ESPN, Verizon Settle Lawsuit Over ‘Skinny Bundle’ Cable Carriage

ESPN and Verizon announced today that they have reached a settlement in their breach of contract lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in April 2015. The lawsuit concerned the launch of a “Custom TV” skinny bundle of pay TV networks that didn’t include ESPN networks. ESPN parent company Disney claimed that FiOS’ carriage contract required the telco provider to offer ESPN as part of its most basic package, but Verizon disputed this claim. The terms of the settlement remain confidential and will not be disclosed. 

 “We have a long-standing relationship with Verizon,” said Sean Breen, senior vice president, affiliate sales, Disney and ESPN Media Networks.  “We look forward to working with them to provide great content to consumers for years to come.”

 “ESPN is an important partner of ours,” said Terry Denson, vice president, content strategy and acquisition, Verizon. “We look forward to further collaborating with them to deliver customers content across all of our platforms.”