Viacom and DishNetwork Battle On Air Over Contract

An anonymous reader writes "This weekend, Viacom stations began scrolling messages on their cable stations(MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, etc) stating that DishNetwork may soon be removing the channels from its lineup and urging subscribers to call DishNetwork. DishNetwork subscribers(me!) may have begun to see black bars cover the messages and calls to DishNetwork regarding the messages were greeted with a recording telling subscribers to call the President and GM of KCBS. These antics stem from lawsuits here. I, for one, will be switching to DirecTV if they don't get this figured out."

Comments

Viacom really needs to watch themselves

[Anonymous Coward]

They currently own two broadcast networks (CBS and UPN), and abuse of their holdings like this to bully a carrier like this will get them in hot water with not only the FCC, but the FTC as well.

Re:Viacom really needs to watch themselves

[swordboy]

It should be noted that Viacom are the ones putting the scoll bar on those channels - they are appearing to EVERYONE watching from any provider. The irony is that they are plumbing them through Dishnetwork's own system. Some cool stuff is here.

Pick up the phone and call Don Corsini and let him know how you feel.

The summary: Dishnetwork has the lowest cost programming in the US. They'd like to keep it that way so they are dropping these channels from their basic package. They will allow people to add them if the cost is deemed worth while on a per-user basis. This is good for the consumer and good for the free market because Viacom will learn that they can't just raise their prices arbitrarily and still keep their seat in the basic package.

Fuck Viacom

Re:Viacom really needs to watch themselves

[macshune]

It's the same thing in the cable world. Most of the rate-rises on your cable bill aren't from increased "costs" of distribution or just the cable company wanting to raise prices. It's because the channel-owners charge cable companies money per household that receives the channel. This is why we are beginning to see a move by industry giants like Comcast to purchase content, rather than just be content with their distribution system. They did just try to buy disney and they own the golf channel, among others:)

Also, at least in the cable world, the cable companies puts the commercials in. Dish probably injects the commercials too, so Viacom only makes dough off of the fees it charges Dish Network.

Re:Viacom really needs to watch themselves

[milkman_matt]

Swich to DirecTV, and Viacom will try to shake them down next. To hell with Viacom!

That "I'll be switching to DirecTV" had me thinking (don't get me wrong, I think DirecTV has a very high quality product, and I was very happy with it until I moved somewhere where I couldn't have it.) Isn't this the company that just got busted under the RICO act for suing people with card reader/writers? Did that ever get settled? Like I said, I really dug that company, but I was extremely disappointed when I heard they were throwing out all of those lawsuits.

-matt

sounds familiar

[bandy]

This sounds familiar to the situation where the owners of KRON [tv] in San Francisco wanted them to air a station of theirs from LA, and withheld broadcast rights to KRON until they caved.

We did without NBC for six months, Charlie [Dish] never caved. NBC moved itself to a San Jose station and we get NBC again.

Viacom probably wants Dish to carry additional channels or drop competing channels from their line-up.

I was wondering what that was about..

[falzbro]

I'm a Dish subscriber. I saw this message begin to scroll by several times over the weekend, and wondered what the hell was up.

Each time, a few words in, a black bar appeared across the screen to block it out.

This explains a lot. How childish.

Wasn't just Dish Network

[danuary]

Although the ads were -directed- at DishNetwork viewers they were visible on other networks. I saw the "Attention Dish Network Subscribers" message when watching Comedy Central over the weekend -- and I have Time Warner Cable in NYC. I'm most certainly not who they were looking to reach.

Crawl being seen on all other providers too

[LostCluster]

The annoying crawls are not just limited to Dish Network. Viacom has no way to force a crawl onto only Dish Network feeds of their networks, so they have to put the crawls onto the network's backhaul feeds and therefore everybody sees them.

I've been told that DirecTV's call centers have also been geting calls from their own consumers who don't read the whole ticker and are wondering if they're at risk too. (DirecTV's contracts are not lapsing right now, only Dish's.)

The message was...

[Ayandia]

The message was something like this:

DishNetwork will stop offering BET, MTV, Nick at Night, Comedy Central...and many others. DishNetwork subscribers, call DishNetwork and tell them you want to keep the channels you paid for.

It seemed to me like they were really saying:

DishNetwork subscribers, please call DishNetwork and tie up their support lines with furious indignance while we spread disinformation!

But the message had a complete lack of WHY those channels were going away, if at all. Anyone have some insight?

its a bloody shame

[dj245]

Its a bloody shame that this is happening. I've found that the DirectTV box is buggy, or full of nasty "features". My carefully pruned favorites lists will have channels added to it at random times. I am often surprised to find that my 30-channel DirectTV favorites list has grown overnight to a 50-channel list with the inclusion of all the DTV informational channels and most of the QVC and shopping type channels. Does anyone elses box do this? I'd like to hope its a coincidental bug, but I'm the ever cynic, so I'm afraid its a very shameful "feature".