ESPN-Spectrum dispute: Why some Clemson football fans can't watch Monday's game

Some Clemson football fans will have to find another way to watch the Tigers season opener on Monday due to ESPN's dispute with Spectrum.

The Tigers face Duke at 8 p.m. on ESPN from Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham.

But Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, and Disney are locked in a carriage dispute that resulted in Disney pulling their channels off of Spectrum services on Thursday. Spectrum’s website reports that they have 14.7 million video subscribers. None of them had access to games on the ESPN family of networks during the opening weekend of the college football season through Sunday.

Here’s what we know about the ESPN/Spectrum dispute and how it relates to local viewers being able to watch Clemson football on Monday:

What’s going on with ESPN and Spectrum?

Disney’s channels were pulled from Spectrum’s services on Thursday night, just before Florida’s game against Utah kicked off on ESPN. Those channels include the ESPN family of networks, Freeform, FX and more.

Disney pulled their channels as a result of a carriage dispute with Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum. Their channels remain off the air on Spectrum’s services as of early Monday morning. Spectrum viewers missed out on the opening weekend of the college football season as well as the U.S. Open tennis major championship.

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What are the two sides saying about it?

Disney has launched a website, Keepmynetworks.com, with links to ways to contact Spectrum and to subscribe to other streaming and cable services that currently carry Disney networks.

On a presentation with investors on Friday prior to a conference call, Charter described the deal Disney was seeking as “too expensive” and unable to “meet consumer needs,” USA TODAY reported.

“We had to draw a line in the sand on (the customer's) behalf,” Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said on the conference call. “The video ecosystem is broken.”

So how do Spectrum customers watch Clemson’s opener at Duke on Monday?

Presuming no deal is reached between the two sides by the 8 p.m. Monday kickoff, subscribing to another service is the easiest way to watch Clemson-Duke. Streaming services YouTube TV and FUBO have free trial options, and DirecTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV are also among the many options, including Sling TV.

Otherwise, going to a restaurant with the game available on a television is always a possibility.

What about future Clemson games?

The next two games (home games against Charleston Southern and FAU on the next two Saturdays) are scheduled to be televised on the ACC Network. That is a part of the ESPN’s family of networks. Thus the same issues will arise for those games for Spectrum subscribers.

Clemson hosts Florida State on Sept. 23 in what will be the most anticipated regular season game in the ACC. The TV network for that game has not yet been announced, though it’ll either be on an ESPN network or ABC.

The Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville TV market has consistently rated among the highest markets in ESPN college football viewership. In 2022, the market ranked 4th in both the ESPN (6.0 rating average) and ABC (5.4 rating average) prime time college football time slots according to a list provided by ESPN.

What else are Spectrum subscribers missing?

In terms of specific events over the next week along with Clemson-Duke, Alabama hosts Texas on ESPN next Saturday. That could be one of the most-watched regular season games on the network in some time. The U.S. Open concludes next weekend, with the men’s and women’s finals scheduled to be televised on ESPN.

Looking even more ahead, the MLB playoffs begin with the wild card round, starting Oct. 1. All games will be on ESPN platforms. And Monday Night Football begins on Sept. 11 with the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets, though the first game shown only on ESPN will on Sept. 18 when the Carolina Panthers host the New Orleans Saints.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ESPN-Spectrum dispute: Why some Clemson fans can't watch Monday's game