ESPN and the other Disney channels went dark on Charter’s Spectrum cable systems Thursday night. Also: the Penguins have acquired the AT&T-branded Pittsburgh RSN and North Carolina’s board of trustees has voiced opposition to ACC expansion.
Charter pulls ESPN channels on opening night of college football season
The telecommunications giant Charter pulled ESPN and all of the other Disney channels from its Spectrum-branded cable system Thursday night, leaving its nearly 15 million subscribers without access to the network’s college football and US Open tennis coverage. Charter is the second-largest cable distributor behind only Comcast.
In a statement Thursday, Disney said it is “committed to reaching a mutually agreed upon resolution with Charter” and urged the carrier to work with them to “minimize the disruption” to viewers.
For its part, Charter is accusing Disney of seeking an “excessive” increase in carriage fees and “trying to force our customers to pay for their very expensive programming, even those customers who don’t want it.” While there is nothing at all new in cable subscribers paying for expensive sports channels they do not want or watch — indeed that is a core aspect of the bundle — Charter this year has begun offering lower-priced plans that exclude some sports channels. Whether that has played a role in the sides’ stalemate is unclear. (Hollywood Reporter 8.31)
Penguins to acquire Pittsburgh RSN
The NHL Penguins have acquired ownership of the Warner Bros. Discovery RSN AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh effective October 2, it was announced Thursday. The RSN will be rebranded to drop “AT&T” from the name. Penguins majority owner Fenway Sports Group will tap its New England RSN NESN to manage the channel’s daily operations.
Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of offloading its RSNs, which AT&T acquired as part of its purchase of DIRECTV in 2015, became part of WarnerMedia when AT&T acquired Time Warner in 2018, and then were spun off with the rest of the Warner properties in 2021. (Penguins 8.31)
UNC board voices opposition to ACC expansion
The chairman and vice chairman of the North Carolina board of trustees, speaking on behalf of the “strong majority” of its members, said in a letter Thursday that they oppose the potential additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU to the ACC, citing travel and insufficient financial benefit. It will take at least four ACC schools to block any expansion, and North Carolina joins Florida State and Clemson in its apparent opposition. NC State has also been against the move, but per ESPN is believed to be the most likely to change its position.
The ACC is set to meet Friday to discuss the potential expansion, days after a Monday meeting was scrapped due to an shooting incident on the North Carolina campus. (ESPN.com 8.31)
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