Disney, DirecTV End Channel Blackout, Enter into New Carriage Deal

After two weeks of channel blackouts, Disney and DirecTV have reached an agreement in principle.

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

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

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ will be included in select DirecTV packages and will also be made available individually. DirecTV will also continue to carry Disney entertainment, sports and news programming on “market terms,” including ABC-owned television stations, ESPN networks, Disney-branded channels, Freeform, FX networks and National Geographic channels.

Under the deal, which has yet to be finalized over a multi-year contract, all Disney channels have been restored to DirecTV customers.

In a joint statement, the companies said: “Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DIRECTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to personalize their video experience through more flexible options. DIRECTV and Disney have a long history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment, and this agreement reinforces that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney content and the evolving preferences of DIRECTV customers. We would like to thank all affected viewers for their patience and are excited to bring Disney's full network portfolio back in time for college football and the Emmy Awards this weekend.”

As with any carrier deal, the devil is in the details. By agreeing to genre-based bundles, Disney is giving DirecTV its big ask, but penetration targets and pricing are unknown and could impact how the plans are received by consumers.

Likewise, the inclusion of Disney's streaming services not only provides added value to DirecTV customers, but also serves Disney's bottom line by expanding the reach of those services. Disney notes that the deal calls for the linear channels to be extended on “market-based terms.”

Unlike last year’s deal with Charter Spectrum, which excluded channels like Freeform, Disney Junior and FXX from the schedule, the DirecTV deal appears to keep the schedules intact.

After a lengthy dispute that saw Disney channels like ABC, ESPN, FX and the Disney Channel removed from DirecTV’s schedules, the media giant and the satellite TV company have a new distribution deal, returning the channels to the lineup.

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