Already facing a wide range of mounting internal and industry challenges, ESPN and parent company Disney are now dark on the country’s second-largest cable carrier due to a nasty distribution dispute with Charter Spectrum.

Nineteen Disney channels — including ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — went dark on Charter Spectrum late Thursday, removing those networks from 14.7 million subscribers across 41 states, including many in key media markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta, with sports standing as a central component in the battle.

Perhaps most jarring, the channel removal happened Thursday evening in the midst of the U.S. Open — a key event for ESPN — as well as coverage of a Florida-Utah college football game. And the dispute is now set to extend into what will be a jam-packed sports weekend that will include more tennis, college football, and baseball, plus other programming on ESPN networks.