ESPN & Verizon Reach Settlement Over Skinny Bundles

BRISTOL/NEW YORK: ESPN and Verizon Communications have settled their lawsuit regarding FiOS excluding the sports network from its skinny bundles.

Verizon’s FiOS launched the skinny bundle model early in 2015, offering a core package of a handful of basic-cable channels, which did not include ESPN, with the ability to pick and choose other add-on bundles. ESPN alleged that by not including the channel in the core offering, Verizon was in violation of its contract.

The two have now reached a settlement, the terms of which remain confidential.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Verizon,” said Sean Breen, the senior VP of affiliate sales for 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,” added Terry Denson, the VP of content strategy and acquisition at Verizon. “We look forward to further collaborating with them to deliver customers content across all of our platforms.”