Disney pulls ABC, ESPN and other channels from DirecTV in carriage standoff
Disney pulls ABC, ESPN and other channels from DirecTV in carriage standoff
Disney on Sunday pulled ABC stations, ESPN and other cable networks from DirecTV’s lineup as the two companies failed to reach a new distribution deal, leaving millions of sports fans in the dark as the college football and NFL seasons get underway.
Disney on Sunday pulled its ABC stations, ESPN and other cable networks from DirecTV’s lineup as the two companies failed to reach a new distribution deal, leaving millions of sports fans in the dark as the college football and NFL seasons get underway.
One monoply fighting another monopoly... Break them both up into smaller pieces.
71“Whoever wins, we lose.”
21Isn't the point of directtv kind of anti monopoly. Satellite has no specific footprint like cable where geographic monopolies are carved out.... But the real monopoly is when it's all exclusively on ESPN or whatever Disney's streaming service is. Like apple TV with mls being the 1 global streamer.
5AT&T and Google don't have any problem being monopolies without a geographic lock on things.
AT&T purchased DirecTV, then to get out of direct monopoly charges they spun it off as its own company but retained 70% ownership.
Just about every decent sized company out there is just a single entity in a giant monopolistic trench coat.
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Feeling sorry for all the direct TV customer service reps right now.
26My dad is ready to tear them a new asshole tomorrow when they open 😂
0Tell your dad to keep asking for a manager and don't stop until he gets someone who can tell him something. Don't take it out on the front lines.
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We left the room with Bob's Burgers or King of the Hill or something on FXX. By the time we got back that shit was gone
14This also screws over AT&T U-verse coaxial TV subscribers, like me, not just internet-streaming DirecTV customers :(
13We all have our last straw with CableTV, maybe this is the one for you to cut the cord too! It's cheaper on the other side, I promise.
5It’s cheaper on the other side, I promise.
Is it? Because if you add up all the streaming services out there, it's a lot more expensive than cable. And, unlike cable, if you don't pay for them all, you don't get to watch their content. That used to be just for a handful of premium channels on cable. Now you miss thousands of hours of content with tons of new content every month because you refuse to pay that streaming service's $15 a month fee.
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Companies shouldn't be able to place their customers in the middle of their negotiations like this.
4It's so annoying really, DirecTV has honestly done a good job to try and keep all these conflicts away from their customers. Linear is dying, they are trying to keep it functional while they can.
All these channels (broadcast especially) try to ask for a bigger cut, which leads to customer bill increases. Broadcast shouldn't even be allowed to, because they get access to public-owned radio spectrum to provide a public service and make some money when that public service isn't needed.
DirecTV retransmitting those channels specifically does nothing but help the broadcast station reach an audience that otherwise wouldn't. (Especially in locations like the Intermountain West.) They should be thankful for it, not charge for it, nor be allowed to. The retransmit literally costs them nothing and reaps them free ad dollars.
Linear will likely be replaced with the clusterfuck that streaming TV now is, DirecTV will eventually have to pivot or die.
Not trying to sound like an apologist nor a fanboi, but as far as companies go, DTV has been more flexible than most streamers (their stream arm anyway.) However, they're just going to continue to have these battles until companies like Disney can pull their channels and get people to pay for all their silly apps directly.
It is a bummer on some level, the end of Linear is kinda nice. Unlimited cloud DVR, fast forward through commercials, all your content in one place.
Can't wait to see the "underground" Android VM with all the TV apps baked in to present a unified UI like Linear, hah. Like Pidgin for TV.
1There was this company Aereo that offered the ability to rent individual antennas in your local market and stream that over the Internet and the supreme court killed that too.
And they ruled Aereo was a cable company on the one hand so it was violating the law by not paying carriage fees...And then later when Aereo sought a compulsory license because it was a "cable company" according to the supreme court - they ruled against Aereo because it's not a cable company.
It's pretty obvious the public service part of OTA comes in second behind profit.
12DirecTV is actually refusing to air one of the two local stations here due to some dispute. I can't believe that's allowable. I thought they were required to offer all local channels. They used to be.
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