Verizon and Disney set to disconnect millions of customers
By Alex Lloyd Gross
Verizon is a cable television provider in the Delaware Valley. Cable networks require Verizon to pay to carry their programming. The contact to carry Disney owned channels will expire on December 31, 2018. Verizon will not be carrying these channels which include ABC, ESPN, Disney and related programming. Verizon sent out a notice advising of this disconnect early December 27, 2018.
Verizon is claiming that Disney wants “Hundreds of millions of dollars” in order to keep their channels. This has the potential to hurt both companies and do irreparable harm. Scenario one the two do not come to an agreement. Untold Verizon customers will terminate service when they can not watch ESPN,or even ABC shows. They will go to Comcast, or even the Dish network. Lost revenue for Verizon. Stupid business decision by both companies.
Scenario two, Verizon pays way more than they should and raises the rates. Untold people still terminate service and move to Comcast or Dish network. People have not gotten a pay increase and see even a small increase get gobbled up by a behemoth company. Service goes bye bye. Verizon played hardball with The Weather Channel when a manager decided against carrying that network when fees increased. Tens of thousands of lost subscribers. Thi9s area is unique. A lot of die hard sports fans will drop coverage in a heartbeat to keep ESPN. There are also millions of people that do not care about sports and will not want to pay anything to see what they call over paid athletes playing a kids game. For the financial stability of both companies, they should tread lightly with this issue.
The clueless PR firm said that people could get weather from other channels ( some are free, over the air.) People do not watch the weather channel to see the weather. They go for exclusive programming about storms, bad weather and science. Bad PR rap for Verizon. You may remember 30 years ago when Sammons cable decided to drop MTV. The result was enough bad publicity to put the company on the defensive and they were out of business in a few years.