Fresno-area TV customers lose ESPN, ABC due to dispute with Disney. What to know

Did your TV screen go dark this weekend?

A dispute between DirecTV and The Walt Disney Co. has left millions of customers — including some in the Fresno area — without access to ESPN, ABC and other popular Disney channels since Sunday, Sept. 1.

The conflict stems from the carriage fees that DirecTV, which provides satellite TV, internet and streaming services to 11.3 million customers, pays Disney to broadcast its programs, CBS News reported.

The blackout coincides with the start of new seasons for college football and the National Football League, as well as the U.S. Open tennis tournament and other popular sporting events. .

Here’s what you need to know about the outage:

Which TV channels are missing for Fresno customers?

Disney-owned and operated ABC television stations in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, are all affected by DirectTV and Disney’s failure to reach a licensing agreement.

So are TV stations in the Fresno area — such as KFSN-TV in Fresno, also known as ABC 30 News — and the San Francisco Bay Area.

That means ABC is dark in those markets.

In addition, homes with DirecTV’s streaming service — as opposed to satellite dishes — lost local ABC channels, The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, reported.

DirecTV subscribers lost access to ESPN channels, as well as other Disney basic cable channels, The Miami Herald reported. Those include:

• Disney Channel
• Disney Junior
• Disney XD
• FXX
• FX Movie Channel
• Freeform
• National Geographic
• Nat Geo Wild
• Nat Geo Mundo

According to DirecTV, Disney has removed pay TV customers’ access to apps including Watch ABC, DisneyNow, Freeform, FXNow and Nat Geo TV.

What caused the DirecTV outage?

A five-year contract between DirecTV and Disney ended Sunday.

Now the two companies are negotiating a new contract in order to keep Disney’s content on Direct TV’s satellite and streaming services according to the DirecTV website.

“Our contract with Disney has expired. We appreciate your patience while we negotiate to offer you more flexible channel lineups and all your shows and sports in one place.” said DirecTV on their website.

“Consumer frustration is at an all-time high as Disney shifts its best producers, most innovative shows, top teams, conferences and entire leagues to their direct-to-consumer services while making customers pay more than once for the same programming on multiple Disney platforms,” DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun said in an official statement published Sunday on the company’s website.

“Disney’s only magic is forcing prices to go up while simultaneously making its content disappear,” Thun said.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairmen of Disney Entertainment, replied to those claims in an official statement on Sunday.

“While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs,” they said. “We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”

How can DirectTV customers get a discount?

Eligible DirecTV customers can get discounts on their upcoming bills.

a $20 voucher here are the steps to get it.

To see if you’re eligible, go to directv.com/tvpromise, and enter your TV service, zip code and county.

If there’s no service disruption where you live, you won’t be eligible for the one-time credit.

If you qualify for a credit, go to the “Explore bill credits” section and choose the correct option to begin the process.

“Credits are applied in up to two bill cycles,” the DirectTV website said.

How long will the blackout last?

It was unclear as of Wednesday how long the dispute will last.

However, DirecTV assured customers that it has “plenty of time to come to a new agreement” with Disney.

In the meantime here is how customers can watch TV while the debacle gets fixed.

How can I watch ABC, ESPN or Disney without DirecTV?

DirecTV subscribers can watch local ABC channels with a digital antenna.

Many NFL games can be viewed via FOX, CBS, NBC and Amazon Prime Video, DirectTV said.

You can also sign up for a streaming service. Here are some options:

• Sling TV’s orange plan starts at $15 a month and then increases to $40 per month
• Youtube TV has free trials for first-time subscribers. The monthly subscription price increases from about $65 to $73 after four months.
• Fubo allows subscribers to record their favorite TV shows. Subscriptions cost about $80 per month.
• Hulu + Live TV subscriptions offer access to Disney, ESPN and ESPN + content for about $77 a month.