Disney Pulls More Than Two Dozen Channels From Spectrum Amid Contract Dispute

Disney's latest dispute could be bad news for Spectrum users. On Thursday night, the studio pulled more than two dozen of its networks from Spectrum, amid an ongoing distribution dispute with Spectrum's parent company, Charter Communications. This means that those who subscribe to Spectrum — which, given its standing as the second-biggest cable TV service in the U.S., is a lot of people — are currently not able to watch any broadcast networks under the Disney umbrella. This includes local ABC stations owned by Disney, as well as FX, National Georaphic, the Disney Channel, Freeform, and the ESPN family of networks. This decision, which took effect at 5PM PST on Thursday, comes amid the U.S. Open, and just days before the start of the new NFL season.

"We've been in ongoing negotiations with Charter Communications for some time and have not yet agreed to a new market-based agreement," Disney Entertainment said in a statement. "As a result, their Spectrum TV subscribers no longer have access to our unrivaled portfolio of live sporting events and news coverage plus kids, family and general entertainment programming from the ABC Owned Television Stations, the ESPN networks, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels. Disney Entertainment has successful deals in place with pay TV providers of all types and sizes across the country, and the rates and terms we are seeking in this renewal are driven by the marketplace. We're committed to reaching a mutually agreed upon resolution with Charter and we urge them to work with us to minimize the disruption to their customers."

"We are disappointed with The Walt Disney Company's decision to remove their networks from our lineup and deny our customers the opportunity to watch," Charter said in its statement. "We would agree to The Walt Disney Company's significant rate increase despite their declining ratings. But they are trying to force our customers to pay for their very expensive programming, even those customers who don't want it or worse, can't afford it... The current video ecosystem is broken. With The Walt Disney Company, we have proposed a model that creates better alignment for the industry and better choices for our customers. We are hopeful we can find a path forward."

Has DirecTV Dropped Nexstar?

This conflict between Disney and Spectrum is the latest network blackout to occur this summer, as the channels owned by Nexstar Media Group were dropped by DirecTV in early July. This ongoing blackout means that those subscribers can no longer access The CW affiliates, NewsNation, or WGN.

"Nexstar has been negotiating tirelessly and in good faith in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable multi-year contract with DirecTV since May, offering the same fair market rates it offered to other distribution partners with whom it completed successful negotiations in the past year," the statement continued. "Nexstar routinely reaches amicable retransmission and carriage agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners-in the last three years alone, the company has successfully completed agreements with more than 500 distribution partners."

What do you think of Disney dropping its channels from Spectrum? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Deadline