Disney Comes To The Rescue, Ensuring US Open Broadcast Amid Cable Blackout

In a surprising move, The Walt Disney Company DIS has intervened to resolve a cable blackout crisis during a dispute with Charter Communications, ensuring the uninterrupted broadcast of the U.S. Open tennis matches.

What Happened: Approximately 15 million U.S. pay-TV customers have been unable to access Disney networks, including ESPN, since Thursday due to a fee dispute with Charter, as per a report by Financial Times.

This standoff pits Charter, a traditional cable carrier striving to retain subscribers amidst cord-cutting trends, against Disney, which has been promoting direct-to-consumer streaming in recent years and relies on ESPN for U.S. sports programming. 

Tennis players at the U.S. Open found themselves caught in the middle, unable to watch opponents’ matches in New York.

To address this, Disney provided secure logins to its app for some U.S. Open players and media members, including ESPN tennis analyst John McEnroe, who contracted COVID-19 and was reportedly “going nuts” that he couldn’t attend matches in person. 

See Also: Why Disney’s ‘Melting Iceberg’ ESPN Is Unlikely To Attract Apple As Buyer

Why It Matters: While carriage disputes are common, this one comes at a critical time during a busy week for live sports programming.

The U.S. Open, a prestigious tennis tournament, began on August 28 and was broadcast on Disney’s ESPN family of channels, including ESPN+.

This incident also comes amidst reports of Disney’s restructuring and a potential sale of its ESPN cable sports channel, given its current challenges. According to analyst Brandon Nispel of KeyBanc Capital Markets, ESPN’s valuation may be around $30 billion, and some view it as a “melting iceberg.”

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