Disney pulls its channels off Spectrum Cable. Football fans, in particular, are upset

 You're getting ready to watch Florida vs. Utah on ESPN. 8 pm (ET) rolls around, and, suddenly, the screen goes black. Yikes! What just happened?

Negotiations between Disney, which owns ESPN, and Spectrum Cable, stalled at precisely the wrong time for football fans. It's not just ESPN's family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ACC Network, SEC Network, ESPNU), mind, but other Disney-owned channels, such as FX, FXX, Disney Channel, Disney Jr., National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, with four of those acquired from Fox a while back.

Charter Communications, Spectrum's parent company, posted the following message:

Spectrum's argument is that Disney is overcharging for fees. What a surprise, eh? DirecTV bounced local stations WTEN & WXXA earlier this year for the same reason. 

It's not just college football fans that are adversely affected. Unless things change quickly, Sunday Night Baseball will be blacked out this weekend. Any forthcoming UFC events airing on ESPN, too, and Monday Night Football returns September 11 with a Bills-Jets game. As of right now, Fox Sports 1 & 2 are not affected----yet. ABC is blacked out in cities where it's on Disney-owned channels, which is not the case in the home district. WTEN's parent also owns the CW.

I think once Disney realizes the timing is way off, they'll settle, and UFC, NCAA, & NFL fans will be happy before long.