D.C. Memo: Buckeye Broadband Puts Disney on Ice, Drops ESPN Ahead of New App Rollout
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ESPN: Allan Block just put Disney on ice. Buckeye Broadband in Toledo, Ohio, has pulled ESPN from its cable TV channel lineup, citing a pricing dispute with network owner Disney that the company says would unfairly burden customers. Buckeye Broadband is owned by Block Communications run by President and CEO Allan Block, a direct descendant of Paul Block, a German immigrant who started the company 118 years ago. For decades, ESPN has been one of the most expensive pay-TV channels in the bundle, driving up the price of cable for the vast majority of customers who never watched sports. The “overstuffed turkey” – the description given cable’s porcine packages by Warner Bros. Discover CEO David Zaslav – caused millions to flee to Netflix. Buckeye pulled the plug on Friday. “We remain steadfast in our desire to balance the value our customers receive with reasonable prices; however, our customers have made it abundantly clear they have no more appetite for increased prices,” Geoffrey Shook, Buckeye Broadband president and general manager, told Block-owned The Blade in Toledo. (More after paywall.)
