Walt Disney Co. reached a long-term agreement with Time Warner Cable Inc. that keeps ESPN’s football games and ABC’s comedy “Modern Family” on the air for the cable operator’s almost 13 million video customers.
Time Warner Cable agreed to add Disney Junior, ESPN 3D and ESPN3.com, new outlets, to a lineup that includes ESPN sports, Disney family fare and ABC broadcast shows, the companies said in a Thursday statement. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Disney and Time Warner Cable executives had been negotiating to reach an accord before their contract ended to avoid programming blackouts. Sticking points included whether Time Warner Cable should pay Disney for its ESPN3.com website and if it should carry Disney Jr., the preschool service Disney is converting from SoapNet, a person familiar with the negotiations said last week.
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