Millions of Americans will be watching tonight as Vice-president Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump meet for their first debate. But they won’t be watching it on DirecTV.
The debate will be broadcast by ABC News, owned by the Disney Company. Disney recently pulled all of its channels from DirecTV in a contract dispute.
So DirecTV has arrived at a novel solution. It will pay for its customers to sign up with a competing service.
DirecTV has negotiated a deal with Sling and Fubo, which carry most of Disney’s channels, for its customers to sign up so they can watch the debate, as well as sports programming offered by ABC and ESPN.
Customers who subscribe to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse can get a free trial of Fubo for a week and access two of its packages that carry ESPN and Disney networks. If they continue, they’ll get $30 off the first month of service.
DirecTV will also give current customers a $30 credit if they sign up for Sling’s orange tier, which includes the ESPN channels.
Hardball
At the same time, the satellite TV provider served notice it intends to play hardball. At the beginning of the week, it filed a complaint against Disney with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
"The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system," said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV.
"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. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers – making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price."