DirectTV has filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint against Disney. In it, the company says that Disney “has failed to negotiate in good faith.”
“Disney has violated the FCC’s good faith mandates by predicating any licensing agreements on DIRECTV’s waiving any legal claims on Disney’s past, current, or future anticompetitive actions, including its ongoing packaging and minimum penetration demands,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in a statement.
Disney released its own statement on the matter in response. In it, the company said, “We continue to negotiate with DirecTV to restore access to our content as quickly as possible. We urge DirecTV to stop creating diversions and instead prioritize their customers by finalizing a deal that would allow their subscribers to watch our strong upcoming lineup of sports, news and entertainment programming, starting with the return of Monday Night Football.”
DirecTV said that on top of negotiating in bad faith and noting that Disney’s joint streaming sports venture Venu has been held up because of a court injunction. This was after a lawsuit was filed to stop the joint venture by Fubo.
“The negotiations have stalled because Disney insists on bundling and penetration requirements that a federal district court judge in New York recently found in the context of the ‘Venu’ joint venture to be unlawful, anticompetitive, and ‘bad for consumers,’” the complaint reads. “Disney wants to force DIRECTV to carry a ‘fat bundle’ including less desirable Disney programming — while itself offering cheaper, ‘skinnier’ bundles of programming that consumers want. The Commission has never considered a good faith complaint in these circumstances, and DIRECTV may well wish to bring one in the future concerning Disney’s conduct.”
“Along with these anti-competitive demands, Disney has also insisted that DIRECTV agree to a ‘clean slate’ provision and a covenant not to sue, both of which are intended to prevent DIRECTV from taking legal action regarding Disney’s anticompetitive demands, which would include filing good faith complaints at the Commission,” DirecTV shares in its complaint. “Not three months ago, however, the Media Bureau made clear that such a demand itself constitutes bad faith.”
The ‘clean slate’ provision has been agreed on before by Disney and DirecTV in previous deals.
At this point, there doesn’t seem to be a deal in sight between the two companies. This comes as ABC is set to host the Presidential Debate on Tuesday night. Currently, ABC is not airing on DirecTV. However, for those who want to watch the debate, it will be simulcast on other networks.
