Walt Disney Co. proposed a partial detente (at least for Tuesday) as the blackout of its channels on DirecTV and U-Verse stretched into its 10th day.
The Walt Disney Co.’s proposal for a partial, temporary detente as the blackout of its channels on DirecTV and U-Verse stretches into its 10th day has devolved into another round of bickering.
Early Tuesday, Disney offered to restore the ABC network to DirecTV, U-Verse and DirecTV Stream customers for tonight’s highly anticipated debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump, which ABC News is hosting.
“As we announced in May, the ABC News presidential debate will be widely available across broadcast, cable and streaming,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement. “Although we have yet to reach an agreement [with DirecTV], we are providing a three-hour feed of ABC News coverage to all impacted DirecTV customers at no cost because we want all Americans to be able to view tonight’s debate at this important moment in our history.”
DirecTV responded that it would go along with the request to restore ABC for the debate if Disney accepted a more comprehensive compromise: The El Segundo-based satellite TV provider asked Disney to allow it to run the full suite of Disney channels, including ABC and ESPN, for an additional week as the two sides worked to hammer out a new distribution agreement.
