More than 20 million Comcast subscribers will be able to access live video from ESPN, Disney Channel and other networks owned by Walt Disney Co. under a broad, long-term distribution deal Comcast signed with the media giant.

Disney, Viacom and other cable programmers have resisted attempts from pay TV distributors to distribute live video to mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad. The Comcast-Disney deal could help accelerate mobile video distribution since Comcast will be able to use the carriage deal as a blueprint for agreements with other programmers, and Disney will be able to shop similar deal terms to other distributors now that it has an agreement with the nation's largest cable MSO.

Comcast subscribers who can authenticate that they have an Xfinity TV subscription will be able to access the Disney WatchESPN app, in addition to apps that Disney said it will develop to deliver live video from Disney Channel, DisneyXD and Disney Junior. Every pay TV channel and online video service that Disney has developed for U.S. distributors is included in the deal, in addition to subscription video-on-demand content from Disney Channel and retransmission-consent terms for seven ABC owned-and-operated stations in Comcast markets.

"This deal is a big step forward in delivering TV Everywhere and good news for our Xfinity TV customers who will have access to more of the content they love and the flexibility to view it in more places," Comcast senior VP and general manager of video services, Marcien Jenckes, wrote in a blog post about the Disney agreement.

Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce said he expects that Comcast will pay Disney $39 million in retransmission-consent fees in 2012 as part of the agreement. Joyce said the TV Everywhere aspect of the deal could help Comcast retain video subscribers, but that he still expects Comcast video subscribers to decline each year through 2016, and that the MSO will grow its video subscriber base in subsequent years. "A deal such as this might help that turnaround in subscriber losses sooner rather than later," Joyce wrote in a research note.