ABC Blackout May Prevent Over 11 Million People from Watching Trump and Kamala’s First Presidential Debate

The ongoing dispute between DirecTV and the Walt Disney Company may prevent over 11 million households from watching the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

DirecTV and Disney are disputing the companies’ carriage agreement terms, which expired on September 1.

As a result of the dispute, DirecTv subscribers cannot access networks such as ESPN, FX, and ABC, which are hosting the presidential debate on September 10.

DirecTV currently has over 11.3 million subscribers in the United States, which means millions will not be able to watch the debate if DirectTV and Disney cannot make a deal or ABC decides not to stream the debate on their official website.

DirecTV CEO Ray Carpenter doesn’t seem in a rush to make a deal, and said in regards to recent negotiations with Disney, “We’re not playing a short-term game.”

Millions of people may not be able to see the debate next week. I have DirecTV, and I can’t see anything on ABC right now. Debating on a Disney network was always a terrible idea.https://t.co/0GhWTLcnTk

— Mark Mendlovitz (@MendlovitzMark) September 4, 2024

Per Breitbart:

The ongoing fight between the Walt Disney Company and DirecTV means potentially millions of households won’t be able to watch next week’s presidential debate on ABC, as the Disney-owned network is currently blacked out to DirecTV subscribers.

Disney and DirecTV are feuding over terms of their carriage agreement, which expired at the start of September. As a result, DirecTV subscribers cannot access Disney-owned channels, including ABC, ESPN, FX, and many others.

DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T, has an estimated 11.3 million subscribers nationwide.

While negotiations were believed to be ongoing, there were no active discussions as recently as Tuesday, unnamed sources told Deadline.

Forbes estimates that Trump and Harris’s first presidential debate will set record numbers despite the potential blackout on DirecTV.

The most-watched presidential debate in American history was between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on September 26, 2016, which garnered 84 million viewers.

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