Imagine coming to the end of your day, exhausted and ready to relax for a bit when, as you kick up your feet and turn on the TV — perhaps even with a plate of pizza on your lap — the channel that’s playing your favorite sport or TV show (you know, the one you’ve been waiting all day to watch) is suddenly gone.
That’s exactly what happened to millions of cable subscribers Thursday night as ESPN, ABC, FX, and 23 other channels and stations were removed from their cable provider right in the middle of the U.S. Open tennis coverage and other live sporting events such as college football. All because of Disney.
The nightmarish debacle is the latest development in the Mouse House’s journey in the evolution of ESPN, although something tells us this wasn’t exactly part of the plan. It’s not all bad news though, as today Disney Plus finally unveiled the teaser trailer for the show it swooped in and stole from Netflix (oh, how the tables have turned).
Speaking of nightmares, hope you’re in the mood for some Halloween movies.
Disney pulls ABC, ESPN, and more from Charter Spectrum after the cable company refuses excessive price hike
On Thursday, Aug. 31, 15 million people lost access to ABC, ESPN, and more after Disney pulled over two dozen cable channels and stations from Charter Spectrum amid an ongoing dispute between the two entities. According to Charter Spectrum — who is one of the largest cable providers in the U.S. and whose customers take up a huge chunk of Los Angeles and New York City — Disney was offered a “fair deal” that would allow Spectrum’s customers to continue paying a reasonable monthly fee. However, the counter proposal from Disney included a carrier fee that was too “excessive.”
“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.”
As a result, those who pay for cable TV under Spectrum have now lost access to a total of 26 channels and stations including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN News, SEC Network, ACC Network, Longhorn Network, FX, FX Movie Channel, FXX, Freeform, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, BabyTV, ABC7 Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, ABC7 New York, ABC7 San Francisco, ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, ABC13 Houston, and ABC30 Fresno.
The unfortunate development comes amid Disney’s ongoing efforts to breathe new life into ESPN. Last month Disney’s CEO Bob Iger foreshadowed major change in the form of “strategic” partnerships with other media juggernauts, this being the result of a consistent decline in ESPN’s revenue over the years. Just last week it was reported that Disney could be working with Amazon to bring an (admittedly expensive) streaming platform to life. It goes without saying that removing ESPN from Spectrum paves the way for such an outcome to take place, but surely this wasn’t Disney’s plan all along… right?
Your first look at the Korean fantasy show Netflix kicked to the curb and Disney saved
The second season of Arthdal Chronicles — officially subtitled The Sword of Aramun — was left in limbo (at least for those of us who don’t live in South Korea) when Netflix announced it had no plans to distribute the fantasy show going forward. I think I speak for everyone when I say Disney coming in to save the day was not on this year’s bingo card. But hey, when Netflix isn’t taking shows from Disney, Disney is taking shows from Netflix. All’s fair in love and streaming apparently.
The first teaser trailer for the second season of Arthdall Chronicles dropped today and it looks every bit as good as the first. The only downside is fans will have to invest in multiple streaming subscriptions to get the full Arthdal Chronicles experience.
It’s baaaaaack — Freeform unveils the schedule for this year’s 31 nights of Halloween
Look at all these scary movies — it makes me sick! Or at least that’s what Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus would say. Thanks to the grizzly ghouls over at Freeform, we now have our full lineup of scary movies for this Halloween season. Starting with The Nightmare Before Christmas on Oct. 1 and concluding with Hocus Pocus on Halloween day, this year’s lineup has something for everyone, even those who just want to get in the mood but don’t want all the jump scares to go with it.
Let’s just hope Disney manages to come to an agreement with Spectrum in the next 30 days. Otherwise, the 15 million people who look forward to Freeform’s 31 nights of Halloween will be left out in the cold.