Disney and Charter Communications have a corporate dispute that has resulted in millions of Spectrum customers losing access to all Disney-owned channels, including ESPN. On Sunday, ESPN issued a statement on the situation.
Titled “This is what you need to know about the Spectrum-Disney Entertainment dispute,” it is a predictable propaganda piece designed to pressure consumers into pressuring Charter to back down in its position.
“To cut through the noise, here are some key points to consider as the dispute disrupts one of the biggest television weekends of the year,” the statement said.
The bias is obvious and inherent. Consumers are smart enough to recognize this. And ESPN’s message is consistent with its corporate direction.
“Although Charter maintains that they value their customers, they declined Disney’s offer to extend negotiations, which would have kept Disney-owned networks available to consumers in the midst of annual programming events such as the US Open and college football,” claims ESPN.
However, the reality is that all negotiations must end, either in an agreement or in the declaration of an impasse. When is the perfect time for consumers to lose access to ESPN? Something is always happening or coming soon. Currently it’s tennis and college football. In a week it’s the NFL. Then comes ice hockey. Then comes basketball, NBA, followed by college. There’s always something consumers miss when ESPN no longer knows them.
The statement also addresses the crux of the dispute – consumer access to streaming platforms, which Charter argues is subsidized by increased subscription fees.
“Although Charter also claims to value Disney’s direct-to-consumer services, the cable company charges these various services for free – as they have publicly stated – which makes no economic sense,” ESPN’s statement said. “Furthermore, it makes no sense for consumers who want the flexibility to use our streaming platforms as standalone services.”
The message contains this borderline cartoonish attempt to put pressure on Charter: “Labor Day weekend is intended to be one of the more relaxed holidays of the year in the United States. Unfortunately, Charter has made it a stressful experience for its customers – many of whom have experienced up to three-hour waits to cancel their cable subscription after Disney’s channels went down.”
The entire dispute represents a shared failure by Disney and Charter. Disney can blame Charter for demanding terms that “do not make economic sense,” and Charter can blame Disney for requiring terms that “do not make economic sense.” Make sense. When it came time to focus on mutual profits in the face of the threat of Disney channel closures, both failed to put the interests of consumers above their economic goals.
Disney clearly wants to make a deal. At the end of the email, ESPN said: “Disney values its relationship with its viewers and hopes that Charter is willing to engage in further discussions to restore access to its content to Spectrum customers as quickly as possible.”
At some point a deal will be struck. Someone will blink. Both sides will give in a little. A solution will be found.
Along the way, consumers will lose; Charter and Disney are equally responsible for this. Despite ESPN’s best efforts to portray Charter as the villain, the better message would be for ESPN to apologize for its corporate leader’s failure to work with Charter in a mature and productive manner to keep ESPN channels available to Spectrum customers are asking Charter to also apologize and commit to resolving the situation before the Jets host the Bills in eight days – which, frankly, is a far bigger deal than the US Open or college football.
Anything else is just more “noise” that ESPN will “cut through” with its self-serving statement.