DirecTV and Viacom? Let's make a deal

[Mickey Fliers]

Are they going to reach a deal or what? We lose Spongebob in this house and I may have a revolt on my hands.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

This is the first I heard of this, and it's seriously ticking me off. The only TV I watch in the summer is on Comedy Central.

 

[ICF]

Are they going to reach a deal or what? We lose Spongebob in this house and I may have a revolt on my hands.

Here is some info on it.

Apparently they want DirectTV to pay 30% more to them for the channels.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=206731

 

[Colleen27]

I wonder if it is only a matter of time until channels are like Coke & Pepsi in restaurants where you can't get all the choices in one place, and we'll have to choose which set we want when we choose our sat/cable provider... If you want AMC, you can't have Dish. Want Nick, can't have DirecTV. And on and on.

ETA: If Spongebob is the primary/only issue, it is available on Netflix. I don't think Viacom has got much leverage on this one because so many of their most popular options are available to stream - Spongebob, Dora, Diego, etc. We seldom watch Nick in this house any more because the kids can watch the same shows commercial-free on Netflix through our Wii.

 

[Nayan]

Carriage disputes just plain suck. We lost our local NBC affiliate, along with all of the sister stations this morning. Woke up to weather in Scranton, PA since that's who Brighthouse struck a deal with so we wouldn't lose national programming. I feel for you folks losing the major ones, especially Nick for the kids .

 

[ChristmasElf]

Are they going to reach a deal or what? We lose Spongebob in this house and I may have a revolt on my hands.

My 20 year old just said the same thing! He just came in and said he finally has a day off tomorrow, and they may suspend Spongie.
Now what will he do all day?

 

[Coconut36]

This is the first I have heard about this. Is Nick Jr included in the dispute? My kids live on this channel.

I hope they resolve it soon..I think there was recently an AMC issue and Fx too.

 

[Stitchfans]

Wish I could find the entire list that they are talking about dropping. As it is I am paying a small fortune and had to drop several channels we all really liked. I mostly watch Hallmark. My grandson loves Disney. Thank goodness he never got into Nick.

Not happy about CMT and Comedy Central. If they drop all that we watch it isn't worth the price I pay to have cable.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

This is the first I have heard about this. Is Nick Jr included in the dispute? My kids live on this channel.

I hope they resolve it soon..I think there was recently an AMC issue and Fx too.

Yep. It includes some 26 channels...Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Spike, Comedy Central, BET, CMT, TV Land...

 

[lovetoscrap]

I know when we have had this happen with Dish Network they usually end up dropping the channel(s) for a few days and that seems to cause a compromise to happen pretty quick! Dish usually puts up the contact info for the TV channel and the Channel website usually puts of the contact info for Dish! But once the channel is gone and the angry calls really start to both sides they seem to get an agreement in place fairly quickly.

 

[marmalade]

I can't believe that Viacom is requesting a 30% price increase. As much as my kids love Nick, I would rather lose those channels than pay anymore for my cable bill because of corporate greed. My kids can watch Spongebob on Netflix and be just as happy.

 

[rgf207]

I can't believe that Viacom is requesting a 30% price increase. As much as my kids love Nick, I would rather lose those channels than pay anymore for my cable bill because of corporate greed. My kids can watch Spongebob on Netflix and be just as happy.

Apparently Viacom says their contract with DirecTV is "ancient" so it seems they haven't negotiated in a while. The only people that lose in these carriage disputes is the customers. We will either lose channels or keep them but see our bill go up.

 

[marmalade]

Apparently Viacom says their contract with DirecTV is "ancient" so it seems they haven't negotiated in a while. The only people that lose in these carriage disputes is the customers. We will either lose channels or keep them but see our bill go up.

According to this article, http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...e-may-affect-access-for-20-million-customers/, the contract is 7yrs old.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I really wish that there was a way to get your television channels 100% ala carte. I don't watch probably 80% of the channels I get. I would be nice to say, "Okay, I need Disney and Disney junior, E, ESPN, all the major networks, TNT, and TBS."

Personally, I figure that DirecTV is going to work this all out and we won't lose anything. As long as they continue to refuse to carry The Longhorn Network, I'm happy

 

[sam_gordon]

According to this article, http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...e-may-affect-access-for-20-million-customers/, the contract is 7yrs old.

If I do my math right, that comes out to a ~4.5% increase for each year.

I wonder how much DirecTV has raised their rates in 7 years.

 

[pat fan]

I really wish that there was a way to get your television channels 100% ala carte. I don't watch probably 80% of the channels I get. I would be nice to say, "Okay, I need Disney and Disney junior, E, ESPN, all the major networks, TNT, and TBS."

Take away Disney Jr., E & TBS and add TCM, NFL Network, GMC, Hallmark and Game Show network and I'm right there with ya! I could even live without Game Show & Hallmark if I had to.

 

[Nayan]

Everyone talks about how they want ala carte but are you willing to pony up a huge amount for the channels you do want? Or see the channels you want disappear because not enough people watch them? Trust me, I'd love ala carte channels but I look at it this way, I am paying for you to have your channels in my bundle as you're paying for mine.

 

[mrodgers]

If I do my math right, that comes out to a ~4.5% increase for each year.

I wonder how much DirecTV has raised their rates in 7 years.

Not 7 years, I've only had DirecTV since 2009. It's gone up about $10 in 3 years.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

So DirecTV says it's a billion dollars. Viacom says it's "pennies per day per customer".

If by pennies, Viacom mean 13.7 cents (or more) that would be, in fact, 1 billion dollars.

13.7 cents x 365 days x 20 million customers = $1,000,100,000.00, or about $50/customer/year.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I heard about it last night...I thought they were bluffing, I guess they weren't. Those are some good channels we lost!