Last Thursday, ESPN and other Disney channels faced a blackout on Spectrum. At first, it seemed that it was just any other common carriage dispute.
However, in reality, it was just the opposite. Charter, the operator of the Spectrum brand, asked Disney to salvage the cable bundle. It also asked Disney to give customers more flexibility and access to popular streaming options.
On the other hand, Disney wants to keep things as usual, as it needs to cover its losses over streaming services with higher pay-TV prices.
Don’t want to take sides, but it seems the Charter is right. With the rise in the usage of streaming services, it is right to offer more flexibility to customers. Having cable bundles for customers is not a good deal for the latter. Disney needs to understand its unsustainability in the TV business. Hence, it must consider restructuring it in such a way that it benefits everyone in the long run.
Last year, Charter lost 719,000 residential TV customers, and the data is similar in 2023 as well. In fact, TV providers lost close to 5.8 million subscribers of satellite, cable, and live TV streaming services. On the contrary, Disney’s cable and broadcast channel revenue grew by 1% and gave an $8.5 billion profit on these channels.
According to TechHive.com,
“This is a pretty important strategy for Disney, which continues to bleed money on streaming services such as Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Those services lost the company $4 billion in 2022, and Disney doesn’t expect to turn a profit on them until next year.”
Disney needs to make money from cable as it wants to make its streaming services profitable. Hence, it will try to hike its rates, as it loses its cable audience.
Continue Reading:
