DIRECTV Loses Viacom Channels

[ExtinctJenn]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/11/directv-customers-lose-mtv-nick-and-other-viacom-nets/

For anyone who has children that watch Nickelodeon etc. I thought I'd share this.

I also thought it was interesting to share here because of the comment re: Disney getting better ratings than Nickelodeon etc.

Me, I now have a very very sad DS6 who, though he's a Disney nut, loved every show Nick Jr. had in it's line up and has now lost his favorite shows (and we're less than a year into our 2-year contract). I really hate this kind of thing.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I believe you can cancel or renegotiate your contract due to this type of line up change.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

I believe you can cancel or renegotiate your contract due to this type of line up change.

Thing is, we love Direct. We left Dish for them and tried cable and hated it. They say they are trying to negotiate but if we go more than a month I'll expect some sort of compensation for the huge list of channels we lost today.

That's not so much my reason for posting though as much as it was the Disney vs. Nickelodeon thing.

 

[NYwdwfan]

Hopefully my DVRed Spongebob's and iCarly's will last until the dispute is settled!

 

[rsoxguy]

Money talks. Either Viacom or Directv will get enough public complaint to get a compromise going. Either way, an agreement should be reached eventually. They have both launched enough of a PR campaign to prove that they want to reach an agreement.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

We called Directv (there's a number you can call, to join a *petition* of sorts) 1 800 531 5000 ... Directv said Viacom wants to raise the rates like 35%... I already pay $150 a month, this is getting ridiculous. Greedy, greedy, greedy!!!!

 

[ExtinctJenn]

We called Directv (there's a number you can call, to join a *petition* of sorts) 1 800 531 5000 ... Directv said Viacom wants to raise the rates like 35%... I already pay $150 a month, this is getting ridiculous. Greedy, greedy, greedy!!!!

Yeah there is a lot of news out there now that people are waking up. No matter what I read, it seems Viacom is the "bad" end of this. Usually you find websites that lean one way and then some that lean another but all the news I'm reading is basically pointing the finger at Viacom. They don't deny they are asking Direct to pay them more but they try to make it sound nice by saying it's "pennies per day per subscriber." When you consider it's something like 20 million subscribers that are impacted by this and do the math... well, all I can say is Viacom's version of "not much of an increase" is BS.

What stinks is for parents who have kids around my son's age, I could care less about most of the shows I'm losing but losing Nick Jr. is a heavy hit. Sure DS loves SpongeBob but he doesn't watch it much at all lately. Instead, Nick Jr. was the channel our TV was turned to probably for 75% of the day (while he is awake). Now... that said... it'd be Disney Junior he'd be watching if we got it (which is a whole other issue) because he loves every show in the mornings on Dis. But, y'know what the Viacom black out is making happen today? He's been watching the Disney channel all morning and when it moves into the "non Junior shows" he'll switch to Netflix.

 

[elizs77]

Must be that time of the year. Our local NBC affiliate is gone from the TWC lineup, and it's been replaced with a channel from Pennsylvania. Same fight as the DirectTV one but between Hearst Communications and TWC.

 

[AgentB911]

I believe you can cancel or renegotiate your contract due to this type of line up change.

Nope. Says in the fine print of the contract that channel line-ups are subject to change at any time.

I think both companies in this dispute are claiming the other is the big bad bully here. But, here's the facts as I see them: Viacom wants something like $30B over the life of a 7 year contract. DirecTV is claiming that this will raise their subscribers rates. But, as a previous poster stated, DirecTV has something like 20 million subscribers, so it really would only be pennies a day. Pennies a day per subscriber should not increase any rates, IMO. I understand both companies are out to make money and please their shareholders at the end of the day. And, in the end, its us consumers/customers that get it up the tush.

 

[JohnLocke]

Outside of the annoying EAS interruptions occasionally, I'm glad I have my cable company, I think I get everything on DirectTV I want and perhaps a bit more.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Resorts/Wal...te-impact-to-WDW-resort-in-room-TV-system.htm

I laughed when I saw this... talk about full circle. I posted because of the Disney channel reference and now we have news that it's also directly impacting WDW. Too funny.