The broadcast dispute between DirecTV and Disney has entered new, nerve-wracking territory as the companies have been unable to reach an agreement NFL Monday Night Football starts its season on ESPN.

“Disney wants you to miss Monday Night Football on ABC and ESPN while DirecTV works on a new agreement,” was a clear message from DirecTV to viewers shortly before the game began.

When contacted by Deadline, representatives from both companies did not provide any official comments on the fate of the game between the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers.

Sixteen Disney networks, including ESPN, have been dark on the pay-TV provider since September 1., deprives over 11 million subscribers of US Open tennis, college football and The Bachelorette Finale. Programs that may now be unavailable include Tuesday’s presidential debate and Sunday’s Emmy Awards in primetime, although the debate will air on C-SPAN and other networks available on DirecTV. DirecTV has recognized the NFL’s influence and offered its subscribers discounts last Friday if they sign up for Sling TV or Fubo. Disney also lowered the price of Hulu + Live TV and promoted other pay-TV offerings for consumers.

The debut of MNF has long been seen as a major milestone in the dispute, which is the second in two years for Disney at this time of year. In September 2023, the media giant and Spectrum parent company Charter Communications entered a 10-day standoff that ended just hours before the final season’s Monday night kickoff. (Like last year, the season opener features the Jets and their headline-grabbing quarterback Aaron Rodgers.) The result of Charter’s resolution was a new-model agreement that dropped linear distribution for Freeform and a handful of other networks in exchange for a boost for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ on Spectrum systems.

DirecTV, now a private company owned by AT&T and private equity firm TPG, has a fundamentally different business model than Charter. It does not offer broadband, wireless or any services other than video, but delivers them via satellite and the Internet as well as a traditional cable system.

In addition to ABC and ESPN, Disney’s TV portfolio includes ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, ACC Network, SEC Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FX, FXX, FX Movie Channel, Freeform, National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild. The Burbank-based conglomerate also has O&Os in eight major TV markets, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, the site of Tuesday’s presidential debate.

The two sides have been in a heated exchange in the press in recent days, with Disney claiming last week that DirecTV “continues to misrepresent the facts” and over the weekend the satellite TV giant accused the Bob Iger-led media company of acting in bad faith in the negotiations.

DirecTV Chief Financial Officer Ray Carpenter acknowledged that the dispute was “more existential” for his company than for a broad-based pay-TV provider. During a conference call with analysts, Carpenter said the “bloated” current package of over 100 channels needs to be reduced to 10 to 50 channels to better meet viewing habits in the streaming era.

Some industry observers have said they see signs that DirecTV is unwilling to rush into a deal that doesn’t serve its strategic goals. “They’re not negotiating with a sense of urgency,” a source close to the talks told Deadline. “Disney wants to get this over with, with the football and the Harris-Trump debate, the Emmys,” he added. Another senior source who has done business with both companies thinks it’s possible, given the charter deal and the impending launch of a standalone streaming version of ESPN, Disney is also in no rush. “Maybe they’re just ready to give their streaming services a big push because that’s where the future is,” the person told Deadline.

Financially, broadcast disputes typically hurt both parties in the short term. In the year since the impasse between Charter and Disney, the general sentiment around the deal has changed. Most observers were initially shocked that Disney was losing linear broadcasts of networks that had brought in an estimated $300 million in affiliate fees. Over time, the minimum penetration guarantees secured for ESPN and the integration of Disney streaming offerings into Spectrum packages helped the programming provider advance key corporate goals.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.