Disney Is Seemingly Leveraging The Charter Spectrum Issue To Boost Subscribers For Their Own Services

Last week, Disney turned off its channels on the Charter Spectrum service during major sporting events because they said Charter Spectrum would not negotiate. Afterward, they accused the carrier of not caring about their subscribers and seemingly implied they should switch to Disney’s own streaming services.

After Disney pulled their channels, they saw a massive stock drop. They claimed that they should be paid more money for their channels, in a new multi-year deal, because the market demanded it. Disney can barely keep their own streaming service numbers up yet claims that they are worth more money and should be the center of services.

Disney shared a “What You Need To Know” about the current dispute between Disney and Charter/Spectrum. Disney claims Charter declined an “offer to extend negotiations which would have kept Disney-owned networks” on the service. pic.twitter.com/xwiWUQM4PX

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 3, 2023

Disney argues that Spectrum doesn’t care about the customers, but when Disney chose to pull service at the time they did, which to many feels intentional, it also makes customers think that Disney doesn’t care about them either.

However, it seems Spectrum is offering $15 in credit to attempt to make up for the loss of the channels.

After the fiasco Disney tried to poach the subscribers to their streaming services, issuing this statement yesterday:

Despite the ongoing dispute, consumers have many other choices—such as Hulu + Live TV—that allow them to enjoy the great programming for which Disney Entertainment is known,” the company said in a statement. “There’s no contract, no cable box, and no wait time to subscribe.”

Let me tell you about Hulu with Live TV. We subscribed a few years ago and it cost about $40-$45 a month. Since Disney took control of Hulu, the price has drastically increased and is about double what it was when we “cut the cord” and switched. Disney already announced more price hikes are coming next month!

It seems like this is Disney’s new plan to try to increase its subscribers by the end of the fiscal year, which closes out on September 30.

When they weren’t given what they deemed “market value,” they are now pivoting to try and actively poach customers from the providers they claim to want to work with. Even companies that are paying Disney’s prices may think twice, given how they are behaving.

Disney also has to pay for the use of channels on their Hulu with Live TV package. They are acting as a service provider themselves. Would they be willing to pay a higher “market value” if those networks demanded it?

However, this may all come back around on them as previously we covered Comcast’s new Xumo service that would be much cheaper for live TV than Disney’s. That venture is a 50/50 split between Comcast and Charter Communications, who own Spectrum. If a viable competitor emerges and costs 1/4 of Disney’s own service, where do you think people will go then?

What do you think? Comment and let us know!