DirecTV Rejects Disney’s Offer to Air Tonight’s Presidential Debate on ABC for Customers

Brian Welk
·3 min read

UPDATE with DirecTV response: DirecTV is rejecting Disney’s offer to air the U.S. Presidential debate while Disney’s channels remain dark to DirecTV customers, saying that the offer is self-serving because the debate is being produced by the Disney-owned ABC News.

In a statement posted to the satellite provider’s website, the company said Disney requested a “unique exception” to return access to ABC for DirecTV customers for three hours during coverage of the debate, even though it will still simulcast across other networks.

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“Unfortunately, returning only Disney’s ABC stations from the entire portfolio of channels for a limited 3-hour window will cause customer confusion among those who would briefly see the debate only to lose the channel again shortly after,” the company wrote.

DirecTV said it offered Disney the chance to return ABC and all its other channels to the air tonight in time for the debate, and it would agree to keep all of them live for the next week, through the end of next week’s Monday Night Football, all as they continue to negotiate a new carriage agreement. But DirecTV said Disney “flat-out rejected” the offer.

Earlier today, a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to press: “As we announced in May, the ABC News presidential debate will be widely available across broadcast, cable, and streaming. Although we have yet to reach an agreement, we are providing a three-hour feed of ABC News coverage to all impacted DirecTV customers at no cost because we want all Americans to be able to view tonight’s debate at this important moment in our history. We remain at the table negotiating with DirecTV and the restoration of our programming to their subscribers is completely within their control.”

The 2024 Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris figures to be a significant one in determining the outcome of the election. The last debate between Trump and President Joe Biden was watched by 48 million people.

ABC’s debate is still meant to be simulcast on CNN and Fox News, as well as available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, but after DirecTV’s rebuff, their subscribers living in markets like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where Disney owns the local stations, will be blacked out.

A carriage deal between Disney and DirecTV surprisingly did not get done in time for last night’s first Monday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets. Last year, when Disney was embroiled in a similar carriage dispute between Charter Communications, the two companies came to an agreement hours before kickoff.

Still at risk without a deal for DirecTV subscribers is the Emmys, which this year air on ABC and take place this Sunday. Those customers will be without the awards show if Disney can’t come to an agreement with the cable provider in time.

What Disney and DirecTV are fighting over is a tale as old as time, but it’s become particularly fraught as cable and linear television continues to be in decline. Disney wants higher fees for DirecTV and other providers to carry its channels that air live sports, including ESPN, but DirecTV wants the flexibility to offer skinnier bundles to its customers and not be forced to take all of Disney’s other, lesser cable channels if they really just want the live sports.

First it was Charter that argued this time last year that Disney was among those that took its best content off of cable and started moving it exclusively to streaming. They successfully negotiated to offer Spectrum customers free access to the ad-tier of Disney+, and the deal set a precedent for other carriage agreements between providers and other studios. DirecTV now wants a similar deal, but is far smaller than Charter, and the negotiations continue.

Trump and Harris face off tonight, September 10 at 9 p.m. ET.

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