ESPN has gone off the air on a major carrier for the second straight year during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and in the midst of the first full weekend of college football.
Disney Entertainment channels went dark on DirecTV Sunday night after the sides were unable to reach a new carriage agreement.
The move angered some sports fans, who posted their displeasure on social media. And the U.S. Tennis Association wasn’t pleased with another carriage dispute.
ESPN was showing the fourth round of the U.S. Open when it went off the air on DirecTV at 7:20 p.m. EDT.
That was a half-hour before the start of the match between Frances Tiafoe, an American who reached the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals, and Alexei Popyrin, an Australian who eliminated defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday.
“It is disappointing that fans and viewers around the country will not have the opportunity to watch the greatest athletes in our sport take part in the 2024 U.S. Open due to an unresolved negotiation between DirecTV and Disney, resulting in the loss of access to ESPN. We are hopeful that this dispute can be resolved as quickly as possible,” the USTA said in a statement.
It also happened 10 minutes before the start of the college football game between No. 13 LSU and 23rd-ranked Southern California in Las Vegas.
ABC-owned stations in Los Angeles; the San Francisco Bay Area; Fresno, California; New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; Houston; and Raleigh, North Carolina, also went off DirecTV.
Last year, Disney and Spectrum — the nation’s second-largest cable TV provider — were involved in a nearly 12-day impasse until coming to an agreement hours before the first Monday night NFL game of the season.
DirecTV said Disney offered an extension to keep the channels on the air in exchange for DirecTV having to waive all future legal claims that its behavior is anti-competitive.
“The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV’s chief content officer, in a statement. “Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers — making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price.”
DirecTV has 11.3 million subscribers, according to Leichtman Research Group, making it the nation’s third-largest pay TV provider.
Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairmen of Disney Entertainment, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro issued a joint statement urging DirecTV to finalize a deal.
The statement added that “while we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve.”
The impasse comes as networks and distributors continue to be at odds over content. Distributors and subscribers would like to see a model where they can buy channels a la carte instead of subscribing to a bundling package.
Distributors are also frustrated with production companies putting some of their premium programing on direct-to-consumer platforms before they show up on channels. DirecTV cited the miniseries “Shogun” appearing on Hulu before FX.
“Consumer frustration is at an all-time high as Disney shifts its best producers, most innovative shows, top teams, conferences, and entire leagues to their direct-to-consumer services while making customers pay more than once for the same programming on multiple Disney platforms,” Thun said. “Disney’s only magic is forcing prices to go up while simultaneously making its content disappear.”
Besides all ESPN network channels and ABC-owned stations, Disney-branded channels Freeform, FX and National Geographic channel went dark on DirecTV.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
FILE - The ESPN logo is seen, Sept. 16, 2013, prior to an NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl, File)
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Lani Pallister of Australia stunned Katie Ledecky with her first international loss in the 800-meter freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships on Saturday night.
Pallister was under world-record pace for much of the race and touched in 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds to erase Ledecky's championship record from 2018.
Ledecky took silver in 8:07.26. She is the four-time Olympic champion in her signature event. The American's lone previous defeat in an 800 free final since 2010 came in a small domestic meet in February 2024 against Summer McIntosh of Canada.
“Katie's such a dominant force,” a breathless Pallister said.
Kate Douglass lowered her own world record in the 50 free for the second time Saturday, winning the final in 23.19.
In the morning preliminaries, the 24-year-old American swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74.
Douglass returned 25 minutes later to finish second in the 200 breaststroke. She rallied from third down the stretch but couldn’t catch Alexanne Lepage of Canada, who led the entire race and touched in a lifetime best of 2:21.73. Douglass finished in 2:22.57.
“I feel like I’m just a little bit shocked,” Lepage said.
Walsh had owned the 50 free record of 23.55 since setting it in June at an international meet in Rome.
It’s the third time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.
Fourteen minutes after climbing out of the pool, Douglass appeared on the medals podium in her cap and goggles to accept her gold. The other medalists were dressed in their usual team sweats. Eleven minutes after that, Douglass dived in for the 200 breast final.
Douglass capped a busy night by anchoring the U.S. women to a dominant victory in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Their time of 3:50.43 was a championship record. Australia was second in 3:55.09.
Douglass is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn’t compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.
Her 50 free was the second individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.
The U.S. men also topped Australia in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Luca Urlando and anchor Jack Alexy swam a championship-record time of 3:29.06.
Sam Short of Australia won the 1,500 free to go with his earlier titles in the 400 and 800 free events. His time of 14:33.97 was the sixth-fastest in history and broke Grant Hackett’s 24-year-old championship record.
“That was actually so much fun,” Short said.
Kazushi Imafuku of Japan took silver in 14:42.59 and two-time defending Olympic champion Bobby Finke earned bronze in 14:44.26 on the same day he lost his world record to Johannes Liebmann of Germany at the European championships.
The men’s 50 free was won by Jamie Jack of Australia in a championship record of 21.35. American Jack Alexy took silver in 21.42.
Yu Yiting of China defeated a strong field including world record-holder McIntosh to win the 200 individual medley.
Yu was under world-record pace on the opening butterfly leg before American Regan Smith took over the lead on the backstroke. Yu moved back in front on the breaststroke and held off McIntosh in the closing meters. Yu’s time of 2:07.45 set a championship record in the outdoor pool in Irvine.
McIntosh, the Canadian star whose lone individual victory of the week was in the 400 IM, took silver in 2:07.47. American Alex Walsh, the older sister of Gretchen Walsh, earned bronze in 2:07.66. Smith finished fourth.
McIntosh claimed silver in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay. She surprisingly failed to qualify for the 400 free championship final, but finished first in the ‘B’ final.
“It wasn’t a horrible swim, but getting touched out is something that is never a good thing to feel,” she said. “Overall, the meet didn’t go the way I wanted it to, so there’ll definitely be a lot of reflection.”
Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia went from fourth to first in the 200 breast, winning in 2:08.09. American Josh Matheny earned silver. Shin Ohashi, who led until the final 15 meters, took bronze.
In the men’s 200 IM, Tomoyuki Matushita of Japan won in 1:56.02 over American Carson Foster.
See AP’s full sports coverage here
Kate Douglass, of the United States, right, gets out of the pool after winning the women's 50 meters freestyle final with a new world record at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Kate Douglass, of the United States, competes on her way to winning the women's 50 meters freestyle final with a new world record at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Kate Douglass, of the United States, smiles after winning the women's 50 meters freestyle final with a new world record at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
From left, silver medalist Katie Ledecky, of the United States, gold medalist Lani Pallister, of Australia, and bronze medalist Erika Fairweather, of New Zealand celebrate after the the women's 400 meters freestyle final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Katie Ledecky, of the United States, competes in the women's 400 meters freestlye final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Kate Douglass, of the United States, competes in the women's 100 meters breaststroke final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Summer McIntosh, of Canada, looks on after the women's 400 meters freestlye final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
