After a two-week hiatus, ESPN and other Disney-owned channels have returned to DirecTV. The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV issued a joint statement Saturday announcing they were working on finalizing a new agreement and that all channels affected by the dispute have been restored, including ABC, Freeform, FX and the National Geographic Channel. Disney pulled its networks from DirecTV in early September after the two companies were unable to reach an agreement before the old contract expired. Inconveniently for sports fans, the hiatus coincided with the start of football season.
The new multi-year agreement brings Disney’s full suite of linear networks back to DirecTV, along with packaged options for genre-specific channel bundles (sports, family, etc.) and Disney’s streaming services (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+). ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service, scheduled to launch this fall, will also be available for free. Disney and DirecTV said in a statement that the new agreement gives customers “the ability to customize their video experience through more flexible options.” They added that “we thank all affected viewers for their patience and are pleased to be able to restore Disney’s entire network portfolio in time for this weekend’s college football and Emmy Awards.”
