Millions miss games as TV channels, carriers fight over fees

( NewsNation ) — Sports fans from coast to coast welcomed the first full weekend of college football, and the mid-point of tennis’ U.S. Open – except for some customers of Comcast and DirecTV.

In the middle of ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage and hours before ABC’s coverage of the USC-LSU football game, the channels went dark on the satellite and streaming service. The carriage agreement between Disney Corp. and DirecTV expired at the end of August, and so far, the two firms have failed to agree on a new deal.

In a separate conflict, Comcast (branded as Xfinity) customers in Oregon and Washington were blocked from watching the Ducks and Husky games Saturday on the Big Ten Network because of a fight over the network’s demand for higher carriage fees in its new markets.

DirecTV vs. Disney

“DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the US Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season,” read a statement on ESPN’s website.

The DirecTV service interruption affects the ESPN networks, ABC, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform and National Geographic. DirecTV has more than 11 million subscribers.

DirecTV says the fight is over more than just carriage fees, but also the freedom to raise future disputes. “Just hours before today’s expiration, Disney demanded that to reach any licensing agreement or to extend access to its programming, DIRECTV must agree to waive all claims that Disney’s behavior is anti-competitive,” DirecTV said in a lengthy post on its website .

DirecTV has also been pursuing ways to “de-bundle” channels to offer cheaper tiers, something it says Disney has resisted even as it is trying to launch a new sports-only streaming service with Fox and Warner Bros.

“A proposed sports-only streaming service is exactly what consumers want and DIRECTV has sought from Disney, along with other genre-specific bundles such as kids, entertainment and news,” the DirecTV statement added.

Disney’s last blackout conflict with a carrier was a year ago. The carriage fight with Charter Communications lasted about one week before the two sides reached what they called a “transformative agreement” for Charter’s nearly 15 million subscribers.

Comcast vs. Big Ten Network

Meanwhile, Comcast customers along the West Coast were denied seeing the games carried by the Big Ten Network involving Oregon and Washington and will miss next Saturday’s games involving Washington and USC, because of a fight over the network’s placement on Comcast’s channel lineup in the conference’s new markets.

With Oregon and Washington now part of the Big Ten’s “core territory,” the conference has required cable companies in those states to move the Big Ten Network to their basic tiers of service instead of the more expensive sports tiers. Every other West Coast cable company, as well as satellite carriers, agreed to the shift.

Only Comcast, the dominant carrier in most of the Pacific Northwest, refused. Comcast has a minimal presence in Southern California. Big Ten Network viewers in the Pacific Northwest can see every other game on the network as the football conflict continues.

“We’re sensitive to the impact these costs have on our customers and have been in discussions with FOX and the Big Ten Network to find a solution,” Comcast said in a Saturday statement. “We hope to be able to reach a fair agreement with FOX and the Big Ten Network to be able to offer these games to our customers.” Fox owns the Big Ten Network.

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