In September, No. 3 women's tennis star Coco Gauff was competing in the US Open. Between the Grand Slam matches she would eventually win, Gauff wanted to watch her competitors from her hotel room.
Except he couldn't because ESPN wasn't available in his hotel room. ESPN's parent company, Disney, was having a dispute with cable company Spectrum over the contract for the cable network to carry Disney-owned channels.
The problem was obviously huge: the US Open is one of the most watched events in the United States. But what was coming was worse: The NFL season was starting just days later, and the idea that millions of Americans would not have access to some games or would need to purchase a new service was a recipe for disaster.
Disney and Spectrum resolved the outage in time for ESPN's first game of the NFL season, but it was a sign that these outages were becoming frequent and impacting some of the biggest broadcasters, given the changing media landscape. due to the entry of streaming.
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That leads to this point, less than two weeks away from the Super Bowl, the most-watched live event each year in the country, and the possibility of a dispute between DirecTV and Cox Media Group that could keep the Super Bowl out of people's homes. many. American people.
Multiple reports on Jan. 26 said the two sides are at odds over renewing a new streaming deal. Cox Media, which broadcasts 14 local channels from ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS, in nine markets, could be blocked starting at midnight on February 2.
The nine markets include Atlanta, Boston and Pittsburgh, although the three markets affiliated with CBS, the network broadcasting this year's Super Bowl, are Dayton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida, and Seattle-Tacoma.
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Cox issued a press release on Jan. 25 saying that DirecTV is trying to “harm local journalism” with its proposed deal.
But a DirecTV spokesperson responded to Cox's statement by saying News about cable cutters on January 26 that they are looking for a fair deal.
“Our request to Cox Media Group is simple: do not force your viewers, who are our customers, to pay unjustified rate increases for 'free' news, sports and entertainment that are widely available on local stations' websites” the spokesperson told Cord. Cutter News.
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