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Dish Network & Viacom Settle Their Differences
weshart writes "I haven't yet seen anyone mention the fact that CBS and other Viacom channels are back on DishNetwork. They've been unavailable for the past day and a half, as was reported earlier. No word on the details of the agreement; and the DishNetwork announcement doesn't say anything about whether or not they'll be raising their rates."
I'm a Dish Network customer, and while I'm disappointed that I could lose Comedy Central, I know where to place my anger. Dish Network seems to be the only provider that goes to any effort at all to keep rates down. Viacom is trying to frustrate that goal by forcing Echostar to add yet another damn channel (Nicktoons) and raise provider rates on channels that are already one-third (or more, counting overnight "paid programming") commercials. Those costs don't get paid by cable/satellite providers - they're paid by customers who get the costs passed on to them.
Great.
So who lost?. Us. We, the consumers, lost. i really do not like this new ease at which the people are pushed aside and ignored so easily. It's really discouraging. The bickering spilled over into ugly text on the screens and then black bars over the ugly text. Who lost? Us. We lost. How many people are *actually* going to switch services? Not many.
No? Oh yes my friend, very few will. Why? Because of the hit they will take from "ducking out early" on the contract or a hit on credit for giving the old providers the finger. Not many people are willing to pay off the rest of their contract *and* start paying a new one just to switch service over this.
Lesson to the providers? We can do whatever the fuck we want (just don't piss off the FCC)...the consumers are too locked in and/or lazy to raise hell on us.
Sad. Very, very sad.
>> The cash credits will cost the company at least $15 million, and allowing for the fact that some of the coupons will be unused the PPV movie offer should cost the company about $10-15 million. Ironic, because $25-30 million is about the total price increase Viacom was seeking.
I wouldn't consider all of the used PPV movies as a "cost" to the company either. I have NEVER bought a pay-per-view movie from any cable or satellite provider, ever. However, I received a free PPV movie in my last bill, and I'll get another free movie next month. Since they are free, I'll probably use them.
This doesn't cost Dish Network anything, since it costs them nothing to provide the service and they are not losing out on money I would have otherwise paid them.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Just going through the pain of 2 days without Comedy Central and CBS have left a sour taste in my mouth. I was seriously considering upgrading my dish setup to include the new 921 DVR, but I'm upset with both Charlie and Viacom. Viacom doesn't directly get my money, but Charlie does... I ain't paying him $900 for a piece of hardware.
I was 1/2 tempted to pull the trigger on VOOM, but they don't carryTechTV, nor offer a PVR device.
Instead of watching Letterman the other night, I started reconsidering my options... Comcast does not yet have HDTV cable in my area. I have 4 TVs (1 HD and 4 standard), and I absolutely require the crack that is TechTV _and_ a PVR now that I've sampled the both of them. What's a geek to do? I currently use a HTPC to pull in local channels over the air, but CBS only comes in at around 50% signal strength (WBBM in Chicago Fiasco.) It would be great to get DVR, HD/Standard Def, and program guide integration so I have a wife-proof solution. Anyone else go through these pains?
DirecTV seems like an option, especially if I pick up the DirecTiVO with DVD recorder, and maybe tack up an HD reciever... but that sounds like it will cost me a bit of coin as well.
I don't have Dish Network, I have basic cable, and I got all these messages scrolling along the bottom of the screen urging me to call Dish networks to harrass them about some I don't give a flying #%$#$^^&&*! about, and distracting me from my TV watching for days. Just made me change channels, not what they wanted I'm sure, or had any way of tracking.
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
That money is going towards the customers now, not Viacom... I imagine that's either a short insult to Viacom or Dish's way out of any possible lawsuits that could occur. Either way, kudo's to Dish and wow gee, now I get to see repeats of CSI and South Park.
Maybe it's time for a provider to try something new. Sure have the basic-plus-premium packages, but also offer total ala carte programming; just pick the specific channels you want. Maybe offer a /. package: sci-fi, techtv. plyby....what else does a /.'er need? Obviously the content rpvoders such as Viacom want to cram all their other useless channels down your throat, but it would be a interesting idea. Just watch hbo, cbs, fox, and espn , just pay for those channels.
The sat/cable providers talk about channels costing the consumer "pennies per day", but what is the real cost? How many channels does the consumer really watch and for how long a period. I wouldn't be surprised if it really cost the consumer $10 an episode to just watch Trippin the Rift, given all the other programming they are paying for an not watching. Bah
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Here we have government mandated channels that nobody wants. In order to carry the costs, they are bundled with other channels.
I'm sure the same is true in many other places.
There was a time that I wanted the sci-fi channel, but my local cableco wouldn't carry it. It took alot of navigation through their staff to get an honest answer, but it was basicly due to the fact that they them selves couldn't just buy one channel off the link, but they had to get also get a package which included things like bravo. It took a year or so of people like my self sending letters to the cable company basicly saying, "look, we are willing to pay extra for these channels you don't carry, what's the problem". It was the digital age after all, all we need do is phone up a special phone number and poof, we got the channels we've been asking for.
I see this as being a very much diffrent case. Sci-Fi may not be worth extra bucks, but Bravo and IFC on the other hand are worth extra bucks. This is also a diffrent case because we the consumer made it clear we were willing to pay for something extra.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
No? Oh yes my friend, very few will.
Unfortunately there were enough people switching in the span of a day to warrant news articles across the country (check Google News yesterday for 'Viacom Dish Network') stating that cable companies are/were getting an influx of cable orders from people jumping off Dish. In some cases, these people will have to wait up to a week for cable service because of the demand.
I'm sure most of these 'jumpers' did not break their contract because it wouldn't be worth it. Rather, their contract was up already and they needed their Nickelodeon for little Timmy (age 3-4) because he won't go to bed until he watches his Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer. One day was too much to take after his screaming fit (or they wanted to prevent that fit if possible).
Sadly, now they're just stuck in the position of paying more for cable because they're probably too proud (or frightened) to go back to Dish. I feel even more pity for the few fools who jumped into a DirecTV contract within that 36 hours' time.
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Just like everyone has his or her own corner of the Internet, is everyone trying to get his or her own little entertainment channel going? And are they expecting to be able to use the cable/dish companies to reach into the consumers' pocketbooks and siphon out money?
The cable and dish companies have monthly price points at which they market their offerings. They know that Grandpa Joe Innercity is just fine with local analog basic service for $11.99. Bob and Mary Suburban are willing to pay $44.99 to get ESPN and the Home and Garden Network in the standard package. Tom and Bridget Twohourcommuters will pay $79.00 to get movies. And of course, there is always a market for pr0n and sp0rts, for which some people will pay extra.
If every channel is demanding $1.00-$2.00 to get into the standard analog package and the provider needs to make money, then consumers are looking at $200 per month, which is an oppressive burden on the median income.
In Minneapolis/St. Paul, Victory Sports is the sole carrier of Minnesota Twins Major League baseball. None of the cable companies have even stepped to the bargaining table, as the $2.30 per month demanded by the channel is too high a price.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/465/4316582.htm l
Victory Sports and Viacom are both taking the stand that consumers are going to scream for these channels on their service. The cable/dish companies are going to rightly state that it will cost...A LOT. Then we will see where the screaming goes. In the meantime, to watch CSI Miami on CBS, I get 39 minutes of show and 21 minutes of commercials. The credits even get squashed as they roll by during the local news lead-in.
Have you Meta Moderated t
Actually, the very, very, very odd thing is that UPN pulled new enterprise shows until April 21st... UPN is owned by parent company Paramount, owned by Viacomm... I find it odd that a lot of Viacomm owned shows seem to have gone on hold until mid April... I'm sure it was just coincidence that all new shows stopped just around the time they expected Dish network to pull their channels... hmmm... where's my tinfoil hat?
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Dish Network does nothing but distribute the contents. They are sort of the middlemen. Usually, in capitalism, the middlemen make a lot of money for little value addition.
However, in this case, the middlemen is getting squeezed from both sides. So what should Dish Network have done? Well they have 2 options
I am suprised that Dish Network did neither
Jobless Jim Renounces Linx
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
It happens every year. They save the final few episodes for late-April/May when the season ends, so they'll get the highest ratings during the May sweeps period. Most networks do it.
I agree: MTV is evil.
... then I would find the rate increase very troublesome for its anti-competitive implications. This is why some of us are concerned about cross-ownership and media integration (i.e. content providers owned by same company as content distributors)
But I also disagree: why is it necessarily disagreeable for Viacom to be able to raise their rates arbitrarily?
The problem would be if Viacom had decided to raise their rates for one cable TV provider and not others (providing service in the same geographic area). For example, if Viacom decides to play nice with the local cable TV company (Time Warner, Cox, etc) but not the Echostar (Dish)
However, if Viacom decides to raise their rates unilaterally for all cable TV providers in that market, what is the problem? This is the same as any other product. The cost that the firm must face for raising its price is reduced sales. Arbitrary price increases are a problem only if you have no choice but to buy the product (e.g. diabetic and insulin)
Viacom has the right to raise its rate. Similarly, Echostar (Dish) has the right to refuse to carry the Viacom programming on basic service. And, similarly, consumers have the right to refuse to subscribe to cable TV at the higher retail rates.
This is how supply and demand works in a market.
I don't think anyone in their right mind thought that Dish could win this, anyhow. The timing couldn't have been worse, with the NCAA tournament and all. As much as I hate their guts, there was no way Viacom was gonna blink first.
Mind you, I've not been unhappy with Dish over the four (IIRC) years we've had them: they beat the wireless cable we had before, hands down. However, I do think they sometimes try to pull the wool over their customers' eyes. Of course, that seems to be S.O.P. for all media companies these days, and none of it excuses Viacom from what they did.
From the Dish Network statement:
One of the things I figured out over the last two days is that they actually use creative tactics to be able to claim lower prices than DirecTV. Take the Dish 120 channel package versus the DirecTV 125 channel package, for instance: $34.99 vs. 36.99, respectively, BUT (and this is a big "but") to get local channels you have to pay Dish $5.99 a month more. DirecTV includes those channels for just $3. Add that up, and suddenly Dish costs just one cent less for five fewer channels. I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping us with Dish right now is that DirecTV doesn't carry our locals yet.
For those complaining about this spat between Viacom and Dish Network know this, I got my bill from Comcast and it was increased by $3.
What do I get for that extra $3? Nothing that I can see. No new channels, no better reception and still the theft of 15 minutes of service every hour on CNN Headline News (they put their own crappy program on for the last 7.5 minutes or so at the bottom and top of every hour).
At least you folks have satellite. Being in an apartment limits me to one choice.