Televisions screens across the United States that should be showing the US Open are blank due to a dispute between Disney and the company behind TV provider Spectrum.
Customers began noticing the blackout on Thursday when switching on their TVs for the start of the night's standout college football game between the Florida Gators and the Utah Utes. The shock was sizeable as viewers could not tune in to see the nation's No. 14 team blowout their cross-conference opponents to start the season.
Anger has only grown throughout Friday as the ESPN blackout continues, meaning many are missing out on all the action underway at Flushing Meadows. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is equally unamused by the situation:
"We're very disappointed for our fans and viewers around the country that Spectrum and Charter could not resolve their dispute with Disney, resulting in a loss of ESPN coverage of Thursday night's matches. We're very hopeful that this dispute can be resolved as quickly as possible."
However, Spectrum has explained its position in a message displayed on television screens:
“The Walt Disney Company, the owner of this channel has removed their programming from Spectrum which creates hardship for our cosstumers. We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to negotiate in good faith n order to reh a fair agreement.”
Disney Rug Pulls Spectrum Nearly 15 million Spectrum subscribers won’t be tuning into College Football tonight, nor US Open Tennis. All ESPN networks on Spectrum went dark moments before the start of Florida vs Utah game. This due to a dispute between Charter Communications…
ESPN is one of several Disney entertainment channels that have gone dark on Charter Spectrum cable systems.
The channels went off the air Thursday night due to a carriage dispute between the nation's second-largest cable TV provider, which is the major carrier in New York and Los Angeles, among numerous other markets, and Disney.
ESPN was carrying a college football game between Florida and No. 14 Utah while ESPN2 was showing the U.S. Open tennis tournament, including the second-round match between top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz and Lloyd Harris, when the channels went dark for Charter Spectrum's 14.7 million subscribers.
