Millions of DirecTV customers could miss kickoff of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” — a highly anticipated game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets — as the Walt Disney Co. channel blackout entered its ninth day on Monday.

DirecTV and U-Verse customers are growing increasingly frustrated as the dispute continues, disrupting Disney’s coverage of opening week college and NFL football and the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Disney Channel, FX and ABC television stations have also gone dark since Sept. 1.

The Disney-DirecTV battle intensified over the weekend after DirecTV filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission alleging that Disney did not negotiate in good faith and that its tactics were anti-competitive. DirecTV rolled out an advertising campaign featuring Mickey Mouse from “Steamboat Willie,” including an image of the rodent happily navigating a wooden vessel over a watery cliff.

“Negotiations have stalled because Disney insists on bundling and penetration requirements that a federal district judge in New York recently declared … unlawful, anticompetitive and ‘bad for consumers,’” DirecTV alleged in its complaint.

Disney and other programmers have demanded higher licensing fees for their programming, including cable programs that are no longer exclusive to pay-TV distributors. Programmers are scrambling to cover their increased costs, including airing NFL and NBA games.

Pay-TV providers like DirecTV are under even more pressure. More than 4 million customer households stopped paying in the first six months of the year, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

DirecTV is angry about Disney’s move to streaming.

“Disney seeks to force DirecTV to air a ‘fat bundle’ with less desirable Disney programming, while offering cheaper, ‘slimmer’ bundles with programming that consumers want,” DirecTV said in its complaint to the FCC.

The FCC process could take months and offer little relief to DirecTV’s nearly 11 million customers. The two sides have made progress by tentatively agreeing to compensation, sources said.

Last September, a nearly 12-day blackout of Disney channels on Charter Communications’ Spectrum service ended just as the first “Monday Night Football” game of the season was about to begin. That happened just as Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending injury in the opening minutes of “Monday Night Football.” Rodgers is expected to play against the 49ers.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of last year’s season opener on “Monday Night Football” after torn his left Achilles tendon in the New York Jets’ first game of 2023.

(Adam Hunger/Associated Press)

In its messaging, Disney has encouraged frustrated viewers to cancel DirecTV in favor of other distributors, including Disney-owned Hulu + Live TV. The company also offers Disney+ directly to consumers, and this year it entered into a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. to create a sports-focused package of cable channels, including ESPN, called Venu.

But last month, a New York judge issued a temporary injunction blocking Venu’s launch, saying the service could be anti-competitive.

Disney, which is working toward its goal of launching ESPN next year with live sports coverage for consumers, has denied DirecTV’s claims.

“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, starting with the return of Monday Night Football,” Disney said.

Disney’s eight ABC stations, including KABC-TV in Los Angeles, are blocked on DirecTV and U-Verse, meaning viewers will miss local newscasts, “Good Morning America,” “The View” and “Jeopardy.”

All DirecTV Stream customers will no longer have access to their local ABC station due to a standing agreement that allows Disney to negotiate on behalf of local ABC affiliates owned by other companies.

DirecTV Satellite Dishes in Culver City.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

In addition to “Monday Night Football” and college football, DirecTV customers may miss Sunday’s broadcast of the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards if the outage lasts into next weekend.

DirecTV has offered customers $30 credits. But that hasn’t reassured many subscribers.

DirecTV wants to offer smaller bundles with themes by genre, such as children’s and family entertainment, local broadcasting and sports. Disney executives have said they are open to working with DirecTV, but talks are still stalled.

One of the biggest sticking points in the talks was Disney’s requirement for “minimum penetration” for its channels. Disney has long required that its channels reach at least 90% of DirecTV’s subscriber base, according to the FCC complaint. (The minimum threshold for ESPN channels is closer to 80%, executives have said.)

If DirecTV fails to meet this standard, the company will have to pay huge fines, DirecTV executives said.

“The parties remain at an impasse because Disney has refused to allow DirecTV to offer “narrower bundles” of programming — unless DirecTV also meets related minimum penetration requirements designed to make offering such narrow bundles effectively impossible or prohibitively expensive,” DirecTV said in the filing.