DirecTV Rejects Disney Offer To Restore ABC News Tonight Only For POTUS Debate – Update

Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson
·6 min read
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UPDATE. 12:43 PM: (Updated with ABC News statement) There will be no presidential debate on ABC for DirecTV customers tonight.

“Unfortunately, DirecTV has rejected our offer,” a Disney spokesperson bluntly told Deadline just now. As talks go on with DirecTV over a new carriage contract and Disney channels remain dark on the service, the Mouse House proposed three-hour primetime carve out for the first match-up between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

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Almost 10 days into the dispute that has seen all of the 16 Disney channels on DirecTV essentially disappear, the satellite cable company today said that it was not interested in making a one-time only deal for tonight’s historic debate. A decision that was made because DirecTV were apparently worried subscribers would get confused.

RELATED: How To Watch The First Presidential Debate Of 2024: Is It Streaming?

“On Tuesday, Disney requested a unique exception to return ABC-only for tonight because it’s hosting the 2024 Presidential Debate, an event widely available across other major broadcast stations and news networks,” DirectTV wrote online this afternoon. “Unfortunately, returning only Disney’s ABC stations from the entire portfolio of channels for a limited 3-hour window will cause customer confusion among those who would briefly see the debate only to lose the channel again shortly after.”

Or does this all come down to football for DirecTV?

RELATED: 2024 Presidential Election Debate Schedule: Dates, Times, Who’ll Be There & Who Won’t

On a rather long blog post, the company Tuesday went on to say: “DIRECTV agreed to return ABC in time for tonight’s Presidential Debate if Disney is also willing to return all its channels across platforms through the end of Monday Night Football at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 17. Returning the Disney-owned channels for the next week while we work to reach a new agreement would benefit customers who would regain access to ABC for the debate and the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 16 as well as their favorite college and professional football games on ABC and ESPN, ACC or SEC networks.”

DirecTV assert that their offer to bring ABC and the 15 other Disney channels back for a week “remains on the table.”

BTW – the Emmys are on September 15, not September 16 as DirecTV just wrote in the heat of this battle. While unavailable on ABC for DirecTV customers, tonight’s 9 pm ET/6 pm PT starting debate is being simulcast on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, the BBC, and C-Span. The debate will also be live streamed on Hulu, Disney+ and ABC News Live.

Or as Luke Skywalker himself noted:

PREVIOUSLY, 11:43 AM: The first debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be available for DirecTV customers tonight despite the carriage battle between the company and Disney – if the satellite cable company accept the Mouse House’s offer.

“As we announced in May, the ABC News presidential debate will be widely available across broadcast, cable and streaming,” a Disney spokesperson told Deadline this morning, just hours before the candidates meet up in Philadelphia.

“Although we have yet to reach an agreement, we are providing a three-hour feed of ABC News coverage to all impacted DirecTV customers at no cost because we want all Americans to be able to view tonight’s debate at this important moment in our history,” the spokesperson added. “We remain at the table negotiating with DirecTV and the restoration of our programming to their subscribers is completely within their control.”

If all goes to plan, the three-hour window will begin at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT with pre-date coverage and then the Linsey Davis and David Muir moderated debate itself. A short post debate segment is expect to air for DirecTV customers as well as everyone else across the nation too, we hear.

However, this all depends on DirecTV agreeing to Disney’s temporary no blackout proposal. We hear that the offer had been on the table for hours, so to speak, with no response from the Bill Murrow run company. Deadline reached out to DirecTV, and will update this post if and when we hear a response.

Over a week into Disney’s dust-up with DirecTV, and one day after the season debut of the NFL’s Monday Night Football was unseen by DirecTV subscribers yesterday, the deft debate move today by the Bob Iger-run media giant also comes as DirecTV hit Disney hard Tuesday. Accusing Disney of “blocking the Presidential debate” the AT&T majority owned company started pushing viewers with an on-air slate to go to “CBS, FOX, NBC, C-SPAN or one of the may 24/7 news networks” to watch the poll-tied Harris and Trump spar.

Even with DirecTV CFO Ray Carpenter’s “big game” tough talk soon after Disney’s 16 channels on DirecTV went dark, it was a surprise in this game of carriage chicken that a deal wasn’t reached before MNF.

With the debate now a possibility, the next shoe to drop will be the ABC-hosted Emmys on September 15. Right now, even with Disney topping the number of nominations this year, there is no streaming back-up plan for DirecTV customers to watch the Eugene and Dan Levy hosted ceremony. In fact, today’s offer for a carve out for the much anticipated debate could be a stress test by Disney for a similar move for TV’s big night on Sunday.

Still, if CNN’s set up for the simulcast June 27 debate is any indication, matter what channel you are watching the high stakes POTUS debate tonight, it will likely be readily apparent to any viewer of the debate that ABC News is sponsoring it.

At the Philadelphia Convention Center’s media filing center and the spin room the ABC News logo has been placed throughout: On walls, in circular banners and on backdrops.

The actual debate itself is being held several blocks away, at the National Constitution Center, sealed off by a security perimeter that takes up about half of Independence Mall. Although there is no debate signage visible from outside the fencing, a smattering of campaign supporters already had gathered in an open area of the mall. One man’s sign read “Kamala Loves Hamas.” A woman’s large banner read “Loser,” in the Trump campaign typeface. There was at least one vendor selling solely Harris merchandise, including a T-shirt that read “The Prosecutor Vs. The Felon.”

Additionally, Harris supporters waved signs and cheered in front of the hotel where she is staying near Rittenhouse Square. Trump supporters gathered across the street.

As of yet, there is no more debates officially scheduled between Vice President Harris and former president Trump. However, their respective running mates Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) will go head-to-head on October 1 on CBS.

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