Cable Executives Fuming at Disney’s Plans to Air More ‘Monday Night Football’ Games on ABC

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) may have an unexpected ally in their continuing strikes against Hollywood producers: cable providers. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reports that several cable executives are hopping mad about Disney’s plan to air significantly more “Monday Night Football” games on ABC this season than originally scheduled.

The industry’s top executives are meeting this week in New York for what’s called “Diversity Week,” an annual gathering of cable brass to discuss the state of the business. Several cable representatives spoke on background to Ourand about Disney’s plans to cover gaps in programming left by the writer/actor strike, which are ruffling some feathers, to say the least.

“This whole double-dipping on the backs of distributors is just ridiculous,” one pay-TV executive said. “This is not going to endear the Walt Disney Co. to its distribution partners. Its flagship content was supposed to sit within ESPN. The fact that it has now sprung free to ABC to cover the fact that they aren’t willing to pay actors and screenwriters is BS.”

That “double-dip” refers to the fact that Disney charges the largest carriage fee of any channel for providers to carry ESPN. The retransmission consent fee for ABC is also high, so it’s not hard to see why some executives feel Disney is essentially charging twice for the same content. The number of exclusive “MNF” games on ABC (four) is now higher than the number of exclusive games on ESPN (three), meaning there’s weight behind the accusation that Disney has watered down its ESPN offerings this year.

Disney has attempted to assure providers that this is a one-off arrangement due to the strikes, and won’t be repeated next year. At least one executive Ourand spoke to was less upset with Disney because at least the shifting of games to ABC keeps them within the cable bundle. That executive is more upset when content moves off the cable bundle to streaming, which was one of the main issues behind Disney's recent carriage dispute with Spectrum.

There’s really nothing cable providers can do about ABC hosting more “MNF” games this season except fume anonymously to reporters. Still, it’s another mark against Disney in the ledgers of these cable executives, who won’t fail to notice when the House of Mouse makes more moves to distance itself from linear TV and cozy up to streaming in the future.