Kentucky fans are unhappy about Spectrum/ESPN dispute, but it’s a sign of things to come

The one thing we still watch on television at the same time is live sports. Until we don’t.

Such is the current Spectrum/Disney dispute. Perhaps you’ve noticed. If you are a local Spectrum cable television customer you are sure to have noticed. You couldn’t watch ESPN’s assortment of college football this past weekend, including the Kentucky-Ball State game on the SEC Network.

Why not? The contract between Disney, who owns the ESPN family of networks, and Charter, who owns Spectrum, expired Aug. 31. As of this writing, the two corporate giants have yet to reach an agreement. Disney wants more money from Charter for its programming. Charter wants Disney to include its streaming apps with the TV programming.

Disney says it wants a “market-based agreement.” Charter says Disney is “demanding an excessive increase” and the “cable model is broken.”

Disney is encouraging Spectrum customers to sign up for Hulu + Live TV streaming service, of which Disney is the majority owner. Spectrum is offering discounts on the Fubo streaming service.

Meanwhile, college football fans who only subscribe to Charter/Spectrum missed Jeff Brohm’s debut at Louisville on Friday night, the Kentucky game on Saturday and Duke’s upset of Clemson on Monday night.

This isn’t new. Kentucky fans who are Dish TV customers remember last season when they couldn’t watch the UK-Ole Miss football game on Oct. 1 because of a contract dispute between Disney and the satellite company. Luckily, that was resolved rather quickly.

That hasn’t been the case between Disney and Charter. The reasons vary.

According to reports, the return of Bob Iger as Disney’s chairman has brought multiple changes. Iger is reining in ESPN’s spending. The cable network has spent billions on rights fees to sporting events. To bring the bottom line in line, Iger has taken cost-cutting measures such as laying off ESPN broadcasters Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson on the NBA; David Pollack on college football and Suzy Kolber and Keyshawn Johnson on the NFL, among others.

Experts believe Iger’s ultimate goal is to offer ESPN as a standalone streaming sports channel, with Disney charging customers anywhere from $30 to $50 a month for the service. Disney would still offer ESPN to cable subscribers, but it wants a larger slice of the streaming pie.

Meanwhile, Charter/Spectrum apparently wants to transition away from cable television to focus on its broadband and wireless businesses. The reason? It knows more and more customers are cutting the cable television cord in favor of streaming.

I’m one. We cut the cord last year in favor of YouTube TV. So far, so good. We get all the local channels, plus dozens of others, including ESPN. We can watch YouTube TV on other devices, such as our iPads or our iPhones. The one downside: YouTube TV doesn’t carry Bally Sports. Thus, no Cincinnati Reds. And just when the Reds got interesting.

When Bally Sports declared bankruptcy, there was talk Major League Baseball would take over those contracts and offer the games on its streaming service for a price. That happened with the San Diego Padres. That hasn’t happened with the Reds.

It is the future, however. Fewer and fewer cable customers want to pay higher prices for programming they don’t watch. Long gone is the age of only three major networks when everyone watched “All in the Family” or “Laugh-In” together. Now there are nearly infinite programming and channel options. And with DVRs, cable or cloud, we can watch whenever or wherever.

Live sports is the exception. Disney reports 9.1 million watched Florida State whip LSU on Sunday night, the second-most watched Labor Day Sunday game on record and a 20% increase over last year’s Florida State-LSU game, also played on the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend.

Meanwhile, Saturday’s Kentucky-Eastern Kentucky game, with its 3 p.m. kickoff, can only be seen on the ESPN+ and SEC Network+ streaming services. You must have a Spectrum account to stream SEC Network+. You must have an ESPN+ subscription to access ESPN+ programming. Both cost money.

Consider yourself warned.

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