Disney and DirecTV have signed a new wagon deal, in principle ending the ABC and ESPN outages
The deal comes in the time slot for ESPN's college football games on Saturdays, as well as Sunday night's Emmy Awards and Monday Night Football the following day. Points agreed upon include opportunities to offer DirecTV customers exclusive genre, sports, entertainment, kids and family packages, including Disney linear networks, as well as Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. DirecTV will also have the right to distribute Disney's upcoming flagship ESPN streaming service free to customers at launch.
The deal comes in the time slot for ESPN's college football games on Saturdays, as well as Sunday night's Emmy Awards and Monday Night Football the following day. Points agreed upon include opportunities to offer DirecTV customers exclusive genre, sports, entertainment, kids and family packages, including Disney linear networks, as well as Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. DirecTV will also have the right to distribute Disney's upcoming flagship ESPN streaming service free to customers at launch.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ are included in select DirecTV packages and will also be made available separately. DirecTV will also have continued broadcasting of Disney's entertainment, sports and news programming on "market-based terms", including ABC Owned Television Stations, ESPN networks, Disney-branded channels, Freeform, FX Networks and National Geographic Channel.
In a joint statement, the two companies said: "Through this unique collaboration, DIRECTV and Disney give consumers the ability to customize their video experience through flexible options. DIRECTV and Disney have a long history of partnerships that deliver great entertainment, and this deal continues that commitment by recognizing the tremendous value of Disney content and the changing preferences of DIRECTV customers. We want to thank all affected viewers for their patience and we're pleased to restore the entire Disney network portfolio in time for the College Emmys." awards."
Like any carriage deal, the devil will be in the details. By agreeing to gender-based packages, Disney granted DirecTV its big request, however, penetration targets and prices are unknown, and could affect how consumers receive their plans. Likewise, adding Disney's streaming services not only provides added value to DirecTV customers, but also Disney's bottom line by expanding the reach of those services. Disney says the deal extends to linear channels in "market-based terms."
And unlike last year's deal with Charter Spectrum, in which a handful of channels like Freeform, Disney Junior and FXX were cut from the lineup, the DirecTV deal keeps the lineup intact. After a long dispute over the removal of ABC, ESPN, FX and Disney Channel from the DirecTV lineup, the media giant and the satellite TV firm have reached a new carriage deal, bringing the channels back into the lineup.
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