Comcast and The Walt Disney Company Announce Comprehensive Distribution Agreement

Comcast and The Walt Disney Company Announce Comprehensive Distribution Agreement

Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company today announced that the two companies have reached an agreement in principle regarding Comcast's carriage of Disney programming, including a variety of ESPN and other Disney products and the six Disney-owned ABC television stations in Comcast markets.

"We are pleased our customers are going to continue to receive the channels they want, including ABC, ESPN and other Disney programming," said Steve Burke, president of Comcast Cable.

Robert A. Iger, president, The Walt Disney Company, said, "This is an important agreement and clearly in the best interests of our viewers on all the Comcast systems."

The agreement in principle covers the following Disney products and services: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPN News, The Disney Channel, Toon Disney, SoapNet and the following Disney owned ABC stations: WPVI-TV in Philadelphia; WABC-TV in New York; KABC-TV in Los Angeles; WLS-TV in Chicago; WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan; and WTVG-TV in Toledo, Ohio. The two companies have been negotiating retransmission consent agreements for these six ABC owned stations. The current ESPN and Disney Channel programming agreements were set to expire December 31, 2000. Terms of the agreement are confidential.

-- Posted January 2, 2001

Source: Comcast Cable Communications, Inc Press Release