Disney, Charter miss deadline but keep talking about carriage deal

Disney and Charter are nonetheless discussing a brand new multiyear carriage settlement, blowing previous Friday’s 12:01 a.m. deadline, as the 2 sides attempt to attain a deal, in line with individuals conversant in the matter.

The sides are making progress on a deal and wish to keep away from a blackout of common networks together with ESPN, ABC and The Disney Channel, stated the individuals, who requested to not be named as a result of the discussions are non-public.

Discussions between pay-TV suppliers and content material suppliers have grow to be extra sophisticated this yr as giant programmers, together with Disney, AT&T’s WarnerMedia and CBS, look to divvy up their content material between their linear networks and bespoke streaming providers.

Earlier this month, AT&T and CBS failed to succeed in a deal, which has triggered tens of millions of DirecTV subscribers to lose entry to CBS’ broadcast community. CBS acknowledged it has seen a rise in subscribers for its CBS All Access streaming product, which broadcasts most of CBS’ programming for $5.99 a month, for the reason that blackout.

The major sticking factors between Charter and Disney have been points associated to ESPN, the most costly community within the pay-TV bundle, stated the individuals. One difficulty has been ESPN’s proposed pricing for the ACC Network, a brand new cable channel that can broadcast collegiate sports activities for groups within the convention, together with Clemson, Duke and the University of North Carolina. The ACC Network is ready to broadcast Clemson’s opening sport towards the Georgia Tech on Aug. 29. Clemson gained final yr’s faculty soccer nationwide championship. About 40 p.c of Charter’s footprint overlaps with ACC colleges.

Spokespeople for Charter and Disney declined to remark.

Another hurdle is how a lot flexibility Charter is keen to present ESPN+, Disney’s $4.99 per thirty days streaming product. The two sides are discussing probably together with ESPN+ as a brand new community that Charter customers can entry on their set-top field, the individuals stated.

Disney plans to bundle ESPN+ with Hulu and Disney+ when it launches in November and want to strengthen the sports activities streaming service whereas not eroding the worth of ESPN, which instructions about $10 for each pay-TV subscriber. Typically, Disney will ask cable operators to distribute ESPN to at the least 80 p.c of their subscriber footprints, in line with individuals conversant in the matter.

While pay-TV corporations resembling Viacom have misplaced leverage in carriage charge negotiations as a result of a lot of its precious programming from Nickelodeon and Comedy Central is obtainable on streaming providers resembling Amazon Prime and Hulu, Disney remains to be asking for increased charges for ESPN and its related networks due to the worth of reside sports activities, stated the individuals. Disney hasn’t made ESPN accessible as a stand-alone…