DirecTV to drop Viacom channels tonight!!

[*breaksracquet]

No MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, AMC, plus an additional 20 other channels will be gone by midnight tonight if DirecTV and Viacom do not reach an agreement. Anyone have DirecTV? I received this message on my TV this morning and had to call some 1-800 number to receive the same information. Dont care for MTV, but need Nick for my kids! Any thoughts?

[jmverdugo]

I have not got that message down here, but we did go for the same thing last year and at the last moment they reached an agreement, a couple of months later they increase a couple of dollars to my bill.

[gavna]

Same old story.....Viacom is asking for a 30% hike in the broadcast fees from DTV ie...the paying public. This game goes on every time fees expire - almost always they come to an agreement at the last min or the service gets cut for a few days....FOX and DTV had same happen a little over a year ago.

[acura9927]

I bet DTV wins this match.

[stringertom]

I'm LOL at the "media wars"...this AM the morning news guy announced his channel and its sister channel aren't available on local cable bcoz of another impasse...I got the message bcoz I don't pay $100/month and use free over-the-air reception on my HDTV!

[West Coast Ace]

Originally Posted by gavna

Same old story.....Viacom is asking for a 30% hike in the broadcast fees from DTV...

Wow! Someone at Viacom isn't reading the news. 30%? Loco!

Originally Posted by acura9927

I bet DTV wins this match.

I agree. The final # will be closer to 0 than 30...

Hadn't heard this: just switched to Comedy Central - they're running a 'just pennies on the dollar - won't affect you' ticker at the bottom of their screen. DirecTV counters with their own 'Viacom wants you to pay 30% more...' below it. Pretty amusing.

[jamesblakefan#1]

I know the same thing happened a few years ago w/ Dish Network (2004, man I feel old). Apparently from rreading very little on it, DirecTV wants to pay for the major Viacom networks but ditch the crappy ones like Logo and whatever Tr3s, Centric and Palladia are.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ion-customers/

[MikeyBigShot]

Why do people choose dishes over regular cable?

[BreakPoint]

When is the government finally going to force the cable and satellite companies to sell their channels a la carte so that we can only buy those channels that we actually want and watch instead of being forced to take all of these channels in their "packages" that we don't even want? I only watch like 10 channels but I'm forced to pay for 150 channels just to get those 10 channels that I really want! It's ridiculous! It's like going to a restaurant and being forced to order everything on the menu just to get the one entree that you really want to eat.

[West Coast Ace]

Originally Posted by MikeyBigShot

Why do people choose dishes over regular cable?

After years of getting ripped off by cable companies - higher prices, less channels, frequent outages (no one answering the phone) - the option to switch to satellite was welcome. Throw in DirecTV's treatment of tennis fans - The Mix - and it's an easy choice.

[coolblue123]

Originally Posted by BreakPoint

When is the government finally going to force the cable and satellite companies to sell their channels a la carte so that we can only buy those channels that we actually want and watch instead of being forced to take all of these channels in their "packages" that we don't even want? I only watch like 10 channels but I'm forced to pay for 150 channels just to get those 10 channels that I really want! It's ridiculous! It's like going to a restaurant and being forced to order everything on the menu just to get the one entree that you really want to eat.

definitely agree. I remembered when FIOS dropped tennis channel for a couple of monthes last year. If they did it al la carte, they probably get a better subscription base. I'd rather pay $8 a month rather than $20 for the other 6 channels I rarely watch.

Also, I am waiting till IPTV gets more mature, I can see it definitely go towards the al la carte model as content delivery will be alot easier and cheaper since most of the infrastructure is already in place. This will allow for smaller channels to deliver their content as well. My dream setup will be using an HD antenna for my local channels and IPTV for the cable channels.

[*breaksracquet]

Originally Posted by jamesblakefan#1

I know the same thing happened a few years ago w/ Dish Network (2004, man I feel old). Apparently from rreading very little on it, DirecTV wants to pay for the major Viacom networks but ditch the crappy ones like Logo and whatever Tr3s, Centric and Palladia are.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ion-customers/

There was another incident even more recent (2008 ) with time warner vs. viacom that lasted about a week.

It's funny to me that it was viacom, again.

[gavna]

Originally Posted by MikeyBigShot

Why do people choose dishes over regular cable?

First this happens with "regular" cable as well....Comcast and TimeWarner both have in the last two years have gone same route and tried to-play hardball with the channels.

Second satellite just blows cable out of the water with channel lineup and digital / HD options......we switched to Direct TV 2.5 years ago and have never regretted it.

[ollinger]

Maybe a better analogy than being forced to order everything on a restaurant menu is this: why can't I buy health insurance only for cardiac problems? There's a history of heart disease in my family, so why do I have to pay for insurance for pulmonary and renal issues as well? I should be able to buy a more limited policy, and pay less. With insurance as with cable, allowing people to buy a few channels they watch would be economically untenable, and I doubt cable companies would then have the resources to pay the (rapidly increasing) costs of content for all the channels they carry. Perhaps some degree of regulation is feasible -- the companies are not all screaming that they can't make a living -- but there is far more competition in cable/satellite now than 30 years ago when most people had only one option. You can buy basic cable packages or additional premium packages now. Some channels are sold individually. But a completely buffet approach wouldn't work economically -- the built-in costs to pay all the content providers are too high.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by *breaksracquet

No MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, AMC, plus an additional 20 other channels will be gone by midnight tonight if DirecTV and Viacom do not reach an agreement. Anyone have DirecTV? I received this message on my TV this morning and had to call some 1-800 number to receive the same information. Dont care for MTV, but need Nick for my kids! Any thoughts?

Just wanted to correct you. AMC is not part of this dispute. That is between Dish & AMC. The 'official' channel list is:

Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, CMT, Logo, Spike, TV Land, MTV2, VH1 Classic, Palladia, Nick Jr., NickToons, TeenNick, Nickelodeon West, Tr3s, Centric, MTV India, Nickelodeon HD, Comedy Central HD, MTV HD, BET HD, VH1 HD, CMT HD and Spike HD

Like you, other than the Nick* channels my kids watch, I could not care less about this. I watch The Daily Show & Colbert Nation online, so that covers Comedy Central. The other channels are just noise in the system to me...

[Tennishacker]

I currently have cable, but was drawn to Directv by their low monthly rates, so I gave them a call and asked for a "quote" on what package/channels I was interested in, they would not give me a "quote" until I gave them my social security no. so that they could checked my credit score.
I told the guy I was not going to give my ss# just for "quote", the guy hung up on me.

[jmverdugo]

Comedy Central is gone for now, AMC still on the air, as long as they reach a deal before the start of Walking Death season everything will be ok.

[maverick66]

People still watch MTV?

[acura9927]

Originally Posted by maverick66

People still watch MTV?

MTV should be extinct by now. I dont know anyone that watches unless they are unemployed for years on end.

[acura9927]

Originally Posted by Tennishacker

I currently have cable, but was drawn to Directv by their low monthly rates, so I gave them a call and asked for a "quote" on what package/channels I was interested in, they would not give me a "quote" until I gave them my social security no. so that they could checked my credit score.
I told the guy I was not going to give my ss# just for "quote", the guy hung up on me.

You probably called one of the places that gets a commission on sales to DTV. If you call DTV directly their phones cannot hang up on a customer, its programmed for the customer to hang up 1st only.