If you were hoping to watch the U.S. Open, the "Sunday Night Baseball" game between the Atlanta Braves & Philadelphia Phillies and the College Football game between USC & LSU in Las Vegas Sunday night on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC respectively on DIRECTV, you were out of luck and here's why.

It appears as if The Walt Disney Company's carriage deal with DIRECTV expired around 6P (CT) Sunday night without a new deal. As a result, ESPN's family of networks which also includes ESPNEWS, SEC Network, ACC Network & ESPNU, as well as Disney Channel, Disney XD, Freeform (the former ABC Family) as well as ABC 7 Chicago are all off the satellite provider for the immediate future.

For Chicagoans, that means no "Eyewitness News", no "Live with Kelly & Mark", "Inside Edition", "Jeopardy!", "Wheel of Fortune" as well as ABC's own broadcast schedule. An inconvenience...But it's also a business.

The news of ESPN & ABC being yanked off as a result of a carriage dispute comes at a bad time as well with the networks' planning to simulcast a fraction of "Monday Night Football" games again this season. There is also the upcoming Presidential Debate between Vice President Kamala Harris & Ex-President Donald Trump scheduled for September 10 in Philadelphia. It's unclear how long the dispute will keep ESPN, ABC and other Disney-owned outlets off DIRECTV or whether a new deal can be worked out in the next few days.

ESPN/ABC's statement can be found here:
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2024/09/statement-from-the-walt-disney-company-and-espn-regarding-directv/

Additional links to the The Walt Disney Company/DIRECTV dispute can be found here as well:
https://awfulannouncing.com/directv/disney-abc-carriage-dispute-unresolved.html
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-directv-carriage-dispute-abc-espn-1235984598/
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/disney-directv-espn-dark-abc-carriage-1236126479/