ESPN Network blacked out on Spectrum cable on busy college football night due to Disney-Charter dispute

Spectrum users missed out on many games including the matchup between Utah Utes vs Florida Gators.

ESPN Network blacked out on Spectrum cable on busy college football night due to Disney-Charter dispute

Utah Utes vs Florida Gators during week 1 of the 2023 college football season (Credits: Imago)

The much-anticipated 2023 college football season started a few days ago. On Thursday, there were multiple games of week 1 of the college football season on live TV for viewers to enjoy. However, Spectrum cable users were unable to enjoy many games including the matchup between Utah Utes vs. Florida Gators on Thursday night as the channel suddenly went dark due to a Disney-Charter communication dispute.

According to multiple reports, the Disney channels including ESPN and ESPN2 went dark in Spectrum cable network as the two sides couldn’t agree on a fair deal. Spectrum, which has over 14.7 million subscribers made a lot of sports fans angry with the sudden blackout but the nation’s second-largest cable TV provider released a statement saying that they holding out to keep the costs down.

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“The Walt Disney Company has removed their programming from Spectrum which creates hardship for our customers. We offered Disney a fair deal, yet they are demanding an excessive increase,” stated Spectrum in a statement via disneyespnfairdeal.com along with a message to “voice your concerns” at DisneyESPNFairDeal.com.

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Spectrum also claimed that Disney is trying to force people to pay for channels that they don’t want by limiting Spectrum’s ability to provide good customer service with program packages.

“They also want to limit our ability to provide greater customer choice in programming packages forcing you to take and pay for channels you may not want. Spectrum is on your side and fighting to keep costs down while protecting and maximizing customer choice. We apologize for the inconvenience,” stated Spectrum.

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College football fans and tennis fans suffer due to Spectrum-Disney dispute

Bryson Barnes SI SPectrum blackout
Utah’s QB Bryson Barnes (Image via SI)

Due to the dispute between Disney and Charter, the ESPN networks went dark right around the kickoff between the Utah Utes and the Florida Gators. As a result, football fans and US Open fans missed out on games due to the blackout.

ESPN was showing the game between Utah and Florida and ESPN2 was showing the US Open tournament. Apart from sports fans, the blackout also angered the U.S. Tennis Association. They were not happy with the timing of the blackout and released a statement hoping for a quick resolution between Spectrum and Disney.

As of now, Spectrum users, especially college football fans will miss out on plenty of action. The network previously had plenty of channels that were covering college football including ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, SEC Network, and Longhorn Network. They won’t be available for the Spectrum users now till the network reaches a fair deal with Disney.

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