In a letter sent today, Governor Roy Cooper asked the Walt Disney Company and DirecTV to end their fight and come to an agreement so that North Carolina customers could get the services they paid for and watch Atlantic Coast Conference football games and other popular sports events.
Governor Cooper wrote to Disney and DirecTV to ask them to find a solution. He said, “It’s become a troubling pattern in recent years for media companies to make little progress in these contract negotiations until their customers really feel the pain.”
That means the start of famous sports seasons, like college football, which leaves your customers without anything to do. This behavior is not acceptable, and I urge you to settle this disagreement quickly.
Here is the full letter from the Governor:
An ongoing disagreement between DirecTV and Disney made it impossible for many North Carolinians to watch their favorite sports teams and athletes over the Labor Day weekend.
I am writing on behalf of these people, who are upset and frustrated. A lot of famous channels, including ESPN, ESPN 2, ACC Network, SEC Network, and more, lost their signal.
In the past few years, there has been a worrying trend among media companies: they don’t make much progress in these contract talks until their customers really feel the pain.
That means the start of famous sports seasons, like college football, which leaves your customers without anything to do. This is not acceptable, and I urge you to settle this disagreement quickly.
Many North Carolinians are making tough budget choices because of the high costs of living, but they still choose to spend their hard-earned money with your companies. You are not delivering right now.
Your clients want you to end this argument right away. As a big sports fan myself, I agree with that.
People in North Carolina love sports, and it’s annoying when things go wrong, especially when most people weren’t expecting it.
On Sunday night, right before the nationally aired college football game between LSU and the University of Southern California, Disney’s shows were taken off the air.
A lot of your fans in North Carolina couldn’t watch the game, even though it was great. A lot of other games, like the US Open Tennis Championships, were also blocked.