Comcast Renews Carriage Deal For Disney Programming On Xfinity Service

Walt Disney Co DIS and Comcast Corporation CMCSA have renewed the carriage pact which will enable Disney’s broadcast and cable networks to continue on Comcast’s Xfinity service.

What Happened: Variety reports the companies signed a “multi-year agreement” including carriage of the ESPN networks, Disney’s family-friendly cable networks, Freeform, the FX and National Geographic networks and ABC-owned stations on Xfinity. 

Also included in the deal are two ESPN-backed college sports operations, the SEC Network and the ACC Network — the latter’s inclusion completes its efforts to become a nationally distributed outlet.

Subscribers will also be able to gain access to Disney programming using Xfinity’s voice remote that allows viewers to access by naming the outlet or specific program. The financial terms of the agreement were not made public.

The Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming services were made available via Xfinity earlier this year in a separate deal.

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Why It Matters: The agreement on the carriage offers a level of cordiality that eluded Disney and Comcast in their joint ownership of the Hulu streaming service. Disney and Comcast have an agreement to jointly run Hulu through 2024, at which time Disney could buy Comcast’s stake for fair market value. 

But relations between the companies have frayed since the summer of 2020 when Disney reversed its plans to launch Hulu in overseas markets, choosing instead to reach global viewers under the Star brand name for programming that did not fit the Disney+ family-friendly line-up. Comcast was upset with Disney’s decision, reportedly claiming that Hulu could have grown much faster and become more profitable if Disney did not change its plans, and the Philadelphia-based company stopped paying for its share of Hulu’s funding needs since this occurred.

With the new agreement, there was nary a harsh word between the companies.

“We’re very happy to extend our longstanding relationship with Comcast and continue to provide their Xfinity customers with Disney’s best-in-class programming,” said Sean Breen, executive vice president, platform distribution, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.

“We are very pleased to have reached this comprehensive agreement with Disney to continue providing Xfinity customers access to their content across our industry-leading platforms,” said Rebecca Heap, senior vice president, consumer products and propositions, at Comcast Cable.

Photo: Mike Mozart / Xfinity