DirecTV loses ESPN channels amid rate dispute

Millions of sports fans tuning in to see U.S. Open tennis, a key National League East baseball game and one of the marquee matchups of college football’s opening weekend got an unwanted surprise Sunday night. Due to a dispute between DirecTV and the Walt Disney Company, which owns the ESPN family of channels and the ABC affiliates in eight TV markets, the channels were no longer available to the satellite operator’s subscribers. The immediate impact of the impasse was that the Atlanta Braves-Philadelphia Phillies game on ESPN and the tennis on ESPN2 were blacked out for DirecTV customers.