Will the NFL’s immense power be enough to help stop another large-scale TV distribution dispute?

A year after a carriage battle between ESPN parent Disney and Charter Communications was solved just hours before last season’s start of Monday Night Football, ultimately resulting in a groundbreaking deal, Disney is once again preparing to start a new NFL season in the midst of a thorny problem with a major carrier.

Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, are now dark on DirecTV, the No. 3 distributor in the U.S., after the parties failed to reach a new agreement by the Sept. 1 expiration of the prior contract. Tension between the two sides had risen since last week, hit a higher level on Saturday as DirecTV unveiled an advocacy website, UnbundleDisney.com, and then hit a new peak as the Sunday deadline passed without a new agreement.

“Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions,” said DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun.

Familiar Tone

Such invective is hardly rare in the midst of a tough distribution negotiation. During the darkest points of the Disney-Charter saga a year ago, the Spectrum parent company insisted that “we’re on the edge of a precipice … this is not a typical carriage battle.”

A record-breaking U.S. Open and two weekends of college football were not enough to break the Disney-Charter logjam. But the NFL was, not surprising given the league is the source of by far the most popular programming in all of U.S. television, regardless of genre. With the renewed Charter distribution in place just in time for the Jets-Bills MNF game last year, the contest drew a record audience of 22.6 million, beginning what was a banner year for the NFL on ESPN. The network’s 29% audience bump last year for MNF was the largest percentage increase for any individual NFL rights holder. 

The beginning of the 2024 MNF schedule is a week away, beginning on Sept. 9 with the Jets visiting the 49ers. That game marks the return of New York quarterback Aaron Rodgers after tearing his Achilles tendon in last year’s season-opener. 

“While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs,” said Disney in a statement attributed to Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, and Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairs of Disney Entertainment. “We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.” 

DirecTV is estimated to have more than 11 million subscribers, ranking only behind Charter and Comcast among U.S. carriers.

Big Numbers

Disney’s ABC, meanwhile, posted its best Week 1 college football audience, averaging 8 million viewers across four games.

Capping that total was Sunday night’s USC-LSU game, averaging 9.2 million viewers. That figure came despite the loss of ABC viewership on DirecTV, including on owned-and-operated affiliates Los Angeles and San Francisco, critical hubs of USC fandom. 

MINNEAPOLIS — Few areas of the sports industry are undergoing more turbulence right now than the regional sports network business, and the Twins are among the pro teams most impacted by that.

As Bally Sports parent company Diamond Sports Group continues its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy, recently striking revised rights deals with the NBA and NHL, the Twins have a big decision to make after the current MLB season. After agreeing to a one-year extension with DSG this past winter, at a reduced fee and without digital rights, the Twins will again be a free agent in this area in October. 

Currently operating in the No. 15 U.S. media market and holding the final playoff spot in the American League, many in the industry are closely watching what the Twins will elect to do. The local media situation was a factor in the lowering of Twins player payroll by more than $25 million this year to $130.3 million, 18th in MLB. 

Twins president Dave St. Peter recently spoke with Front Office Sports about the team’s local media deliberations. 

You’ve got a big decision coming up with your local media rights. Where is the franchise sentiment entering this process again?

We’ve been on this merry-go-round for two full seasons now. We’re undecided at this point for 2025. We’re reviewing and exploring different options. We’re very interested in finding ways to accelerate an expansion of our reach.

Obviously, it matters whether or not DSG actually emerges from bankruptcy.

Clearly, what’s happening within bankruptcy could impact what’s happening with at least one of those options. So we’re watching that, and have stayed in regular communication with Diamond. They’ve certainly expressed to us a desire to retain the Twins beyond 2024. What that deal would look like remains to be seen, and the other part of that is where the digital rights fit within that. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: The digital rights have become a gating issue for us, meaning we have to have those on some level. We’re also watching closely what’s happening with MLB’s platform, what’s happened in San Diego, Arizona, and Denver. We know that would be a viable option here in Minnesota. But then there’s at least one other option that we’re actively exploring that is outside of those two. 

Would that be an over-the-air model like several NBA and NHL teams?

It could be that. It remains to be seen exactly what it would look like, but maybe with its own Minnesota spin. But all of those possibilities are being evaluated. This season, I don’t think we got to the point where we actually renewed with Diamond until February. I fully expect we’ll beat that timing going into 2025. I think we’re incentivized to make a decision sooner versus later. But one thing I’ve learned from this process is to not set timelines or deadlines, because they don’t seem to matter.

So maybe by the holidays?

I’m hopeful we make a decision by sometime early in the fall. Whether that’s going to be reality or not, I don’t know.

The revised DSG deals in the other leagues have involved lowered rights fees, and you also took a reduction this year. How critical is the issue of a short-term revenue hit for the Twins as you navigate this situation?

We all understood that we’re dealing with some melting ice cubes surrounding the RSN business. Within the context of that, there’s a reset, so to speak, on rights fees. We know basketball and hockey are dealing with this. Baseball has been the primary driver of RSN viewership, and I think will continue to be. So I think there are still meaningful rights fees to garner. But in the short term, there’s also a bit of a reconfiguration of the business model as we push more people to direct-to-consumer platforms. So we’re bullish that the new model will not only match, but exceed, the current model. It’s just going to take time to get there. The content is still very desirable, and wins the day, so to speak, in many local markets. 

How much does it matter to the Twins what the Timberwolves and Wild do in this space? (Both teams opted to stay with DSG for at least the 2024–2025 season.)

I don’t know that it matters as much for us. It could be complementary, in the right scenario, but it’s not something that’s going to be a driver for us. We’ll do what’s best for the Twins. We certainly want those teams to be successful and we talk to those teams all the time. We’re close to their ownership and their leadership, and certainly compare notes.