Ongoing contract disputes between DirecTV and Walt Disney Co. have left millions of college football fans in the dark heading into Week 2 of the 2024 season.
DirecTV customers hoping to catch No. 13 LSU and No. 23 USC were shocked to find that ESPN and its entire family of networks were pulled off the air around 10 minutes before kickoff on Sunday night.
DirecTV’s offer to fix the issue? A $20 credit to its customers during the blackout.
“We’re pursuing every avenue to get your station back. To thank you for your patience, until the situation is resolved, we’re offering you a bill credit,” DirecTV said in a statement.
The second week of action gets underway on Friday, with BYU taking on SMU at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN2. Big 12 fans who use DirecTV will not be able to catch this game, or any other games via ESPN or ESPN+ through their DirecTV subscription. However, the conference did make it clear that there are still other options out there.
“If you are a DirecTV customer, you no longer have access to Big 12 sports on the ESPN family of networks,” the Big 12 writes.
“As negotiations continue in an effort to restore ESPN programming to DirecTV, be reminded that other major TV and streaming providers like Dish, Sling, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and others carry ESPN.”
While canceling DirecTV could be one of the more frustrating experiences of your life as a consumer (speaking from experience), there are better options out there for sports fans now, many of which are on streaming platforms, like YouTube TV.
If you’re a college football fan dealing with the DirecTV outage, hop into our member forum and see what others are doing to make things right ahead of Week 2.
