General Hospital fans who subscribe to DirecTV were horrified when the satellite provider dropped most of Disney’s channels, which include ESPN and ABC. DirecTV and Disney are having a battle over carriage fees, which are the dollar amounts that Disney charges the satellite company to carry their various channels. Disney has insisted that the provider carry channels in bundles, but DirecTV claims that they want to make channel packages affordable for the consumers and that they shouldn’t have to take channels that they don’t want to watch or pay for.
As a result of the dispute, Disney removed all its channels from the provider on September 1, 2024, infuriating viewers, especially sports lovers who wanted to watch the US Open tennis game, as well as a football game in which the University of Southern California faced off against Louisiana State University. The channels went dark just before that game.
How will this affect General Hospital viewers?
General Hospital is in the midst of some major storylines, including mobster Sonny Corinthos' (Maurice Benard) killing of Agent John "Jagger" Cates (Adam J. Harrington). While ABC remains committed to continuing to produce the show, there will be viewers who will miss out on some great stories, and it will definitely impact the ratings.
DirecTV has over 11 million subscribers, and now that the ABC channels are gone, those who watch General Hospital every weekday are out of luck. It’s likely that this will increase the subscriptions of the streaming service Hulu, because whenever a new episode airs, it goes live on Hulu at 8:00 p.m. ET the same day. Although Hulu has over 45 million subscribers, some people would rather just surf through the channels than pick up yet another subscription that ultimately hits them in the wallet.
Disney released a statement, explaining,
DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the US Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season. 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.
They further added that their channels deliver top-notch service to the viewers and that it was unfair of DirecTV to not agree to a deal regarding the fees and channel bundles.
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 put out a counterstatement explaining that Disney is pushing people away from regular TV channel watching and moving them toward their various streaming platforms. The provider stated,
Additionally, Disney is making consumers pay multiple times for the same programming by shutting off pay TV customers’ access to Disney-owned network apps like Watch ABC, DisneyNow, Freeform, FXNow, and Nat Geo TV, which was previously a benefit of a cable, satellite, or IPTV subscription.
The company explained that the production giant moves their content amongst their streaming apps like ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu; increases the subscription rates; and makes it difficult for folks to share their subscriptions with family and friends. They feel that Disney is trying to maximize its profits at the expense of the average subscriber, making it difficult for them to watch the programming they want.
The same thing happened in September 2023 when Disney pulled its channels from the Spectrum cable provider, which is owned by Charter Communications, again during the US Open. Ultimately, they came to an agreement about what channels, channel bundles, and streaming services the cable company would be carrying, and how those carriage fees would be passed down to the viewers.
Hopefully, Disney and DirecTV will find room for a comfortable agreement in 2024 so that avid TV watchers, particularly soap opera and sports fans, will be able to get the programming they want at an affordable rate. Time will tell whether or not this happens.
