By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – @tvanswerman
Charter’s Spectrum TV could lose the Disney suite of channels, including ESPN and ABC-owned local channels in select markets, unless the two companies agree to a new carriage pact. The blackout could begin as early as 5 p.m. ET today. The potential blackout comes two days from the first full weekend of college football. Spectrum TV’s viewers are now seeing alerts posted on the Disney channels and both Spectrum TV and Disney have established web sites to communicate their positions to viewers.
Update: Spectrum TV Loses Disney Channels in Carriage Row
“We’re working hard to make sure some of America’s most watched networks such as the ESPN networks, including the ACC Network and SEC Network, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels stay available to Spectrum TV customers,” Disney says at the web site, Keepmynetworks.com. “If we don’t reach a new agreement with Spectrum soon, some of your favorite shows may be gone from your lineup including SportsCenter and exclusive live sports such as Monday Night Football and college football plus Mickey Mouse Funhouse, 31 Nights of Halloween, American Horror Story, Welcome to Wrexham, Life Below Zero and much more.”
Charter’s Spectrum vs. Disney: What Happened the Last Time They Fought?
Spectrum TV’s web site, DisneyESPNFairDeal.com, says: “The Walt Disney Company has threatened to remove their programming from Spectrum which creates hardship for our customers. We offered Disney a fair deal, yet they are demanding an excessive increase. They also want to limit our ability to provide greater customer choice in programming packages forcing you to take and pay for channels you may not want. Spectrum is on your side and fighting to keep costs down while protecting and maximizing customer choice.”
Spectrum TV vs. Disney: When Will the Blackout End?
The cable operator says the following Disney-owned channels could be removed if a new carriage agreement is not reached: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN News, SEC Network, ACC Network, Longhorn Network, FX, FX Movie Channel, FXX, Freeform, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Baby TV. In addition, Spectrum TV subscribers could lose the following ABC stations: ABC7 Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, ABC7 New York, ABC7 San Francisco, ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, ABC13 Houston, and ABC30 Fresno.
The TV Answer Man will monitor this dispute and report back here if anything significant changes.
Meanwhile, Spectrum TV subscribers are already posting angry complaints on social media sites, such as X:
@Ask_Spectrum please keep ESPN, freeform, FX, and Disney Channel, or we will be canceling our spectrum account
— Caite Maritato (@caitemckee) August 31, 2023
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
Disney and ESPN are useless anyway. Everything Disney has touched over the last 10 years has turned to trash. ESPN has little to do with quality sports anymore. I wish they would leave them off.
Disney doesn’t need money. I say to heck with paying more for their channels. Greater things on tv other than Disney’s Networks.I say, let them go
The FX channels make a difference — I often watch these channels.
But I never watch the sportsball channels like ESPN except for maybe SEC on a rare occasion for women’s college sports but like only if I’m bored and there’s nothing else on and I happen to pass the channel and check it out.
Disney XD, Disney, and Freeform are all okay but I never watch these regularly. Alone Together was my favorite show but they canceled after like two seasons 🙁 I like having these channels around as an option, even if they’re not regularly used if that makes any sense. Like most channels, we kind of pay more for the ability to watch rather than
I hope Ron DeSantis shuts y’all down really holding spectrum hostage 2 raise prices y’all suck greed that’s all it is
WTF It is all about money!!!!!!
just pay it spectrum.. we all know you rollin in the dough.. you can’t afford to lose all this
They should not be allowed to broadcast football games
Nor Tennis tournaments
They wait till the UF and UTah game to spring this crap! Time to boycott Disney out of Florida Now! They’re a woke ass company that has no fricking clew how to run a business. I wish they would of never came to florida, they have become a cancer to this state, creating nothing of value for the state. and i will be passing this on to the governor. Its time to close the doors to disney and run them out of the state, along with all it’s woke workers that want to push their preverted agenda onto hard working florida citizens that just want to live in peace.
I could not agree more!!
I agree. I just now discovered I have no ESPN channel to watch the Utah-Florida football game. Here in SoCal is so bad…never thought my tv would go woke too!
*Where’s Bat-Man?!
Why wait until football season to have this dispute Accept Spectrum’s deal give us our channels back
already pay enough for cable, give me a break don’t MICKEY AND MINNIE have enough money????!!!!!
THATS SOME childish A.S‼️
The US Open Tennis 2023 is underway now and is exclusively on ESPN shame on both Disney and Spectrum. Your greed is boundless.
So true! They chose this time & US Open to pull this crap. I’m so p%$$ed!
We watch the ESPN channels all the time – we are sports lovers and are quite upset with money grabbing Disney. Now all Disney products will be boycotted by us and our family and friends.
This is disgusting- give us our channels back. You really picked a fine time to do this.
Excatly. Now my special needs twins are loosing their minds. Plus spectrum no longer needs to charge us for those channels we can no longer view.
I’m sitting here preparing myself to explain this to my 27 year old son with autism… he’s is going to be very upset too day the least. This world is already unforgiving and hard for families like mine. I always thought Disney was more family oriented but I guess greed and money rule this country. I couldn’t care less about Disney but for my son this is going to be a difficult explanation and a long weekend
What’s the matter, you don’t make enough money?
So it had to happen when college football start? My dad is an 86 year old man that even bought the pkg so he and my mom (before she passed last year) could watch SEC games especially Ky. Wildcats BB. Such a shame everything has to be about money all the time. My dad can’t afford to pay more than what he already is. Shame on you!!
This is some bull#$@^. Really Disney? You wait until Florida plays Utah? Give us our channels back NOW!!!!!!!
We pay over 250.00 per month to spectrum, it is their duty to deal with others for customers as we are spectrum customer, shame on them , they have done this during tennis and. Mets, shame, shame
You should call into their retention department for. New promo
wow!!! cable is high enough, MICKEY& MINNIE has enough money!!!! work this out
time to leave spectum . they just raised my rates 30 $ a month and now they are putting all the customers in another raise the price situation. screw spectrum they new this was coming and waited till the last minute to tell us. I’m done with their price gouging.
It’s not a custom choice to deal with Disney not a fan not a happy place Disney sucks all about money greedy butt hole
Why is it Disney fault and not Spectrum? Spectrum is the greedy one here. Call them and they will raise your bill to get ESPN back just like they did with Bally.
I cite greed on both parts, but my special needs child doesn’t want to know about that. I was born into a generation where Disney = privilege. Today’s children are exposed to Disney in the womb, and not just on TV- they plaster themselves everywhere, including the minds of our children, for free, and then the accompanying costs are anything but. I’ve heard trip to Disneyworld for the past few years constantly, and you know why park attendance is down? The shit is expensive! A good PR department has managed to blame it on Desantis, the culture of the workers vs. the culture of Florida, when the truth is it has always been too expensive, it’s gotten even more expensive with a worse environment and lack of updates, and working parents just don’t have the money. So we appease our children with the channel, which is more than we had after all, and now that day’s work that I pay Spectrum for the “package ” isn’t good enough. I don’t want to be rewarded for purchasing the Disney channel with 20 other channels that may or may not be in English and I would not watch anyway. Want to start a cable company? Provide the service and equipment for a small fee, and give me a list of channels, 1 – whatever , and let me pick the ones I want and pay for those! So simple!
I am emjoying all the comments regarding the GREED OF DISNEY…. SEEMS pretty bad to pull the rug out underneath peoples enjoyment of watching shows that are exclusive on ESPN…… pretty wrong to have this argument at the expense of your customers, who hopefully will ccancel all the Disney channels asap
Time to switch .. nough said
We just had a rate increase last month. How much more can Disney want or need ?
Walt would be so disgusted about this. If they rate hike I will never ever watch another Disney movie. And if I can not watch my college football and General Hospital I am not goin to be happy….
I’m in the middle of watching US open tennis and this crap shows up on my screen instead!!! NOT HAPPY!
I will have you know I will NEVER go to a Disney theme park or buy anything Disney again! This is the final straw unless you immediately restore such channels as ESPN, the SEC Channel, and others. I don’t live far from your park in the Orlando area. My friends and family are just as fed up as I am tonight. We all pay good money to just watch our sports teams – it is a real sacrifice for many of us with this economy. You have the money. Don’t be so greedy!!!
Hope Spectrum files for bankruptcy by end of year! Canceling my phone, cable and internet tomorrow! Greedy assholes!
Shameless what both companies have pulled on their customers! I’m going back to reading books it’s a lot cheaper.👎🏻
Was ready to watch 2 football games tonight. Went to get a snack. returned and TV was black. Nothing in the Spectrum invoice. No notice. Just gone. Thought it was a technical problem. Spectrum bill has doubled over several years and Disney wants more. Two supersized companies and who suffers. The customer!! Both of these companies and others like them make me sick. Sunday night’s game is between the #s 5 and 8 teams in the country. Think we’ll see it. Not a chance because of corporate greed. Nobody cares about “the customer” anymore. They say they do but it’s just BS.
I guess it’s time to cut the cable. Sad thing is Disney owns ESPN & SEC Network. If you’re a college football fan what can you do?? Spectrum and Disney disgust me!!
Why didn’t Spectrum notify customers before today? Why should Spectrum customers pay more for Disney/ESPN? This is a Monopoly! This is corporate gouging by both Disney and Charter. I find
this situation reprehensible! Obviously, kicking myself in the butt for supporting Disney in the DiSantis-Disney kurfunkle.
I will not pay $10.00 a month to Spectrum
or Disney!
Disney needs to realize that while I may want football, this I tarnishing their brand. I do not blame Spectrum one bit.
While I want football, I WILL boycott other shows. No more College GameDay, no more SportsCenter.
If you were planning a trip to a Disney park…cancel it. Cancel Disney+.
Spectrum is going the way of the dinosaurs, extinction. Rates have doubled in last 5 years and programming has shrunk, recipe for disaster.
Spectrum is out of control why am I paying the same amount when they keep taking channels away. I hate spectrum they are crooks
The only decent shows on TV are on ABC, the food network and the Disney channel, so now I have literally nothing to watch on TV but reruns of the Golden Girls and crappy Hallmark movies.
This is BS i watch racing and wrestling on these channel No Disney But lose my other channel cause they are package deal
So how much is the refund for services sold and billed but not provided?
Refund will be in increase of bill after Spectrum & Disney/ESPN finish squabbling
Poor Disney. They need more money!
Total and complete jerks. The rich get richer while us poor working stiffs get screwed again.
I hope they can sleep at night.
Now I have to try and explain to my grandchildren why they can’t watch Bluey anymore .
Walt Disney would be ashamed of what he started has become
Disney is a Woke culture DISASTER. I don’t care what your sexual preference is but stop FORCING your minority behavior on the Majority of People. We don’t care what you do BUT KEEP IT PRIVATE LIKE DECENT PEOPLE SHOULD!!!!
What does Woke mean ?
Who is Forcing what on who ?