Charter redraws battle lines during dispute with Disney
Charter says it wants Disney to offer free access to ad-supported streaming services as part of deal for its channels.
A carriage dispute occurs during a negotiation between a distributor (cable, satellite or streaming provider) and a programmer (local broadcast station owner and/or owner-operator of cable channels). The dispute triggers when the distributor and the programmer are unable to reach an agreement for carriage of channels on a pay TV system, likely after a programmer requests an increase in fees.
Customers of the distributor platform are left without one or more channels during the dispute. Carriage disputes are usually resolved when a distributor agrees to terms that a programmer sets; customers typically see the outcome of these agreements reflected on their monthly or annual bills.
In rare cases, a prolonged carriage dispute is the subject of litigation, after one company accuses the other of legal wrongdoing. Occasionally, a legal complaint is filed prior to the start of a carriage dispute, while a retransmission consent agreement is in place but clos to expiring.
Charter says it wants Disney to offer free access to ad-supported streaming services as part of deal for its channels.
Nexstar has accused DirecTV of illegally streaming CW Network programming for months, as the war between the two companies escalates.
Despite the agreement, Hawaiian Telcom says it will not drop its FCC complaint against Nexstar Media Group.
The demand came after Nexstar and Hawaiian Telcom had reached a tentative agreement to restore two broadcast channels and NewsNation to the cable service.
Nexstar and DirecTV have been locked into a weeks-long dispute over fees for local ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CW stations on DirecTV satellite and streaming.
The complaint submitted to the FCC says Nexstar is not negotiating in good faith toward a new carriage agreement for several stations.
The only problem with that is, Dish hasn’t carried WPIX-TV for months due to a similar carriage dispute.
Nexstar has forced DirecTV to drop around 200 local channels as well as the upstart cable network NewsNation.
More than 160 Nexstar-owned stations could be pulled from DirecTV by the end of the week over retransmission fees.
YouTube TV is dropping SNY, a regional sports channel that will impact fans of the New York Mets baseball team.