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Echostar/Dish Network Pulls Viacom Channels
RedWolves2 writes "As was mentioned yesterday, Viacom was trying to warn Dish Network customers over the weekend that its channels were going to be pulled from their service. Well today those channels were finally pulled. 'EchoStar Communications Corp. on Tuesday pulled from service 16 of Viacom's local CBS stations and 10 of its national channels after the companies failed to agree on contract terms and prices.' Echostar will provide a $1 monthly credit to customers who lose programming while the channels are unavailable. Sorry but $1 a month is not exactly a fair trade off. DirecTV sounds like a great choice."
If only because DIRECTV's DVR (aka DIRECTiVo) totally kicks the ass of whatever cheap and lame knock-off Dish uses.
True, DIRECTV's HD DVR is not quite out yet, but I do know that Dish's HD DVR sucks royally, and that the DIRECTV offering is worth the wait.
Disclaimer: I work for TiVo, and my opinions are my own.
I am actually on the Dish networks side on this one; what Viacom is trying to with their crappy channel bundling is a joke. That said however, CBS has CSI and Survivor, for most people $1/month is nowhere near good enough.
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
How about reducing all the packages back to where they were last year, and charging the people who actually WANT Viacom's crap a couple bucks a month? I think I can survive without Racist Entertainment TV & No-Music TV.
Yeah, okay, no South Park is gonna hurt, but that's what the net is for.
I have to give Charlie credit for standing up to viacom.
I have Charter Cable, and viacom is running ads stating the obivous, that EchoStar/Dish Network is not meeting demands, and airing it on all providers.
This whole situation does not affect me, why bother me?
I heard about this on the 5pm newscast here in Maryland. Echostar/DishNetwork pulled out a Baltimore station from their lineup.
Of course, it was an NBC station who reported of the CBS station being yanked. The CBS station however was owned by CBS.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
...that this would be the beginning of a ala carte(sp) cable service. It didn't happen when Disney and Comcast (AT&T) had their fight, but maybe Echostar can pull it off against Viacom.
Of course, the realist in me knows that my cable bill will go up a few dollars regardless. (Yes, I have cable, but I'm sure Comcast will find a way to increase my bill too.)
we were going to have dish installed tomorrow, but we put it on hold due to this. what do you guys recommend anyway? just curious.. those channels do affect my family, not necessarily me but my family so it does matter that i get those channels.. directv better or what?
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
One of the channels being pulled is Comedy Central, I just canceled my Dish Membership today because of that.
You think the Cable Company would be falling over themselves to get me back, but they're making me wait 5 days to get Cable!!!
... and in the DRM, bind them.
people talk about crap channels on TV, but that's the point. the reason you can't just pick the channels you want, and skip the crap is because companies like viacom make you take the good with the bad.
of all the viacom channels they offer, the one i want is comedy central. that's it. but i still have to get mtv, nickelodian (sp?), and all their other crap. I DON'T WANT IT.
but i have to get it whether i want it or not, because that's the only way viacomm will sell it.
remind anyone of a certain software companies business practices? you want Windows? you're getting IE and WMP bundled together.
good for dish network sticking standing up to them. hell, i'll probably sign up tomorrow in support of the stance they're taking.
I am a DirecTV subscriber, but I've really got to admire Dish' handling of this. Granted, $1/mo. doesn't seem sufficient.
One gripe I have with DirecTV isn't really DirecTV's fault, as evidenced by this thing with EchoStar: why do I have to sit down every couple of months to erase all of the CRAP from "Channels I Receive" list (freestanding TiVo), and pay $50/mo. for the 10 channels I regularly watch?
Packaging isn't just DirecTV/Dish' fault, but the fault of the conglomerates' anti-competitive muscle flexing. You know, if I had to pay $2.00 per month for that channels I do watch (plus $10 for HBO), I'd still be at $50/mo., but I'd be much, much happier about it because I'd know (or at least feel) that I was in control of it.
--Jim (me)
So I'm of a mind to send a message to Viacom: keep your content, I won't miss it. THPHHHHHHHHT! (with apologies to Bill the Cat). I'm much more interested in channels like SciFi, BBC America, IFC, and those wacky independent channels like Worldlink TV.
-- This
I'm not a Dish subscriber, I live in the woods and no satellite service has a snowball's chance in hell of reaching me here, unless I throw up a 100 foot or taller pole to sit the antenna on.
Why do I say this? Because I'm sick and tired of the scrolling on my screen whining about this, it doesn't affect me, I don't care. If MY cable company yanks these channels you can bet I WILL scream bloody murder, having a 3 year old, many of these channels are viewed quite a lot around here.
If I WERE a Dish subscriber I'd be plenty pissed right now though, and probably no longer a subscriber.
However this on-air squabbilng was somewhat entertaining, overall I really couldn't care less and would prefer not to see the scrolling on my screen.
--- www.f-theocean.com
I don't know about you, but I'd rather get Voom service. Over 30 channels in full HDTV, plus all of the standard SD channels, plus they install a Channelmaster local antenna so you can get the HD locals as well. What's the cost? $0 up front for installation and only $9.50 a month to lease the box (which is a very nice Motorola set top box with DVI-HDCP output to drive your HDTV or Plasma screen).
DirecTV has been recompressing their HDTV channels recently to cram more bandwidth onto their already overcrowded satellites and in the process making HD-HBO look like crap. Dish has major problems of their own. I think Voom is looking more and more like the best option. They offer not only HD-HBO and HD-SHOtime, but also HD-Cinemax and HD-Starz, which none of the other satellite or cable companies currently offer, and only $80 a month for all the channels, or $40 a month for a basic package. As far as I'm concerned, both DirecTV (with their money-grubbing RIAA style extortion tactics) and Dish Network (with their terrible customer service and contract problems) can stick it where the sun don't shine.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
They require me to pay dish networks for the obscure channels that I never watch? It's all great and wonderful when you're getting customers to pay for things they don't watch, but when the broadcaster puts it to you the same way, scream bloody murder. Another interesting note is that the huge hike in fees is something in the range of 5% (from what i've read, sorry no sources handy). While a little bit hefty, if this isn't a yearly 5% increase and their contract renews something like every 2-3 years or even 5 years, then is this really that outrageous? Ask an old-timer what Soda, bread, and milk used to cost "back in their day;" prices go up, it's called inflation. That being said, squibbling by putting nasty notes on my screen urging me to get furious and call dish networks, or putting notes on "BET.com" telling me how "Dish Networks is trying to take my BET away" and generally trying to make this into a race issue is simply put, CHILDISH. And covering their message with a black box could easily be prepared to blacking out a commercial for a Presidential Candidate because you think he's a bad choice for your viewers. Grow up, the lot of you.
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
If you are running such a big corp, then its your responsibility to forsee and handle problems.
And how would you have anticipated & resolved this problem if you were the president of Dish? Raised everyone's rates? Viacom is being a bully & trying to blackmail Dish into paying an unfair price and force them to carry channels that they don't want to. I don't know how long the negotiations have been going on, but Viacom really doesn't have much to lose here, so I doubt that they've made much in the way of concessions. Why should they. I think that Dish really deserves applause for there decision to stand up to to the bullies under the circumstances.
Here in Columbus (OH), about three years ago the local CBS affiliate started pressuring Time Warner to carry Ohio News Network on their basic analog cable service in order to continue rebroadcasting CBS. It was a mess, and all the other news agencies loved it. Everything went nuts about a month before the contract renewal deadline, and both sides dug in.
About two weeks before the station was to be pulled from the lineup, Time Warner sent rabbit ears to every customer and included instructions (both written and on their special channel running every half hour). If a customer wasn't sure how to set things up, a tech would even come out before the deadline so that CBS would still work seemlessly. Time Warner took the game to a level the CBS affiliate wasn't ready for.
The end result: Time Warner agreed to carry ONN on digital cable, and the CBS station stayed on regular analog cable. I'm not sure, but I don't believe there was even a rate increase given to the CBS station.
I wouldn't be surprised if these tactics by Viacom end up with the exact same result. Dish may lose a few customers in this, but that's nothing compared to the marketshare Viacom loses if people don't just randomly stumble onto their channel and watch for a half hour. If your station isn't even offered, people just can't watch it, and advertisers just don't want to pay lots of money for that. The price of poker is high here, but I'm pretty sure Viacom's in the position with the most to lose (and the potential gains are only modest).
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
It's actually $5.99/month for just the local channels. The cheapest plan you can get (60 channels) is $24.99/month. And there's a mistake in the article as well: Dish is reimbursing everyone $1 for the "loss" of MTV. But they're also reimbursing the people who lost CBS another dollar. (Source: FAQ on the Dish website) A dollar for all the Viacom networks on the list is a bit small, but a dollar for losing CBS out of the local programming is entirely reasonable, I think.
I've called to suspend service through this contract matter and would suggest other displeased Dish subscribers do so as well. SCO, Dish and others need to understand their customers pay their salaries and operating expenses - making us suffer from a contract dispute is grounds for termination of contract. DirecTV doesn't have these problems, Dish.
As our contracts were based on a package channel subscription, it's a reasonable option to provide Dish with 2-3 months to get its act together and suspension of service for this period is a request that has a good legal foundation. Cancelling service this early would have a weaker contractual basis, especially if you have equipment provided with your agreement.
Working with several broadcasters who have their signal picked up by the satellite players, there's a lot more to this than is being represented by Dish. Dish has been rather predatory with respect to its uplink options for local affiliates. Of significance to many is how Dish handles preemption of advertising - running its own ads over local CBS/NBC/Fox/etc. affiliates. There's more to this legal fight than Viacom just hiking rates (part of the hike is to account for Dish's reducing ad reach through preemption - after all, Viacom has to pay its bills too, and without eyeballs from Dish, it is harder for them to command a reasonable rate from an advertiser).
So, I'm willing to let them fight it out over the next few months. Since 80% of the use in our household is for Nick and Comedy Central (my viewing consists of one hour for Sopranos and that can be obtained via VCR), suspending service is a fair request.
Give them a call and join in the "vote with your feet" message. Let Dish know a $1 credit (and unlimited Home Shopping Network access) isn't a fair deal. (Incidentally, dishnetwork.com isn't responding very well right now - call 1-800-333-DISH to request your service suspension).
Oh, and maybe they should throw Howard Stern off the air for talking against the GOP, oh... I mean talking about boobies.
The last thing we need is more government involvement in media companies. Look at what has happened to broadcast radio.
Let the companies flesh it out themselves. Dish Network does not have to carry Viacom and they chose not to. If you don't like it, go to another provider. Viacom has a product they want to sell in the form of bundled programming - I see nothing wrong with that. If you want Noggin, then you'll have to go somewhere else for its COMMERCIAL FREE PROGRAMMING. How did you think they could offer that? By bundling it with commercially supported networks.
Sound waves should be free!
I was just watching the Daily Show on Comedy Central, and during the commercial break, just about 30 seconds ago, they ran an ad basically blaming the entire incident on Dish Network and saying, "If you have a friend with Dish, he'll be spending a lot of time on your couch". The punchline at the end of the ad said something like "Comedy Central, now only on Cable and DirecTV".
Frankly, Viacom are the scum of the earth. I used to respect the Daily Show as one of the last bastions of fair and balanced (TM) news reporting available. Jon Stewart and the other correspondents seem to be the only (fake) news reporters that actually tell things the way they are, but for some strange reason they are totally silent about this news story, which is one of the biggest news stories on CNN and all other major news networks. I'm sure Viacom has given them a hush order or some other such mandate, but it really stinks of media bias.
I've lost a lot of respect for the Daily Show today, which used to be one of my favorite programs, and I'm seriously considering starting an email campaign against Viacom.
For those of you wanting to give Viacom a piece of your mind, here is the contact information for the CEO:
Mel Karmazin
M-F 9:00 am to 5:00 pm - (212) 975-6500
or better yet, call him at home on the weekend at:
(212) 956-1007
Cheers, and down with massive media conglomerates.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Why does Viacom bundle channels? What is really in it for them?
Surely they would be better served by killing the underperformers, thus reducing their TCO for the "corporation" as a whole and making more profit on the channels that they did send...
Seems to me that they should concentrate on making their offerings have more appeal if they want them to be generally available through cable and satellite. If the channels do not appeal to a large segment of the public then make them subscription channels, separate in their own right, and give the cable or satellite operator a share of the proceeds. That's a win-win-win. Consumers don't have to have the "martha stewart" channel, the cable/satellite co does not have to pay for it, and the provider gets pay per view dollars.
Oh, but what if those dollars are not forthcoming? Well then, provider, you have learned that your offering is not wanted. Shut it down immediately. First law of the free market.
I'm sorry, but my cable bills are getting outrageous, and I just have basic cable. Cable costs me more and more every year for the same stupid basic channels I've had for the past 10 years.
Part of the reason these bills are skyrocketing is that companies like Viacom are burdened with huge debt.
They can't raise their advertising rates because they don't have the Nelson ratings... get this: Viacom brings us MTV and the likes of Howard Stern. There have been huge public outcries against such programming aired on MTV, Howard Stern and Viacom's other channels/shows. The media response has always been: "If you don't like what you see, change the channel." So that's exactly what people have done. They can't raise advertising rates without the ratings, so they're losing advertisers. Their debt is getting out of control, so they turn to the distributors.
Viacom has told its distributors, specifically Dish Network, that it is raising its rates by six cents per-channel, per-subscriber, per-month. If I were a subscriber to Dish Network, this would mean my monthly bill would need to go up nearly a buck. This is completely outrageous in an industry where 1/4 of a cent in increases is big.
Needless to say, this equates to millions of dollars per-year in added revenue without having to change a single business practice. [Read: easy money]
I say that if Viacom wants more money, they should start underwriting movies and television that people want to watch, just like everyone else.
I applaud Dish Network for putting their foot down.
I say: SUPPORT DISH NETWORK, BOYCOTT VIACOM!
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
I've understood that ESPN and cohorts have been charging an arm and a leg for their shite. My understanding is that they've been hiking their rates through the roof. Some may like their stuff but others like me don't watch it but still have to pay a stiff fee for it.
This may be a little off topic but I'd like to hear from someone that knows the facts about this and just whose feed troughs my cable bill is going into.
>"...While I don't agree with the extortion tactics, let's at least be clear on this. Buying legitimate smartcard writers has never been an issue. DirecTV sends the extortion letters to people who have specifically purchased specialty smartcard readers whose design intent is to program DirecTV cards (i.e. Mikobu, etc). You're in no danger of receiving a threat letter if you purchase, say, a SDLogic writer, because it's not designed to work with DirecTV cards (but it can be made to with a flash upgrade...)"
Not true, but DirecTV would like you to believe that.
DirecTV has sent out many of these "extortion" letters to people who have merely purchased Netsignia 210 smartcard programmers because they bought them from a place DirecTV claims marketed the devices to DSS pirates. It's all about money and DirecTV will sue anyone they think they have a chance of winning a case against, or at least make it cheaper to settle than fight.
Additionally, DirecTV is taking a "sue them all and let God sort them out" approach where they do NO investigation prior to the filing of the suit. Only if someone decides to fight it do they take a look if they can find any evidence beyond a busted company's purchase order.
DirecTV Defense
DTVLawsuits
FreedomFight
Lakeshore Law DirecTV FAQ
Overhauser Law Offices
WUMarkus DirecTV Legal Forums
EFF Coordinates Fight Against DirecTV
I had stopped watching Survivor, but this round has drawn me back in.
I have Dish and have two plans - one is to possibly just hook up an antennta and get signal the old-fashioned way!!
The other way (which I'll try first I think) is to hook up the old cable line (currently running my cable modem only) and see what channels I can get off that. Often the local channels and a few other ones are just sitting around for the taking, no box needed (or at least it was that way years ago, I'll see if it's all digital now or what).
In the end I'm probably switching to Voom soon anyway, I wonder what they do? They sure have a cheap monthly rate.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I won't be switching to DirecTV.
Seems to me you are advocating allowing Viacom to use extortion to get what they want. Frankly, I won't miss anything that DISH cut from the plate except the Daily Show on Comedy Central. MTV hasn't had any decent programming since the mid 80's. Since you seem to be a salesman for the competition, perhaps you should add that to your signature.
Have a nice day.
Don't you understand? If DirecTV still has those channels - it means they gave in to Viacom's prices. Don't you want to stay with the carrier that is agressively negotiating pricing? They're saving _you_ money in the long run by not putting up with this BS! This makes Dish Network _more_ attractive to me!