ABC O&Os, NCTC Sign First Retrans Deal

The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) and the Walt Disney Co. today signed the first long-term retransmission consent agreement between the two for ABC’s eight owned stations —WABC New York; KABC Los Angeles; WLS Chicago; WPVI Philadelphia; KGO San Francisco; WTVD Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; KTRK Houston; and KFSN Fresno, Calif. Additionally, NCTC members in ABC-owned markets will continue to have the ability to provide the authenticated Watch ABC live streaming service to their customers.

The retransmission consent agreement comes on the heels of a comprehensive long-term distribution agreement  completed in August between the Walt Disney Co. and NCTC to deliver Disney’s lineup of sports, news and entertainment content to participating NCTC members’ customers across TVs, computers, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and connected devices. The NCTC represents nearly 950 member companies across the United States.

Judy Meyka, NCTC EVP of programming, said: “We are pleased to have reached, for the first time, a retransmission consent agreement with the Walt Disney Co. that supports our members’ efforts to competitively offer their customers the ABC-owned broadcast station programming in these critical television markets.”

“We are pleased for the first time ever to work with NCTC to expand our long relationship to now include an agreement for retransmission consent  for the eight ABC-owned broadcast stations,” said David Preschlack, EVP, affiliate sales and marketing, Disney and ESPN networks. “NCTC and its members clearly value the important role our highly-rated ABC stations play in their local communities, and we look forward to providing compelling and meaningful content for their customers.”

As part of the earlier deal, the NCTC was able to offer new services including the full suite of authenticated Watch and video-on-demand products as well as Fusion, the SEC Network, the Longhorn Network, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater and ESPN Bases Loaded.

Additionally, networks that continued to be covered by the broad scope of the earlier agreement included ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic and ESPN3.