Disney and DirecTV near new deal deadline

Earlier this summer, DirecTV was in the news regularly due to the Sunday Ticket antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. Now, DirecTV is back in the headlines due to negotiations with Disney.

DirecTV’s deal with various Disney-owned networks (including ABC and ESPN) expires at midnight. In the absence of a new deal, the networks will disappear from DirecTV, forcing customers to look elsewhere Monday Night Football.

Last year it was between Disney and Charter Communications. This fight lasted from August 31st to just before the Week 1 game between the Bills and Jets.

Things haven’t gotten any worse yet. But they’re headed that way. DirecTV has UnbundleDisney.com launchedwhich runs counter to Disney and its desire to connect different networks, regardless of whether consumers want it.

These things usually resolve themselves. Or maybe this one didn’t get much attention because DirecTV is a dying platform. It fell off peak 21 million subscribers to less than 9 million.

Regardless, that’s a lot of people who won’t be able to watch this Monday Night Footballif Disney and DirecTV can’t figure this out.