Disney and DirecTV Ink New Carriage Deal in Principle, Ending Blackout of ABC and ESPN

After a two-week channel blackout, Disney and DirecTV have a deal in principle.

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The deal comes in time for college football games set to run on ESPN Saturday, as well as the Emmy Awards on Sunday night and Monday Night Football .

The agreed-upon points include the opportunity to offer DirecTV customers genre-specific bundles, sports, entertainment, kids and family, which also incorporate Disney’s linear networks, as well as Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. DirecTV will also have the right to distribute Disney’s upcoming ESPN flagship streaming service to its customers for free upon launch.

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ will be included in select DirecTV packages and made available individually. DirecTV will also have continued carriage at “market-based terms” of Disney’s entertainment, sports and news programming, including the ABC Owned Television Stations, the ESPN networks, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels.

As a result of the deal, with the multi-ear contract yet to be finalized, all of Disney’s channels have been restored to DirecTV customers.

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In a joint statement, the companies said: “Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DIRECTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to tailor their video experience through more flexible options. DIRECTV and Disney have a long-standing history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement furthers that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney’s content and the evolving preferences of DIRECTV’s customers. We’d like to thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to restore Disney’s entire portfolio of networks in time for college football and the Emmy Awards this weekend.”

As with any carriage agreement, the devil will be in the details. By agreeing to the genre-based bundles, Disney is giving DirecTV its big ask, however, the penetration targets and prices are not known, and they could impact how the plans are received by consumers.

Similarly, the inclusion of Disney’s streaming services not only provides added value to DirecTV customers but serves Disney’s bottom line by expanding the reach of those services.

Unlike last year’s deal with Charter Spectrum, which saw a handful of channels like Freeform, Disney Junior and FXX cut from lineups, the DirecTV deal appears to keep the lineups intact.

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