Dish boss Charlie Ergen and Disney’s Bob Iger agreed on Monday to call off the lawyers and signed a new and forward-thinking programming deal that sets the table for a next-generation era of digital TV delivery.
After years of wrangling, Disney and Dish’s distribution agreement will provide content from the Mouse House to Ergen’s longed-for Internet TV service that could allow subscribers to tailor their own packages — allowing them, potentially, to break free of bundled tiers.
The breathtaking and groundbreaking pact marks the first time Disney has granted such rights, it said.
Under the deal, Dish will become the first distribution partner to gain rights from Disney, ABC and ESPN for a “personal subscription service.” While the agreement, announced late Monday, did not detail what that service would allow, Ergen has long railed against high sports fees and has aimed to create a so-called “over the top” digital-only package that would allow consumers some lower-cost options and choice over programming.
Dish declined further comment.
For its part, Dish has agreed, as part of the terms to settle the lawsuits, to drop its ad-hopper technology on Disney shows until three days after they first air.
That is a key concession because it is a standard audience measure companies like Disney use with Madison Avenue to gauge audience size.
Other terms of the settlement include:
- An agreement to carry Disney’s sports, news and entertainment service to Dish customers both inside the home and out of home via Disney and Dish apps.
- Dish working with Disney on creating new ad models that include after-the-fact insertion of new ads in TV shows, through a process called dynamic insertion.
- An agreement to carry a variety of Disney channels, including news channel Fusion, Longhorn Network, the coming SEC ESPN Network and Disney Junior.
Disney had been suing Dish over its AutoHop feature, which allowed consumers to skip over ads, losing Disney ad revenue in Dish network’s 14 million subscribers.
Ergen’s Dish, which announced a profit jump of 38 percent for the quarter ended Dec. 31, added 2.7 million new subscribers for the year. Disabling the AutoHop ad-skipping feature for the first three days a show is available via a DVR will help ABC preserve its ad revenue.
“The creation of this agreement has really been about predicting the future of television with a visionary and forward-leaning partner,” Dish CEO Joe Clayton said.