ESPN goes dark on DirecTV moments before huge game

Jan. 4, 2011; New Orleans, LA, USA; ESPN logo prior to the 2011 Sugar Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Louisiana Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

DirecTV subscribers settling in to watch Sunday’s big USC-LSU game received a very unwelcome surprise just minutes before kickoff, when all ESPN networks were removed over a carriage dispute.

Many viewers — and even some sportswriters — were left shocked and dismayed when all Disney-owned channels went dark less than a half hour before the 7:30 pm ET kickoff time. The dispute stems from DirecTV’s desire to offer smaller packages of channels that would not require consumers to pay for networks that they do not watch, like ESPN, according to Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg .

Both ESPN and DirecTV had warned consumers about the potential loss of the channels prior to Sunday. However, few would have assumed that the networks would have gone dark when they actually did. The coverage of USC-LSU on ABC was already well into its pregame coverage when the channel suddenly stopped broadcasting for most DirecTV subscribers.

The sudden change even caused some disruption at viewing screens for the US Open, another ESPN-aired event.

Disney, through ESPN, quickly issued a statement about the disruption, blaming DirecTV for insisting on “an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.” In its own statement, DirecTV placed the blame on Disney for shifting much of its programming to its streaming service while “making customers pay more than once for the same programming on multiple Disney platforms.”

Viewers probably won’t care who is at fault for the carriage dispute. At minimum, the timing will certainly leave a lot of people infuriated.

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