DirecTV-Disney standoff underscores future of sports fan viewership

PHOENIX – ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” “College GameDay,” and the 2024 U.S. Open Tennis Championships are among the most notable television sports programs that DirecTV customers could not view in September as a result of the contract negotiations between cable provider DirecTV and entertainment giant, The Walt Disney Co.

The deal impacted viewers for 13 days, but for diehard sports fans, it felt much longer.

Suzy Emre, a college football and Kansas City Chiefs fan, was one of the many DirecTV customers who vocalized their dissatisfaction with the platform’s failure to secure a deal in time for the football season. Like Emre and other sports fans, their love for the game has a personal connection, and missing the first games of the season left them feeling empty.

“First, personally, I love college football. Always have,” Emre said. “Last year, I missed out on a lot when my husband was ill and now that my life has gotten back to normal, I was hoping to enjoy football again.”

While ongoing contract negotiations certainly disrupted Emre’s experience as a sports follower, it also gave her the perfect chance to act on the growing transition from cable to streaming.

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Streaming has now reached a record 40.3% share of television viewing as of June 2024. Comparatively, cable is responsible for just 27.2% of TV usage, according to Statista.com.

“When I found out about the blackout, I canceled my DirecTV subscription,” Emre said. “Before my husband died, he was telling me that we needed to find something else because their fees were getting ridiculous. The blackout forced me to act on what he wanted.”

This is a common response from many TV viewers, with streaming services such as YouTube TV becoming more appealing without additional equipment and hidden fees.

YouTube TV has the advantage over cable by replacing the “clunky cable box interface” with a “user-friendly app on various devices,” according to Evoca TV. Cable also tends to utilize contracts with termination fees and varying prices for consumers, while YouTube TV uses a flat monthly rate for every user at $72.99, with additional add-ons available.

“I’m using YouTube TV, which is considerably less, and I can watch four games at once,” Emre said.

There are aspects where it is clear that streaming defeats cable TV, and contract disputes such as this one may continue to influence others to make that move.

“This fight between DirecTV and Disney, which owns ESPN, is indicative of some pretty significant changes that have been happening in the media industry over the last decade,” said Joe Flint, media and entertainment reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

“People, particularly younger consumers, are more likely to subscribe to streaming services,” Flint said. “They’re less likely to be caught up in what’s known as the traditional TV bundle.”

Older viewers from the U.S. preferred cable and satellite TV over streaming platforms, with over half of respondents aged 60 years and older preferring pay TV boxes, according to a survey by Savanta in 2023. In contrast, nearly three in four consumers 18 to 24 years old preferred streaming services.

There is a constant battle between streaming and cable for consumers, and finances have played a dominant role in determining the outcomes of stagnant negotiations between companies.

“DirecTV has seen their cost go up to carry networks such as ESPN, Fox News, and all these networks that generate big audiences,” Flint said. “And at the same time, their subscriber base has been going down.”

DirecTV has announced a price increase for its consumers with amounts reaching up to a $10 increase per month, depending on the plan, as of Sunday. Meanwhile, according to a Leichtman Research Group report, DirecTV already lost 1.8 million customers in 2023.

“TV networks are continuing to increase the fees they charge DirecTV for the right to distribute the content they produce, including movies, shows, and sporting events,” DirectTV stated.

The Walt Disney Co. also released a statement during the ongoing negotiations stating, “Our priority is to reach a marketplace deal that serves the needs of DirecTV and their customers while also recognizing the value of our top-quality content and the significant investment required to create and acquire it.”

ASU football fans enjoy Saturday’s game against Kansas in person, a reminder of the frustrations felt by those who missed televised games due to the DirecTV-Disney standoff to start the college football season. (Photo by Dylan Wickman/Cronkite News)

While the two companies could not initially agree on an equal transaction, they realized the need to act quickly to minimize the loss of revenue. As a result, a deal was reached on Sept. 14, which ended the blackout.

“Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, DirecTV and Disney are giving customers the ability to tailor their video experience through more flexible options,” the companies said in a statement.

All of this comes together with an unknown agreed-upon price to retain various Disney networks, which is likely higher than the last contract for DirecTV.

For now, the audience that stuck around for the cable company can once again enjoy sports programs such as college football and NFL Monday Night Football on ESPN. However, this hiccup in the media world does pose a question about the future of streaming sports.

After all, Thursday Night Football now airs exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The convenience of these versatile platforms has been trending for quite some time, as sports fans can already see where the future is headed.

Amazon Prime Video is the current host of “Thursday Night Football” for the NFL after it acquired the rights in 2021, and Netflix will be the host of the NFL’s Christmas Day games for the first time this year.

“Cable blackouts are not a new thing, but they’ve become much more frequent,” Flint said. “The industry is leading up to more of these showdowns between two older business models trying to adjust their gameplans to compete with the Netflix’s, Amazon’s and Apple’s of the world.”