Can NFL Season Break ESPN-DirectTV Stalemate?

Will the NFL’s immense power be enough to help stop another large-scale TV distribution dispute?

A year after a carriage battle between ESPN parent Disney and Charter Communications was solved just hours before last season’s start of Monday Night Football, ultimately resulting in a groundbreaking deal, Disney is once again preparing to start a new NFL season in the midst of a thorny problem with a major carrier.

Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, are now dark on DirecTV, the No. 3 distributor in the U.S., after the parties failed to reach a new agreement by the Sept. 1 expiration of the prior contract. Tension between the two sides had risen since last week, hit a higher level on Saturday as DirecTV unveiled an advocacy website, UnbundleDisney.com, and then hit a new peak as the Sunday deadline passed without a new agreement.

“Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions,” said DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun.

Familiar Tone

Such invective is hardly rare in the midst of a tough distribution negotiation. During the darkest points of the Disney-Charter saga a year ago, the Spectrum parent company insisted that “we’re on the edge of a precipice … this is not a typical carriage battle.”

A record-breaking U.S. Open and two weekends of college football were not enough to break the Disney-Charter logjam. But the NFL was, not surprising given the league is the source of by far the most popular programming in all of U.S. television, regardless of genre. With the renewed Charter distribution in place just in time for the Jets-Bills MNF game last year, the contest drew a record audience of 22.6 million, beginning what was a banner year for the NFL on ESPN. The network’s 29% audience bump last year for MNF was the largest percentage increase for any individual NFL rights holder. 

The beginning of the 2024 MNF schedule is a week away, beginning on Sept. 9 with the Jets visiting the 49ers. That game marks the return of New York quarterback Aaron Rodgers after tearing his Achilles tendon in last year’s season-opener. 

“While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs,” said Disney in a statement attributed to Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, and Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairs of Disney Entertainment. “We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.” 

DirecTV is estimated to have more than 11 million subscribers, ranking only behind Charter and Comcast among U.S. carriers.

Big Numbers

Disney’s ABC, meanwhile, posted its best Week 1 college football audience, averaging 8 million viewers across four games.

Capping that total was Sunday night’s USC-LSU game, averaging 9.2 million viewers. That figure came despite the loss of ABC viewership on DirecTV, including on owned-and-operated affiliates Los Angeles and San Francisco, critical hubs of USC fandom.