Disney, Charter Sign Carriage Pact

In keeping with the year-end flood of retransmission consent and carriage deals, The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it has reached a comprehensive agreement with Charter Communications, including the addition of several new channels across the MSO's footprint.

As part of the new multi-year deal, The Longhorn Network will launch in Texas, Louisiana and Virginia systems by football season next year. Charter and Disney will also introduce several new services, including the full suite of authenticated WATCH products, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, as well as the upcoming ABC News/Univision Joint Venture, a 24/7 news, information and lifestyle multi-platform network for English-dominant and bilingual Hispanics. In total, approximately 70 services are covered by the broad scope of this agreement including: ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN 3D, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN Full Court, ESPN3, The Longhorn Network, and retransmission consent for WABC-TV (New York), KABC-TV (Los Angeles), WLS-TV (Chicago), KGO-TV (San Francisco), KTRK-TV (Houston), WTVD-TV (Raleigh-Durham, N.C.) and KFSN-TV (Fresno, Calif.), as well as more than 10 high-definition networks.

Launch of content across these new distribution platforms is planned to begin in the first half of 2013.

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