Time Warner and Disney (ESPN) reach long term agreement

Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co. reached a long term agreement for Time Warner to continue to carry Disney programming right under last week’s deadline.

Er, the second deadline at least.

The two sides had initially set a deadline of midnight, September 1st, but Disney agreed to not pull its programming even after that deadline had passed, as the two sides negotiated a new deal.

The deal will allow TWC to continue to carry the numerous Disney channels: ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes. The deal also includes provisions for TWC to continue to carry four ABC TV owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, and Toledo.

Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, sources believe that the deal may be in the range of 5-years.

Some key features of the new deal:

The inclusion of a new feature, ESPN Goal Line, which is described as “a super-highlight channel” for sports tier subscribers.  A similar feature, ESPN Buzzer Beater, will be available for the college basketball season.

A new authenticated service, which will give cable subscribers the opportunity to watch ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU via their broadband service and mobile Internet devices, such as iPads. Details will be announced later.

“A new transactional VOD service for select content from the Disney/ABC Television Group,” for which details weren’t immediately available.

ESPN Radio feeds in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas on TWC¹s video platform.

ESPN 3D

ESPN3.com, the sports broadband video network:  available to all cable subscribers who get ESPN (via THR)

Interestingly enough, THR also notes that TWC may pay for ESPN3.com in a different manner than other distributors,

TWC may pay for ESPN3.com differently from other distributors who are believed to generally pay about 10 cents per broadband, rather than cable, subscriber. The cable operator likely pays a different fee structure and can use the new approach to make the case it won’t pay for subscribers who use broadband services, but may have no interest in sports. “We achieved a fair exchange of value while reinforcing the value of the video subscription business,” an ESPN spokeswoman said.

One cable insider termed the deal as a “kitchen sink deal”, and based on the numerous new features in store for TWC subscribers, it would be hard to argue otherwise.  More important though, is the fact that service was not, and will not be interrupted for any of the Time Warner Cable Subscribers.

TWC, the second largest cable operator in the U.S., has more than 14 million basic cable subscribers across the country.