An important milestone has passed in the Cold War between Disney and DirecTV.
As Jets vs. 49ers began on “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and ABC, the networks’ parent company, Disney, has still not come to a carriage agreement with DirecTV.
The dispute includes the ESPN family of networks, FX and Disney’s owned-and-operated ABC affiliates.
While a majority of DirecTV customers in the country can still watch “Monday Night Football” on ABC this week, it is dark in big metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco where Disney owns the broadcast affiliates.
DirecTV customers are all unable to use their accounts to stream games airing on ESPN on the network’s app.
The networks have been dark on DirecTV’s satellite and streaming services, as well as U-Verse, since last weekend.
While many sports fans can subscribe to a streaming bundle like YouTube TV, Sling TV or Fubo either by switching entirely or just keeping both until the carriage dispute is over, not everyone can switch so easily.
DirecTV has a big base of commercial customers in bars, restaurants, hotels and gyms, and…
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