CNN
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DirecTV filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission on Saturday, alleging that Disney did not negotiate in good faith as the two sides remain locked in a distribution deal.

“Disney violated the FCC’s good faith mandates by basing a licensing agreement on DIRECTV waiving all legal claims related to Disney’s past, present or future anticompetitive actions, including the ongoing packaging and minimum penetration requirements,” a DirecTV spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.

In the 10-page complaint, DirecTV alleged that negotiations stalled because “Disney insists on bundling and penetration requirements that a federal district judge in New York recently ruled were unlawful, anti-competitive and ‘bad for consumers’ in the context of the ‘Venu’ joint venture.”

On August 16, a federal judge temporarily blocked the launch of Venu Sports, a joint sports streaming venture between Disney, Fox Corporation and Warner Brothers Discovery, after Fubo, a sports streaming service, filed a lawsuit against the media giants. Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

More than 11 million subscribers have been affected after Disney last week pulled its ABC channels, ESPN and other cable networks from DirecTV’s lineup. The blackout came ahead of the upcoming presidential debate on ABC between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the final rounds of the U.S. Open tennis match and the start of the NFL season. ESPN owns the rights to “Monday Night Football,” which is being blocked for DirecTV subscribers unless a deal is reached.

“We continue to negotiate with DirecTV to restore access to our content as soon as possible,” a Disney spokesperson told CNN on Sunday. “We urge DirecTV to stop creating distractions and instead prioritize their customers by reaching a deal that will allow their subscribers to watch our strong upcoming lineup of sports, news and entertainment programming, beginning with the return of Monday Night Football.”

DirecTV subscribers are excluded from Disney-owned and operated local ABC stations in six major media markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco, as well as the smaller markets of Fresno, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The opening game for “Monday Night Football” will be between the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers. In 2023, the first “Monday Night Football” game — a matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Jets — drew 22.64 million viewers, the largest audience of the ESPN era, which dates back to 2006.

The blackout also applies to ESPN, Disney Channel, Disney Jr., FX and National Geographic channels.