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Charter Communications and The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday unveiled a multiyear distribution agreement to continue delivering Disney’s TV and ESPN lineup to Spectrum subscribers.
The new deal also holds out future distribution of the Hulu, ESPN+ and Upcoming Disney+ streaming services to the U.S. cable giant’s subscribers. Spectrum TV customers will also be able to sign up for ESPN’s upcoming ACC Network when it launches Aug. 22.
The agreement comes as Disney as a traditional Hollywood studio is switching from a wholesale producer and distributor of content to rolling out a direct-to-consumer streaming model. The latest multiyear deal builds on an existing agreement between Disney and Charter, allowing Spectrum TV subscribers to continue receiving Disney assets like ABC, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform and the suite of ESPN channels.
“This agreement will allow Spectrum to continue delivering to its customers popular Disney content, makes possible future distribution by Spectrum of Disney streaming services, and will begin an important collaborative effort to address the significant issue of piracy mitigation,” said Tom Montemagno, executive vp programming acquisition for Charter, in a statement.
For cable operator Charter, in which John Malone’s Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, the Disney content deal renewal follows continuing pay TV subscriber declines as its pay TV bundle comes under threat in the streaming video age.
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