DirecTV and Disney are going down to the wire with carriage renewal negotiations ahead of the current deal’s expiration on Sunday. While the sides are actively negotiating, to no one’s surprise they don’t see eye to eye. The friction is starting to spill into public view, though as yet there are no on-screen crawls or social media alerts going out to warn customers of a potential blackout.
“They have not engaged in earnest on proposals we’ve made to them” for customized packages of channels, President of Disney Platform Distribution Justin Connolly told Deadline in an interview. “They’re trying to lay the blame for their lack of investment in their platform at the feet of programmers.” Rob Thun, CEO of DirectTV says the talks have unavoidably been colored by the recent federal court ruling blocking Disney, Fox and Warner Bros.
Discovery from launching their planned Venu Sports streaming bundle on antitrust grounds. “It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth,” he said, describing the behavior of the media companies as “dirty pool.” While charged rhetoric is not new to carriage disputes, a lot has changed of late in the pay-TV trenches since Disney’s last major renewal, a high-profile clash a year ago with Charter Communications.
That dispute, which played out during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the start to college football season, led to a 10-day blackout of Disney networks.
The ultimate result was a milestone agreement that left some well-esta.