American viewers, especially sports fans and families with children who watch their content.”
The blackout affects almost a dozen Disney-owned and controlled channels, including ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN News, ACC Network, National Geographic, NatGeo Kids, FX, FXX, FXM, Freeform, the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD. Customers in seven regional areas — New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, and Fresno — have also lost access to Disney-owned ABC stations.
According to a Dish Network spokeswoman, Disney has declined to extend the company’s contract to transmit its cable networks via satellite and streaming. Dish claimed the move to stop negotiating over channel carriage will disproportionately affect satellite service customers who live in rural areas, where pay television options are limited.
“We will continue to negotiate to provide the best value for our customers. We want to provide customers with fair rates, reliable service and the freedom of choice to pay for the channels they watch most,” Gary Schanaman, an executive in charge of Sling TV, said on Saturday. “Disney is an important long-term partner for us, and we hope they will be reasonable in their demands so we can reach a fair agreement and bring our customers’ channels back as quickly as possible.”
As of Saturday morning, Disney executives had not addressed the programming outage.
Dish Network has been active in its discussions with programmers and television station owners in recent years, seeking more fees in exchange for the right to transmit their channels and networks. Earlier this year, a Dish Network executive stated that a dispute with local TV station owner TEGNA, which resulted in the removal of dozens of local channels from the service, was the primary reason for a reduction in satellite and streaming subscribers.
Dish Network has also declined to include regional sports channels offered by Comcast’s NBC Universal and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports, which it considers to be overpriced and of little interest to its customers.
However, the issue with Disney is exceptional in that the relationship between the two firms was one of Sling TV’s key selling points in its early days. Sling TV was one of the few methods to watch ESPN’s sports networks without a regular cable or satellite subscription when it launched in 2015.
The dispute between Dish Network and Disney will affect all Sling TV subscribers who pay at least $35 per month for streaming versions of top-tier cable networks. The firm offers two basic channel packages: Sling Orange, which includes Disney’s traditional cable network lineup, and Sling Blue, which includes Disney-owned channels such as FX and National Geographic that were previously held by the Fox Corporation.
It’s unclear whether Disney sought more money for its channel portfolio, or if the company’s demands would force Dish Network to include the former Fox cable channels in Sling Orange.
Customers will be unable to access Disney’s package of programmes, including ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” until they transfer to a competing provider. Customers with Dish Network satellite service who live in rural areas can join up for DirecTV service to acquire the missing channels.
Streamers who want ESPN and the other Disney channels have a more difficult choice: pay much more or go without. Vidgo ($60 per month), Disney’s Hulu with Live TV ($70 per month), Google-owned YouTube TV ($65 per month), Fubo TV ($70 per month), and DirecTV Stream ($70 per month) presently offer the channels.