<div class="block">About 15 million cable subscribers have lost access to Disney-owned networks like ESPN. Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo breaks down how an increase in carriage fees lead to a stalemate between Disney and Charter cable brands.</div>

Need2Know Headlines

Why 15 Million Homes Just Lost ESPN

And about 14.7 million charter customers in 41 states have lost their Disney owned channels, which includes ABC Disney. That's as of August 31st, considering this is a football season. This is horrible, horrible timing for all sports fans out there. Now, at the center of the issue is carriage fees for more on that and why it's taking away from our TV. We're bringing in our news, senior reporter Michelle Caso. Hey, so let's start from the very beginning for our viewers that may not know what are carriage fees, carriage fees are payments that pay TV providers give to TV, networks to be able to carry their channels on their service. So they're also known as a affiliate or distribution fees. Now, that amount that they pay is based on the number of subscribers to a service. So let's use one of the Disney owned channels. ESPN for an example, it's average carriage fee is $9.42 per customer according to according to sport. And at about 15 million subscribers, charter pays a little bit under 100 $42,800,000 just to carry that network but networks like ESPN are responsible for paying for copy, right, and licensing of content, including those expensive sports rights that a network like ESPN owns. So it's what brings in the viewers to the cable companies are willing to pay because they want these channels. So how are carriage fees affecting the charter? And of course, Disney negotiations? Well, with people cutting the cord, cable companies need to keep top viewership channels on their service. And according to earnings reports, all cable TV and live TV providers lost about 2.31 million subscribers just in the first three months of 20 23 alone. So those companies are willing to pay more for an extent to an extent. So Disney on the other hand, is also losing money as well. You just talked about Warner Media with uh Kristen Scholler, this writer strike is really affecting them and it also means that we're not going to be getting new TV shows or movies any time soon, especially for the fall schedule. And Disney Plus, which was the big streaming gamble won't be profitable until the end of fiscal year 2024. So Disney is looking to make money where it can. So Disney claims that 71% of charters customers watch one of its channels and it says that more than half of charters most watched broadcast come from its channels as well. It believes it deserves higher carriage fees. And it said in a statement. Although Charter claims that they value their customers, they declined Disney's offer to extend negotiations which would have kept Disney networks up for consumers in the middle of perennial programming events like the US open and college football. But Charter CEO said to its investors recently that it's willing to give in on the higher carriage fees. But in return, it wants to give Disney's ad supported streaming services like Disney plus ESPN Plus Hulu with ads for free to its customers and both sides, they can't agree on that. So what can people do if they want to watch their sports? Well, there are alternatives. Thanks to streaming. So you can do SPN Plus that starts at 9 99 a month and it doesn't matter who your cable provider is. You can also add sports packages to a lot of TV, streaming plans that includes Hulu with live TV, or even youtube TV. There's also league specific programs. So let's say you're an NFL fan that starts this Thursday. You can get NFL Sunday ticket and watch all market games. This is also offered through many streaming live TV subscriptions. So you don't need a traditional cable provider. But as these carriage fee debates continue, it may continue the decline of the traditional cable system and encourage the rise of streaming providers, right? Some good news for all those football fans out there. Michelle Cascio, thank you.