Spectrum Cable Customers Can Get $15 Credit Off Monthly Bill Thanks to Disney Carriage Dispute
Spectrum Cable Customers Can Get $15 Credit Off Monthly Bill Thanks to Disney Carriage Dispute
Carriage disputes between cable providers and channel owners are never fun for the customers who are affected by them. The current dispute between Spectrum and Disney is a doozy, as it has caused nearly 15 million Spectrum customers across the country to lose out on channels like ESPN and FX.
There’s at least one sliver of good news arising from that dispute: a small discount for Spectrum TV users. According to a report from WHEC in Rochester, New York, customers who call Spectrum regarding the carriage dispute can receive a $15 credit off their next month’s bill. Users who contact Spectrum via text or chat have not received the same offer with regularity, so if you want that $15 discount, calling Spectrum is the way to go.
The carriage dispute erupted publicly last week, as both sides accused the other of being at fault for the lack of a new deal. Disney says it is asking for carriage rates consistent with fair market value, while Spectrum says price demands for carrying Disney channels have grown too onerous.
Spectrum has escalated its rhetoric since the dispute began, claiming that it’s ready to leave the traditional cable business altogether to focus on its broadband and wireless offerings rather than submitting to Disney’s fee demands. The company is likely seeing a wave of cancelations thanks to the channel blackouts, especially since the college football season has already begun, and the NFL season isn’t far behind.
This credit towards next month’s bill that some Spectrum customers have received is reminiscent of DIRECTV’s strategy during its own troubles with channel operators. DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM customers in over 100 markets have been without Nexstar-owned stations since July thanks to a disagreement over retransmission fees between the two sides. To help mollify affected users, DIRECTV is offering a $10 credit off their next month’s bill.
It will become harder and harder for cable customers to avoid carriage disputes like this in the coming years. Channel operators have to keep revenue streams as steady as possible for as long as they can, and that means asking for bigger carriage rates as fewer users are watching their channels. But cable providers have smaller pools to draw carriage fees from as their customer bases shrink, which means they’ll increasingly push back on fee demands they find to be too high.
