Disney and DIRECTV Reach New Deal

Disney and DIRECTV have reached a new deal. See what this new deal means for subscribers.

Networks Go Dark

DIRECTV is a popular provider in the United States. It has around 11.5 million subscribers. Many people access Disney’s products, such as ABC, ESPN, and Disney Channel through DIRECTV, U-verse, and DIRECTV Stream.

Earlier this month, channels vanished in the middle of or ahead of highly anticipated programming. The abrupt move upset subscribers everywhere.

You can read more about the dispute between Disney and DIRECTV HERE. An agreement between the two was difficult to reach. Disney responded with a new deal, but there were still many changes that remained.

New Agreement

A new deal was announced today by the two companies. The agreement included several key points:

• continued carriage at market-based terms of Disney’s entertainment, sports and news programming from its comprehensive linear portfolio, which includes the ABC Owned Televisoin Stations, the ESPN networks, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and National Geographic channels.
• the opportunity to offer multiple genre-specific options – sports, entertainment, kids & family – inclusive of linear networks along with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
• Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming services (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) to be included in select DIRECTV packages under a wholesale agreement, and also to be made available on an a la carte basis.
• The rights to distribute Disney’s upcoming ESPN flagship direct-to-consumer service upon its launch at no additional cost to DIRECTV customers.

Statement

The new agreement arrives just in time for college football and the Emmy Awards that are scheduled to take place this weekend. The two companies issued the following statement:

“Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DirecTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to tailor their video experience through more flexible options. DirecTV and Disney have a long-standing history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement furthers that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney’s content and the evolving preferences of DirecTV’s customers. We’d like to thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to restore Disney’s entire portfolio of networks in time for college football and the Emmy Awards this weekend.”

This is great news for those subscribers that were affected.

Source: Variety

What do you think of the new deal that has been reached? Were you affected by this at all? Are you glad to see a new agreement put in place? Let us know in the comments below or share this post with a friend.