TAMPA, Fla. — David Harwood was like many fans last Thursday, ready for college football, specifically the University of Florida vs. the University of Utah on ESPN.
Then, the joy that would have been the opening game of the season disappeared.
“I thought someone at the game unplugged the wrong thing or something, and it was just an accident because you see two coaches standing on the sideline, and all of a sudden the screen goes black," said Harwood.
Instead of the kickoff of the game, a message from Spectrum eventually came up that read, "Disney is demanding an excessive increase and wants to limit our ability to provide greater customer choice in programming packages, facing you to take and pay for channels you may not want.”
College football fans' desire to watch the game was intercepted by the fight between two media industry behemoths. Charter, owner of Spectrum Cable, lost access to all Disney channels because the two sides couldn't agree on a payment/streaming plan.
EXPLAINER: Spectrum vs. Disney and the impact on viewers
“I think there should have been more communications saying this might be coming," said Harwood.
While Harwood was frustrated, Tampa attorney Billy Howard decided it was time to take action. He said Spectrum customers were not getting the service they were promised, so he's filed a class action lawsuit against the company.
“This was used as a negotiating tool. And then you blame Mickey Mouse? Mickey Mouse did it. We didn’t do it. It’s not really greed. It’s Mickey Mouse’s fault that we decided to wait one minute before kickoff to pull the plug on college football," said Howard.
Disney says Spectrum and Charter want to include Disney’s streaming services for free in its package. Disney also says Charter declined their offer to extend negations so viewers wouldn’t have missed college football and the US Open.
In the days since Disney programming has gone off Spectrum Cable, the two sides seem to be digging in on their plans.
Spectrum has encouraged television customers to switch to Fubo TV or other providers like YouTube TV. Disney replied with a message to customers to jump to Hulu Live, owned by Disney, YouTube TV, or other providers.
Harwood said he wasn't about to wait and said he's already switched to a new service.
"I can only imagine how many people are canceling their Spectrum services now, and I’m one of those. I won’t be going back.”
