Disney Threatens AItice Customers Pulling ESPN, ABC

Walt Disney Co. Threatens New York-area customers of Altice USA cable systems by pulling ESPN, ABC and the Disney Channel if the companies cannot reach a new programming deal.

The world’s largest entertainment company plans to send warnings and run messages across viewers’ screens in the affected markets. Altice, which took over pay-TV systems owned by Cablevision Systems, has about 2.4 million subscribers in the area.

“Our contract with Altice is due to expire soon, so we have a responsibility to make our viewers aware of the potential loss of our programming,” Burbank, California-based Disney said in an email. “We remain fully committed to reaching a deal and are hopeful we can do so.”

The New York-based Altice, which is owned by a European conglomerate and is better known as Optimum, said Disney had asked it for “hundreds of millions of dollars” in new fees to be able to continue carrying ESPN and ABC, even as ratings suffer.

The two companies have been working on a new contract to replace the one that expires at the end of the month, and Walt Disney has warned customers that its channels will go dark on Oct. 1 if a new deal is not worked out.

“We are always working hard to negotiate carriage agreements that reflect the best interest of all our customers. We want to carry ESPN and its sister networks, including ABC and Disney, at a reasonable rate and have already offered an increase in retransmission fees and sports programming costs,” Altice said in a statement.

Disney and Altice are in a high stakes face-off over how much the cable system owner will pay for some of the most-watched program on TV, including ESPN’s Monday Night Football games and comedies like ABC’s “Modern Family.”

The value of that programming has been called into question by the rise of online services that have drawn viewers away from conventional TV.

Quarrels between cable companies and media groups over the cost of carrying channels are common, but the quarrel marks the first time a cable company has pushed back at increased fees for ESPN, the most popular sports network.

Altice in a statement said Disney is looking to double the subscriber fees it gets for ABC, carry out “exorbitant” increases for ESPN and force customers who don’t want the sports channel to pay for it even though viewership has been declining “in the double digits for years.

“This behavior by ESPN is anti-consumer, and we urge ESPN and its owner to stop the threats, and instead focus on negotiating an agreement that is fair,” Altice said.

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