SC Spectrum customers regain ESPN, other Disney channels. What to know

Patrick McCreless
·2 min read

Watching some college football games will no longer be a struggle for many South Carolina viewers.

ESPN, as well as other Disney-owned channels, returned for Spectrum cable customers on Monday after they lost access more than a week ago. The outage left many South Carolina college football fans in the dark and ended just hours before kickoff of Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC.

Incidentally, while many Spectrum customers across the U.S. lost ABC as well over the last 10 days, viewers in South Carolina did not. ABC 25 Columbia never stopped broadcasting. The local affiliate channel is owned by Bahakel Communications and so wasn’t affected by the outage.

The reason for the lost channels was because Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, had been in carriage contract negotiations with the Walt Disney Company. Those negotiations are over.

Under the new multi-year distribution agreement, first reported on Monday by the Wall Street Journal, the majority of Disney’s networks and stations were immediately restored to Spectrum customers. Also, among other deal points, the new ad-supported Disney+ Basic will be provided to customers who purchase the Spectrum TV Select package. And ESPN+ will be provided to Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers.

In a joint statement Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, and Chris Winfrey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Charter Communications said:

“Our collective goal has always been to build an innovative model for the future. This deal recognizes both the continued value of linear television and the growing popularity of streaming services, while addressing the evolving needs of our consumers. We also want to thank our mutual customers for their patience this past week, and are pleased that Spectrum viewers once again have access to Disney’s high-quality sports, news and entertainment programming, in time for Monday Night Football.”