Monday Night Countdown made its 2024 debut on September 9 starring, left to right, Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark, Jason Kelce, and Marcus Spears ESPN Monday marked Kelce’s ESPN debut after retiring from the NFL in March ESPN
As happened a year ago, DirecTV has been left without ESPN and ABC networks after the parent companies failed to reach an agreement on a new distribution deal.
Since then, DirecTV viewers have been unable to watch the latter stages of the US Open as well as college football , and now the NFL.
Unfortunately for NFL fans hoping for an end to the blackout in the near future, the outlook appears bleak.
On Saturday, a complaint was filed against Disney by DirecTV to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as per CNN .
“Disney has violated the FCC’s good faith mandates by predicating any licensing agreement on DirecTV’s waiving any legal claims on Disney’s past, current, or future anticompetitive actions, including its ongoing packaging and minimum penetration demands,” a spokesperson for DirecTV told the outlet.
In response, Disney said on Sunday that they were continuing “to negotiate with DirecTV to restore access to our content as quickly as possible.
“We urge DirecTV to stop creating diversions and instead prioritize their customers by finalizing a deal that would allow their subscribers to watch our strong upcoming lineup of sports, news and entertainment programming, starting with the return of Monday Night Football.”
Ahead of Kelce’s debut, ESPN colleague and fellow NFL veteran Dan Orlovsky called on fans to make such a switch away from DirecTV.
“I’d wanna be sure to watch Kelce on Countdown @DIRECTV subscribers, don’t miss Monday Night Football on @espn as the Jets take on the Niners at 8P on @espn… Take action now and sign up for @hulu, @sling, @YouTubeTV or @fuboTV,” he tweeted .
They'll let this clown continue to be a 'Shit Bird', and nothing will be said!! I saw this shit show in the making for him with his farewell retirement bullshit!!
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