Viacom is increasing the price for its channels 4X: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/updates/index.shtml I wonder if this is true for DirectTV and cable?
It probably depends on when the carriage contracts expire. I'm sure there will be some games played though. I guess it comes down to DishNetwork making a stand. If they have limited bandwidth, they are right to protest their carrying channels they don't want to carry just to get access to network programming. Unfortunately, I think DishNetwork is in a no win situation. Subscribers will want CBS and MTV, especially with the NCAA tournament starting next week, so they will be forced to pay or lose subscribers.
On Saturday night I was watching Chapelle and a scrolling message on the bottom of the screen appeared saying that Dish network wanted to take away the Viacom channels and we should contact Dish Network. After the second time the message appeared a black bar would cover the Viacom message. I flipped to VH1 and the same thing was happening. It will basically boil down to a pissing contest.
Basically, what it boils down to is this: Viacom is tying the renewal of the retransmission agreement for the channels that DISH actually wants to carry (Nickelodeon, MTV, the large-market CBS and UPN affiliates that Viacom actually owns, etc.) to a requirement that DISH also agree to carry new Viacom channels that people may not actually want (like Nicktoons). And of course, DISH would also have to pay the going rate for those channels that they don't want. They can't say no to those channels without saying no to the channels that they actually want, and they've got to pay for the channels that are being forced upon them. Viacom is also raising the retransmission fee for the channels that DISH wants. So in other words, DISH is being forced by Viacom to pay for channels that they don't want and they're being forced to pay a lot more for the channels that they want. Viacom won't offer an agreement to DISH to just carry the channels that DISH actually wants (like Nickelodeon and MTV and the Viacom O&O CBS and UPN affiliates), they're only offering the whole package to DISH or nothing at all. Although I'm not a DISH subscriber, I support DISH's stand against Viacom on this. This is the sort of crap that Disney has pulled with ESPN and the ABC affiliates that they own. It's the biggest reason why we as consumers are forced to subscribe to a bunch of channels that we may or may not want and it's the biggest reason why cable rates have gone up so dramatically. Everybody always says, "It would be great if we could subscribe to these channels a-la-carte," but this sort of crap is the reason that we can't. Viacom or Disney or Time Warner will tell your cable or satellite provider, "You will carry all of these channels and you will put them in a 'basic' package, or you will get nothing at all. And by the way, we want 10% more for those channels than what you paid us last year. Don't like it? Tough." I applaud DISH for standing up for their subscribers.
Don't think for a minute that DishNetwork would "eat" the bigger price for the channels. The higher prices would, of course, be passed on to the customers.
I totally support DishNetwork eventhough I have DirecTV. It's agreements like this that finally made me dump digital cable. I couldn't get FSW, in part, because the cable company was carrying NINE versions of Nickeloden and Disney. Even after my child is born, I don't think I'll have much use for more than two of them. Even my five year old nephew got tired of watching the same Sponge Bob and Courage the Cowardly Dog reruns six times a day!
Exactly. If and when the next big retransmission agreement is up for renewal for DirecTV, I hope that they show a little bit more backbone. I'd much rather lose a few channels for a few days or even a week or two, than get another rate increase.
Dish Net went through with it and pulled the channels. Wow. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040309/ap_on_bi_ge/echostar_viacom_9 RS
I'm too much of a hoops fan to miss "March Madness" and unfortunately not only is the local CBS affiliate owned by Viacom, but the channel number is 2 and very difficult to get decent reception with "rabbit ears" I emailed DISH, told simply that if they don't get the stations back on in a very short period of time, I would find a competitor who would. I figure that both Viacom, and Dish are essetially huge impersonal businesses anyway and won't take sides in this. I just think it's assinine that they can't work out their contracts before our programming is suddenly removed. For what it's worth, dishnetwork's website says they'll reimburse us a whopping $2 a month for the "down time" Wow, I lose something like 15 channels and I save 2 buck on my 77 dollar bill. This may blow over very soon though. Seems they had a situation in NYC a few years ago where ABC was removed from their cable systems abruptly and they were back on very shortly.
Agreed. MTV sucks SS! The only channel I might slightly miss is Comedy Channel. I can get the DVDs of the Chapelle show. Good riddance Viacom. Kudos to Dish for having a pair. The Viacom 'deal' reduces choice and forces Dish to carry more crappy channels at a higher cost. Direct TV will have to deal with this when their contract is up. Question, is FUSE the same as Much Music? I know Much Music was based out of Toronto and played better music than MTV IMHO. More rock less rap/hip-hop. MTV seems to be more interested in crappy reality shows (Real World, Carmen&Dave, Jessica Simpson, etc..). BUH-BYE!!
Fuse occupies the same channel space as Much Music USA used to occupy on DirecTV. MM USA was actually based on Long Island as a branch of the Canadian channel. That's a good thing too because the Canadian content rule would force to hear a lot of mediocre music! I don't know if Fuse is still affiliated with MM or not. They have the same show names, so maybe they just changed the name of the channel.
That is indeed the case. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0EIN/2003_April_8/99766477/p1/article.jhtml
Everyone knows that Dish owner Charlie Ergan is as cheap as they come. Dish recently raised program package prices by $3 but could not pay an extra 6 cents per subscriber which is what Viacom wanted. You are lying if you will not miss any of the Viacom channels. This is why I am glad they did not buy Directv. If this does not clesr up soon people will jump to directv. http://www.skyreport.com/
Correction: It is what Viacom said publicly that they wanted. But what they did not say is that they wanted six cents per channel per customer per month, and they did not say they were also going to force Dish to pay for channels that Dish didn't necessarily want by bundling them with channels that Dish did want.
You really think so? I'll stick with Dish when they've got the balls to actually take Viacom on like this. Viacom and companies like it seem to be whats wrong with television today. They're the reason Dish/Cable bills continue to go up. More power to DishNetwork, if I wanna watch the NCAA's I'll pull out my rabbit ears...
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/...tes/index.shtml Viacom and Dish have resolved their issues and the channels are back on. Dish is still giving us a $1 credit and a free pay per view as well. No rate increases!