Disney-Charter battle highlights bundling demise?

I don't know how long this will go on as I'm not effected by it. What I find interesting is Charter's position of we want our customers to have access to all of your streaming services. Otherwise we're paying you to compete with us. If they are serious about being willing to walk away from the cable tv side of the business, a settlement seems unlikely. Asking Disney to include free access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ would seem to be a non-starter for Disney. Its likely a precedent they're unwilling to set. So, how long can Charter keep losing customers before they're forced to cave, or actually shut it down. If I had to bet, I'd bet on the former.
 
It's no different than the various deals giving customers of one service access to the ad supported versions of various streaming services. Paramount+ ad version is free to Walmart+ subs and various T-Mobile subs. Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ are included for various Verizon subs.
 
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It's no different than the various deals giving customers of one service access to the ad supported versions of various streaming services. Paramount+ ad version is free to Walmart+ subs and various T-Mobile subs. Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ are included for various Verizon subs.
True, but from what I know of those, I have T-Mobile, they are for a limited time. At least that's how the Paramount+ worked. Plus, charter is a bigger player in the space. As I'm still a Dish customer, my experience in the area is very limited. But, it appears that will have to change at some point.
 
It's no different than the various deals giving customers of one service access to the ad supported versions of various streaming services. Paramount+ ad version is free to Walmart+ subs and various T-Mobile subs. Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ are included for various Verizon subs.
The difference is Charter wants them for free, to give away to subscribers of the regular channels.

Wal-Mart pays Paramount for the rights, a discounted price, yes, like wholesale basically, same for T-Mobile, Verizon and all the other giveaways.
 
Yeah, the promotions with other services are just marketing partnerships and serves both sides driving retention and exposure.

Charter is trying to either change the current paradigm or use it as a scapegoat to get out of a business that they clearly think is going to go away anyways at some point if they're unable to make something like this happen.
 
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The difference is Charter wants them for free, to give away to subscribers of the regular channels.

Wal-Mart pays Paramount for the rights, a discounted price, yes, like wholesale basically, same for T-Mobile, Verizon and all the other giveaways.
Well, that is one way to look at it. Another perspective is that Charter agreed to pay for them with the increased carriage fees. I think Charter should just get out of the TV business. The barely make any profit from it, despite what they charge.
 
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Well, that is one way to look at it. Another perspective is that Charter agreed to pay for them with the increased carriage fees. I think Charter should just get out of the TV business. The barely make any profit from it, despite what they charge.
They need to follow the example of the small/middle sized cable companies, like Fios, WOW, Frontier, make a deal with YTTV for example, then try to get a cut of that, say $5 per subscriber, margins/profits probably would be the same.

By the way, Charter deal with Diamond/Bally Sports is up in 5 months, if they are doing this with a mega company like Disney, imagine what problems Diamond, a company in Chapter 11, is about to have.
 

Disney DIS 2.09%increase; green up pointing triangle
and
Charter Communications CHTR 2.28%increase; green up pointing triangle


have reached an agreement that will restore popular channels including ESPN and ABC to the cable operator’s nearly 15 million subscribers, people familiar with the matter said, ending a blackout that lasted for more than a week.


Updates to follow as news develops.
 
They aren't getting free streaming services out of it, so Charter blinked, yeah.


The key point of contention between the sides was the inclusion of Disney’s direct-to-subscriber platforms ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu, which Charter wanted to bundle with the linear networks free-of-charge. Per CNBC, the new agreement will allow Charter to provide access to those services at a discounted price.​
 
Damn. I was hoping Charter wouldn't bend. Or maybe it was Disney who bent?
Well if Charter did not get free access to the streaming services, which is what they told the board of directors they wanted to make the deal, then Charter folded.
 
They aren't getting free streaming services out of it, so Charter blinked, yeah.


The key point of contention between the sides was the inclusion of Disney’s direct-to-subscriber platforms ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu, which Charter wanted to bundle with the linear networks free-of-charge. Per CNBC, the new agreement will allow Charter to provide access to those services at a discounted price.​
So, basically you have to pay Charter’s way too expensive price to get a discount on Disney’s streaming service, no thanks.

For example, had two price increases this year, including the $21 Broadcast Channel Fee you have to add to the advertised prices.
 
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Will they fold to Diamond?
Doubtful, they smell blood with the RSNs.

Diamond’s contract with DirecTV and Comcast is up next month also.
 
Key Disney-owned channels such as the ABC local stations, ESPN, FX, Disney Channel and Nat Geo Channel will also return. But Spectrum is dropping Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo.​

 
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Well if Charter did not get free access to the streaming services, which is what they told the board of directors they wanted to make the deal, then Charter folded.
From the cordcutters article: "As part of the deal, Spectrum customers will get the ad-tier version of Disney+ for free “in the coming months” as part of a wholesale agreement."

Where free means free with the latest price increase.
 
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From the cordcutters article: "As part of the deal, Spectrum customers will get the ad-tier version of Disney+ for free “in the coming months” as part of a wholesale agreement."

Where free means free with the latest price increase.
So get Charter’s expensive service, get free the ad version of Disney+, which helps Disney make even more money from the ads.

Hilarious.
 
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The time to save the 2023-2024 TV Season is almost up

Connecting my Plex account to the Free Stick Live guide