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College Football Fans Rejoice: Spectrum and Disney have reached a deal to return ESPN to the airwaves

By Kevin Miller

South Carolina football's game against UNC on ABC could be blacked out by Spectrum due to an ongoing dispute with Disney. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
South Carolina football's game against UNC on ABC could be blacked out by Spectrum due to an ongoing dispute with Disney. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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College football fans who utilize Spectrum as their cable provider have been very disappointed so far this season. Charter, the parent company of the television provider, has been in a carriage dispute with Disney. The mighty Mouse owns ABC, ESPN, and all ESPN properties, meaning that Disney owns much of the broadcasting rights to college football games.

Because of the almost two-week dispute, Spectrum customers have not had access to ESPN’s family of networks and, in some markets, ABC. Big games such as Florida-Utah, South Carolina-North Carolina, and Texas-Alabama were affected by the ESPN properties being made unavailable. Even the US Open tennis tournament was affected by the blackouts.

Thankfully for consumers across the nation, the two rich companies have ended their dispute, coming to an agreement that will bring Disney programming back to over 15 million subscribers who have been without the ability to watch their favorite teams for over 10 days and, for some fanbases, two games of their college football season (about 17% of the schedule!).

The opening Monday Night Football of the NFL season might have been the decider. Disney needed the viewership that comes with one of the highest-viewed television broadcasts of the year, and Spectrum needed to halt its hemorrhaging of subscribers who just wanted to watch sports.

While some are celebrating the new agreement, many fans exit this fight feeling betrayed and angry. At no fault of the consumer, the consumer suffered. Meanwhile, the two massive companies involved (Charter and Disney) got richer, even with the short period of difficulty.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee for college football fans that they won’t have to worry about a similar carriage dispute after this current contract expires. As has become evident in many other ways (like NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment), the almighty dollar has taken over as the ultimate ruler of all things in sports.

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