The 10-day blackout of Disney channels on Spectrum cable service ended Monday after Spectrum operator Charter reached a new carriage deal with the entertainment giant, sources told CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, crucially reaching an armistice ahead of the first Monday Night Football broadcast on Disney-owned ESPN.
Spectrum subscribers should now be able to watch Monday Night Football.
Included in the deal is a clause allowing Spectrum subscribers to access Disney streaming services like Disney+ at a discounted price, according to CNBC.
The resolution comes less than 12 hours before ESPN’s airing of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills’ Week 1 matchup; last NFL season’s Monday Night Football debut was ESPN’s sixth highest-watched broadcast of 2022.
Shares of Disney and Charter each tacked on about 2% Monday, outpacing the S&P 500’s 0.3% gain.
The companies did not immediately respond to Forbes’ requests for comment.
Charter, which pays Disney more than $2 billion annually to carry its channels to its 15 million Spectrum subscribers, said last week it proposed to Disney a “model that could both stabilize linear video and create a clear growth path for direct-to-consumer (DTC) video, with a more customer-friendly and financially attractive end-state for programmers.” Disney stock fell to its lowest level in more than a decade last week amid the dispute as its linear cable business is far more profitable than its streaming segment, bringing in a near $2 billion operating profit last quarter compared to a $512 million loss for its direct-to-consumer unit.
“While there may be a short-term resolution, this dispute adds additional uncertainty at a challenging time for the industry when various strikes are underway and advertising trends remain challenged,” Bank of America analysts led by Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote last week when the blackout began.