They might be giants, but they're squabbling like kids...

[Sarangel]

Disney's making waves in the cable world again... This time, it's EchoStar (who's trying to merge with DirecTV) that doesn't want to carry the ABC Family Channel. Both sides are lobbying in Washington to carry out their vision, but it could get ugly. Check out the whole story here.

Sarangel

 

[Safari Steve]

I thought this post would be about a band...

 

[Teejay32]

The situation also could be a factor in the sensitive regulatory review of EchoStar's bid to become the nation's only satellite provider by acquiring DirecTV parent Hughes Electronics Corp.

...even with a 'regulatory review', wouldn't this be illegal?

 

[d-r]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011231/bs/disney_echostar_lawsuit_3.html

Disney has won a temporary injunction to prevent them dropping abc family; according to the story, they went ahead and dropped espn classic.


The sat. companies are scrambling to add in local channels, because these help them compete in the local markets with digital cable, but because the bandwidth of the sat's are limited, they can only carry a finite number of channels. OR they are trying to strong arm Disney into lowering their rates for carrying the channels. This is a battle between content and provider that has been going on for a while.

We have direct TV, and the main reason we got it was for toon disney, the east and west coast disney feeds, and all the espn channels (with digital cable, toon disney and the espn channels were on separate tiers (one sports, one family) and so it would cost us more have both. If echostar takes over direct tv and drops disney channels so that some one somewhere else can have local channels (Lansing MI is in the 100's in terms of market share, so the local channels here will be way down the list), then I want out of my contract.

DR

 

[raidermatt]

Say what you will about ABC Family, but ESPN classic is an excellent channel that has a niche and is growing. I don't know very many people that would drop Echostar over ABC Family or ESPN News, but I do know some who have quickly become addicted to ESPN Classic.

Echostar is trying to strong-arm Disney. Business is business...

 

[HBK]

Disney Casts Itself as the Victim. Again.
I read this, and re-read the article sara linked to....it's pretty stupid, and I'm not sure what Disney's defense is on this....if some channels are underperforming, and room needs to be cleared for the new local channels, then take out the under performers.

Seems to remind me of some budget cutbacks made to a favorite vacation destination. We didn't like the cutbacks, but Disney went through with them anyway because they were deemed "profit under-performers".

Doesn't seem much different, but in this case Disney is in our shoes. Echostar has to make some cuts to make room for new channels. Two of Disney's channels are in the firing line because they are under-performers.

Another quote of scary importance:

Disney has promised to reinvigorate ABC Family next month with new programs, some of them from its ABC network.

But cable and satellite operators object to paying big fees for programs that viewers can see on ABC for free.

In the court papers, Michael Schwimmer, head of programming for EchoStar, said Disney used threats in mid-December to compel EchoStar to carry ABC Family.

He said Disney senior vice president Peter Murphy told him that his company had "its weapons" and was prepared to "march on Washington, D.C.," in opposition to the DirecTV deal if the two companies failed to reach a deal for delivery of ABC Family.

WOW! Sounds like the magical company we all know and love! The company has it's "weapons"?

I can't believe they invested 5 Billion for this channel, and now the costs are going to keep escalating with all of the legal fees needed to keep the channel on the air. GREAT INVESTMENT.