Charter Communications CEO Kris Winfrey has a message. Disney A $2.2 billion dispute over cable television by the companies. An estimated 15 million viewers lost ESPN and live sports after the nation’s largest cable providers failed to agree on one of their major content providers, Winfrey said. Goldman Sachs A workout on Thursday about the future. He called the opportunity “more and more likely to be a reality.”
Effective September 1, Charter took the unprecedented step of eliminating all Disney-owned channels on its cable boxes. Charter wants Disney to offer customers the Magic Kingdom’s various streaming services for free, such as Disney+ and ESPN+, the current financial model of cable television, in which programmers receive fees from cable companies and pass the cost on to their subscribers. , does not work in the days of the now dying cable business.
“We had to say enough is enough, or we’re going to have to go to another model,” Winfrey said.
Disney rejected several offers to extend the charter deal and keep the channels on the charter airwaves, according to a company statement. Chance.
If the charter really goes ahead Without Disney channelsThe cable package will be a smaller, cheaper “general entertainment” package, Winfrey says. One of the main reasons for the stripped-down cable version is that without Disney sports juggernaut ESPN, Winfrey doesn’t think Charter would renew most of its other sports offerings. This will be a big change for the TV business, led by cable TV sports contracts The NFL’s $110 billion package With three major networks, ESPN and Amazon Prime – forms the backbone of both the sports and TV industries.
ESPN has been the big dog in cable TV for more than a generation, commanding an average carrier fee of $9.42 a month, he said. Sports, from every cable subscriber, you can watch 24-7 sports channels. Indeed, ESPN’s mandated cable TV “bundle” of high-paying sports and non-sports fans contributed greatly to the birth of the cord-cutting era. Netflixthe streaming wars and the epic entertainment saga that led to this moment.
Winfrey said the longer the dispute drags on, the less willing Charter is to settle with Disney. Winfrey reasons that any loss of customers in the meantime will help Charter’s business by revealing those who want sports offerings, which Charter can offer via streaming or video-on-demand services and its core general audience. In that case, Charter said, “it will be a self-selecting option for customers who want and are willing to pay that kind of value for sports content.”
Winfrey predicts a hybrid future for television where streaming and linear are merged together. He says that under pressure from Wall Street, older media companies have split their broadcast and linear TV businesses. “They’re focused on direct-to-consumer businesses as if it were a completely different business,” Winfrey said. “I don’t think it’s a separate business. You should see the two together; You have a consolidated cash flow.
Incumbents like Disney have gone after lucrative streaming services by letting their “linear programming house burn down.” In what Winfrey considers a losing effort, those companies will only put their best content on them Streaming servicesThat left the already struggling cable business even more impoverished — with consumers having to pay subscription fees for both cable and streaming services to watch whatever they wanted. “The cost of a big expanded package with everything bundled up and forced on customers who don’t want, value or can’t afford the content just doesn’t work anymore,” he said.
Winfrey listed two other major issues with Disney: that programmers are raising prices faster than the consumer price index, and that rigid family minimums mean contracts force certain channels on consumers.
Winfrey was coy when asked what progress the two sides have made. “If there was anything I could do to shine, I would. Knowing how we are should tell you something.
This story is featured in the beginning Fortune.com
More from Fortune:
5 side businesses that can make you over $20,000 a year – all while working from home
Want more for your money? These 14 savings accounts have 5% APY (and higher) rates
Buying a house? Here’s how much you save
How much money do you need to earn a year to comfortably buy a $600,000 home?
