Spectrum customers could lose ESPN family of networks due to carriage dispute with Disney

As Week 1 of the college football season gets underway, Spectrum customers could find themselves without the ESPN family of networks. The cable provider and Disney are in the midst of a carriage dispute, meaning those networks will go away Thursday night if it’s not resolved soon.

According to the Akron Beacon-Journal’s George M. Thomas, access fees at the center of the issue. ESPN has taken out advertisements encouraging users to contact Spectrum via a website. An estimated 14.7 million people subscribe to Spectrum as of June 30, 2023, according to the company website.

If the deadline passes without a deal, customers would lose access to the ESPN family of networks. That includes ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network, SEC Network and Longhorn Network. In addition, other Disney channels such as FX, National Geographic and Disney Channel would go dark, as would any ABC-affiliated news stations.

“We’re working hard to make sure some of America’s most watched networks such as the ESPN networks, including the ACC Network and SEC Network, the Disney-branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels stay available to Spectrum TV customers,” Disney said on keepmynetworks.com, a website for customers to get more information.

“If we don’t reach a new agreement with Spectrum soon, some of your favorite shows may be gone from your lineup including SportsCenter and exclusive live sports such as Monday Night Football and college football plus Mickey Mouse Funhouse, 31 Nights of Halloween, American Horror Story, Welcome to Wrexham, Life Below Zero and much more.”

Spectrum also put out a statement via its own website, disneyfairdeal.com, and offered its side of the story.

“We offered Disney a fair deal, yet they are demanding an excessive increase. They also want to limit our ability to provide greater customer choice in programming packages forcing you to take and pay for channels you may not want,” the statement read. “Spectrum is on your side and fighting to keep costs down while protecting and maximizing customer choice.”

The timing of the dispute couldn’t be worse for college football fans. ESPN is set to carry a huge slate of games this weekend, starting with a matchup between Florida and Utah Thursday night and includes a highly anticipated Sunday game between LSU and Florida State. Spectrum customers will be able to watch that game, but it’s unclear if they’ll be able to see any of the other Week 1 action.

In addition, the NFL season is right around the corner, and the first Monday Night Football game is set for Sept. 11.