Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said the cable company wants all of its programming deals to look like the one it signed with The Walt Disney Co. this year.
Speaking on Charter’s third-quarter earnings call Friday, Winfrey said that “together with Disney, we created a glide path to bridge from linear video into now growth with both linear and [direct-to-consumer] services.”
Disney programming, including ESPN, was blacked out to Charter subscribers in September. Charter said it would not carry Disney if Disney required Charter subscribers to pay for the same programming on both the linear and streaming platforms.
An agreement was reached that includes Disney streaming services in the Charter video bundle.
Now, Charter wants other programmers trying to build streaming services based on linear programming assets to make similar deals.
“We plan to modernize all of our distribution agreements upon renewal in a way that works for customers,” Winfrey said. “That means packaging flexibility and not asking customers or us to pay twice for similar DTC and linear programming.”
As he warned during the Disney dispute, “if programmers insist on customers paying twice, we just won’t carry those channels.”
But added that Charter would be happy to sell their programming in an a la carte app, “the same way as they do.”
Winfrey said that Charter’s goal was to move to this new distribution model in a quiet, seamless way.
“Our new hybrid distribution model. combined with Xumo’s content-forward interface, provides a clear path to solve key customer issues of choice, value and utility with seamless linear DTC and SVOD integration and advanced search and discovery functionality,” he said.
“For Charter and programmers, this creates a state-of-the-art video marketplace supported by our scaled distribution, sales and service infrastructure and we believe a glide path to broader distribution, better economics and more choice for everyone,” Winfrey said.
