DirectTV and Viacom about to melt down

[CountDeMoney]

DirecTV to remove Viacom channels

DirecTV could remove 26 Viacom channels from the satellite service at midnight Tuesday in a dispute over payment for distribution of those programs.
Channels affected include MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CMT and TV Land.
According to information posted on the Viacom website, the two sides have been negotiating for several months and Viacom has offered to extend the existing contract.
The news comes on the heels of Monday night's decision to remove Hearst Television Inc. stations from the Time Warner Cable Service after similar negotiations fell through.
Hearst Milwaukee affiliate WISN-TV (Channel 12) escaped being removed from Time Warner in Milwaukee through a technicality that requires the cable service to provide WISN-TV to another cable service, Charter Communications.
The DirecTV-Viacom dispute could affect 20 million viewers. According to Viacom, the firm's channels represent 20% of all DirecTV viewing.

From Viacom's website:

Viacom's distribution agreement with DirecTV is set to expire at midnight on Tuesday, July 10.  We've been negotiating for months and even offered DirecTV an extension past the agreement's original June 30th expiration date.  As recently as today, we made significant economic movement in direct conversations with DirecTV.

However, despite our best efforts, DirecTV has rejected all of our proposals to renew our agreement.  This evening, DirecTV provided Viacom with a counter proposal that included a lower rate than Viacom receives from any other distributor in the industry.  With this offer, our negotiations have reached an impasse.

This means that, as of tomorrow night, nearly 20 million DirecTV subscribers will be without entertainment from the programmer they watch most.  A total of 26 Viacom channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, CMT, Spike TV, TV Land and more won't be available.

Our agreement with DirecTV is seven years old – ancient by the standards of the ever-evolving media industry – which means that DirecTV has enjoyed way below market rates for Viacom's networks for a very long time.

If negotiations remain stalled, DirecTV will drop Viacom's channels tomorrow tonight. No Dora, no SpongeBob, no Teen Wolf, no 106 & Park, no Daily Show, no Colbert, and no Snooki – a regrettable and avoidable turn of events if there ever was one, and an outcome that our team has worked tirelessly to avoid.

Here's the official statement from Viacom:

    As of midnight on Tuesday, July 10, DirecTV will drop 26 Viacom channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, CMT, Spike TV, TV Land and more.  Viacom is the most watched programmer on DirecTV.  Nickelodeon is the most watched cable network on DirecTV.  We regret that DirecTV refuses to consider a fair deal that recognizes the value of Viacom programming.  We urge DirecTV customers to call 800-531-5000 or visit www.whendirectvdrops.com and demand that DirecTV put its customers first, and keep Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET and all of Viacom's channels.

Here are some indisputable facts about Viacom and the strength of its networks on DirecTV:

    Viacom accounts for 20% of all viewing on DirecTV – more than any other programmer and above the national average for all distributors.1   Yet Viacom currently accounts for less than 5% of DirecTV's programming expenses. 2
    Nickelodeon is the #1 most-watched cable network on DirecTV. 1
    Kids in DirecTV homes spend 50% of their  viewing time watching Nickelodeon networks. 1
    Over the past three years, Viacom has completed nearly a dozen significant distribution renewal agreements privately and without disruption to consumers.

And here are some indisputable facts about DirecTV:

    Over the past three years, DirecTV has fought publicly over carriage agreements with seven different programmers –  Fox, Tribune, Diversified  Communications, Northwest Broadcasting, Sunbeam, Belo, G4, Versus, and YES   Networks – and dropped five of them.
    DirecTV is on track to deliver $5 billion in profit in 2012.3
    Over the seven year life of our expiring deal, DirecTV doubled its worldwide revenue, tripled its profits and increased its subscriber base by more than 32%.3

Needless to say, Viacom will continue to work to convince DirecTV to keep our channels, and strike a fair and equitable agreement.   Check this space for updates on the situation.

For more information, you can visit the website Viacom has set up to notify consumers of DirecTV's decision to drop its channels at www.whendirectvdrops.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WhenDirecTVDrops.

Also, we'll continue to make the spots we're airing to notify customers of DirecTV's decision available on our Vimeo page.

DirecTV has, in response, has created its own website, complete with FACTS and video presentations:

http://www.directvpromise.com/

[garbon]

I wonder who will suffer more.

[Neil]

Satellite dishes?  What is this, the 90s?

[viper37]

Satellite dishes?  What is this, the 90s?

people outside big cities need those satellite dishes.  And besides, except for the new fiber optic, satellite hardware, interface and image quality is superior to nearly all cable providers.  You'll pry my BEV from my cold dead hands.

[11B4V]

Satellite dishes?  What is this, the 90s?

people outside big cities need those satellite dishes.  And besides, except for the new fiber optic, satellite hardware, interface and image quality is superior to nearly all cable providers.  You'll pry my BEV from my cold dead hands.

Yes we do.

[derspiess]

Jeez, satellite TV subscribers are like a cult.  I thought my brother was the only one who was overly enthusiastic about it.

Time Warner Cable has a dispute over our local NBC affiliate's demand to increase their fee (or whatever it's called) by 300%, so TWC decided to carry the NBC affiliate in Terra Haute, IN for the time being.  People are still bitching that they won't get their local gal doing our local news (then get a friggin' antenna & watch it over the air, FFS).  I don't give a rat's ass-- all I know is that I still don't have the NFL network.  Damnit.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Time Warner fucking sucks.

[garbon]

Time Warner fucking sucks.

+1

[Darth Wagtaros]

Time Warner fucking sucks.

+1

Make it +2 Vorpal.

All cable companies suck.

[dps]

Is there a complete list of the Viacom channels available?  I don't hardly watch any of the ones mentioned in the articles, but there are another 1 1/2 dozen or so of them that weren't named.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Is there a complete list of the Viacom channels available?  I don't hardly watch any of the ones mentioned in the articles, but there are another 1 1/2 dozen or so of them that weren't named.

Wikipedia has a thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Viacom

[Admiral Yi]

Must be cable renegotian season.  IFC has been running ads asking viewers to petition Mediacom.

[CountDeMoney]

Why Viacom will win in its fight with DirecTV: Jon Stewart, SpongeBob and original content
Battle over fees knocks out major channels in 20 million homes
By David Zurawik The Baltimore Sun

Media companies routinely play chicken in negotiations over such issues as retransmission fees and bundling, terms that mean next to nothing to their customers until one of the companies they subscribe to lets things get out of hand.

Usually, that never happens.

But it did at midnight Tuesday with DirecTV and Viacom, which resulted in the satellite TV provider's 20 million customers being without such Viacom-owned channels as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and VH1.

In all, 17 channels were lost at midnight with shows that feature such performers as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SpongeBob SquarePants and Snooki.

Viewers who went to one of the Viacom channels on DirecTV Wednesday morning instead found a statement from DirecTV saying: "Viacom has forced us to remove this channel. Visit DIRECTVPromise.com for more information."

The message urges viewers to "enjoy" other channels while "we work to get this channel back on the air without an unfair increase to your bill."

At DIRECTPROMISE.com. viewers found more information than anyone wants to know about bundling and rising costs of programming. There was also a video featuring a DirecTV executive trying to be uber-sincere telling viewers how his company is fighting to keep Viacom from raising customers' bills by 30 percent.

All viewers need to know about bundling is that it's the practice of forcing distributors like DirecTV to take lesser known channels, like Viacom's Palladia and Centric, to get Comedy Central and MTV. It goes on everywhere in the media industry -- in all industries.

But here's the bottom line on this fight: Subscribers don't have time to care or learn about the intricacies of new media economics especially when the information is being spun by two giants who are at each others' throats. Most of us are overwhelmed by all the information we have to master day to day to pay our bills on time, fill out the right paperwork for our kids' school needs and try to get the insurance companies to re-imburse us for some small part of our medical and prescription costs.

All subscribers will care about is that they can't find Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert  tonight when they turn on their TVs if DirecTV doesn't settle.

For all the media and economic theory that says the key to media success is owning distribution, forget it. The key is owning original content -- and that's what Viacom has. Viewers have a relationship with Stewart not with DirecTV. And if the satellite provider can't deliver Stewart, they will find someone who can -- like a cable provider.

If Stewart and Colbert and SpongeBob and Snooki aren't on customers' sets, customers will start looking for a way to terminate their DirecTV contracts. And if they can't terminate them, they are going to be very angry customers.

UPDATE: TVbytheNumbers reports that Viacom has blocked streaming of full episodes of "The Daily Show"  and "The Colbert Report." In case anyone didn't know as of midnight, Viacom is playing hardball. Read that here.

[11B4V]

My 7 yo was all upset the Spoungebob was going off air when Nick was dropped. She started watch looney tunes on the Cartoon Network. She loves the shit out of those old cartoons I grew up with. Laughing her ass off. Bugs, Elmer, Daffy, Porky, RR and Wiley..etc.

NOW THOSE ARE CARTOONS I SAID TO HER.

[Ideologue]

Time Warner fucking sucks.

But what other cable company could you make pay tenfold for their temerity by pirating the intellectual property of their corporate siblings?  I'm just saying.