Charter deals with Disney to offer access to streamers

US telco giant Charter has struck a carriage deal with Disney offering access to Mouse House-backed streaming services such as Hulu and Disney+, as well as its forthcoming college sports channel ACC Network.

The deal avoids any potential blackout of Disney channels including sports network ESPN on Charter’s Spectrum pay TV service, but also means sports streamer ESPN+, adult-skewing SVOD Hulu and soon-to-launch Disney+ will soon be integrated into Charter’s set-top boxes.

The deal covers networks including Disney Channel, Freeform, FX and National Geographic, along with ACC Network, which will offer college football and basketball games. The network is set to debut on August 22, but its launch comes as the US pay TV sector continues to feel the pinch of cord-cutters and decreasing margins.

Tom Montemagno, Charter’s exec VP of programming acquisition, said the deal “will allow Spectrum to continue delivering to its customers popular Disney content, makes possible future distribution by Spectrum of Disney streaming services, and will begin an important collaborative effort to address the significant issue of piracy mitigation.”

Disney lifted the lid on its highly anticipated bundle offering for streaming services Disney+, ESPN+ and ad-supported Hulu earlier this month.