Comcast and The Walt Disney Company has announced today the companies have renewed their content carriage agreement and will continue to make Disney’s robust lineup of sports, news, kids, family and general entertainment programming available to Xfinity TV customers. Additionally, Comcast will distribute the ACC Network to its Xfinity customers, allowing fans and followers of the Atlantic Coast Conference to access the multiplatform network in the coming weeks.

The multi-year agreement encompasses continued distribution of Disney’s cable channels, including the ESPN networks, the Disney branded channels, Freeform, the FX networks, and the National Geographic channels. The renewal also includes continued distribution of the SEC Network, now in its eighth season, as well as retransmission consent for the ABC Owned Television Stations in New York (ABC7/WABC-TV), Chicago (ABC7/WLS-TV), Philadelphia (6ABC/WPVI-TV), San Francisco (ABC7/KGO-TV), Houston (ABC13/KTRK-TV), Raleigh-Durham (ABC11/WTVD-TV) and Fresno (ABC30/KFSN-TV).

Earlier this year, Comcast launched Disney+ and ESPN+ to Xfinity customers and those services continue to be available.

Rebecca Heap, Senior Vice President, Consumer Products & Propositions, Comcast Cable said in a statement:

“We are very pleased to have reached this comprehensive agreement with Disney to continue providing Xfinity customers access to their content across our industry-leading platforms”

Sean Breen, Executive Vice President, Platform Distribution, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution said in the statement:

“We’re very happy to extend our longstanding relationship with Comcast and continue to provide their Xfinity customers with Disney’s best-in-class programming. In addition to our news, sports and general entertainment offerings, the launch of the ACC Network in the coming weeks, paired with the renewal of the SEC Network, will give Xfinity’s college sports fans long-awaited access to their favorite games.”

Xfinity delivers all the best live, on-demand and streaming entertainment to customers via its X1 and Flex devices, all accessible and discoverable with the award-winning Xfinity Voice Remote. X1 and Flex customers can access Disney’s premier programming by saying the name of a Disney channel (like “Freeform” or “ESPN”) or streaming services (like “Disney+,” “Hulu” or “ESPN+”) in the voice remote, or by saying the name of a desired title from the Disney channels or streaming services.

This is a vital deal for both companies, as Comcast needs to continue to provide content for their existing television channels and also provides access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ through their Xfinity boxes.

No financial terms for the deal were announced.

Comcast and Disney both still co-own Hulu together until 2024, when either company can force Disney’s purchase of Comcast’s 33%.  Recently, Comcast said it was in no rush to sell its stake in Hulu.  With this mutli-year carriage deal now agreed between the two companies, hopefully, an agreement can be made to end their Hulu co-ownership, which is holding back Disney’s plans for its streaming platforms in the US.  It also means, we are unlikely to see many Disney owned television channels closing down in the US, as Disney has done in other countries.

What do you think of this new deal?