ESPN May Be Virtual Cable's Last Straw Too
In September of last year, ESPN's parent Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) and AT&T's (NYSE: T) television arm were at an impasse. AT&T wanted to retain its rights to air Disney's cable TV content -- which includes entertainment from ABC, ESPN, and of course, Disney -- but it wasn't thrilled with Disney's terms. The two companies finally came to an agreement in the latter part of September before a blackout became necessary.
Those reports of an impasse largely went ignored. That's because consumers and investors had heard these well-publicized spats before. Just a few months earlier, Charter and Disney were engaged in similarly tense negotiations. In 2014 (before DirecTV was acquired by AT&T) the satellite cable name was struggling to reach a Disney content carriage agreement both companies could live with. In 2013 it was Disney and Dish Network duking it out, once again mostly over the costs of carrying ESPN's programming.
The common element in all that hard-fought dealmaking? ESPN.
Source Fool.com
