Monday Night Football proved to be a powerful motivator after all. Disney and Charter reached a deal to restore ESPN and the company’s other networks to Spectrum cable systems on Monday. As all the hullabaloo was put to rest on Monday, stock prices in both companies reacted favorably.
Disney shares saw a 1.7% increase, closing at $82.52 a share.
Meanwhile Charter saw a 3.2% jump by day’s end Monday to $435.84 per share.
Disney pulled its owned networks off Charter’s Spectrum cable service at the end of August as the two sides squabbled, leaving many sports fans without access to ESPN or ABC during the slate of college football games.
As the dispute raged on, both companies saw their stock prices take a hit. Disney stock had fallen by 5% in 2023.
Alex Sherman of CNBC noted that much of the media got carried away with the dispute. He called it “a normal carriage fight” and noted that the two sides always set Monday as the deadline for a new deal. Sherman characterized the new agreement as “a happy ending for cable consumers,” but “not a transformative deal.”
