DirectTV losing MTV, Comedy Central, and 24 others
Do you have DirectTV? Enjoy watching Comedy Central, MTV, and others, well, you soon might be in a bit of a pickle. Due to a stall in negotiations, you might not have access to your favorite channels by the end of the day.
Apparently Viacom decided the current pricing scheme is not profitable enough. They demanded a 30% increase in payments, which amounts to around $1 billion more, or Viacom would pull their channels from syndication. And then they had the gall to paint DirectTV as the enemy when they were hesitant to pay the blackmail:
DirectTV, for their part, has responded with its own campaign on Facebook. They have also created a page that details how to get your favorite Viacom shows online either for free or for a small fee. A bit of a self defeating tactic, it seems to me, but one I can appreciate.
Now, to be fair, Viacom might have a bit of a case here. According to the company, the amount they are asking for is mere pennies a day for each subscriber. And DirectTV already pays less for Viacom channels than any other distributor, despite Viacom accounting for the largest chunk of viewership. Specifically, Viacom says in this blog post that Viacom accounts for 20% of all DirectTV viewership but only 5% of programming expenses.
No matter who wins the disagreement, however, the consumer loses. That seems to be a common thread, these days. Remember Dish dropping AMC?
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