As of midnight tonight, DirecTV customers will lose access to 26 Viacom channels including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and more, unless DirecTV and Viacom can negotiate an agreement. Each side is trying to paint the other as the bad guy on their Facebook pages (links below). If you go to any of the sites of the channels that are controlled by Viacom an ad will pop up shouting that DirecTV is taking away the channel from the consumer. DirecTV says this isn’t so, that Viacom wants too much money and isn’t willing to negotiate in good faith. A couple of weeks ago, Dish customers lost access to AMC in another dispute. As usual the dispute is about money and what the content is worth. DirecTV is complaining that Viacom wants consumers to pay 30% more on channels they already receive, while Viacom counters with the argument that the increase is equal to only pennies a day per consumer.
These types of disputes seem to be popping up almost monthly. Meanwhile the consumers are stuck in the middle again, just wishing they could keep watching their favorite shows. Now they will have to find these shows online either through legal sites such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, which means waiting till they are available or illegally thru a site like Pirate Bay. If this trend continues cord cutting may become more popular. So the very thing that they are against is the thing that they are pushing the consumer toward.
- DirectTV-Facebook Page
- Viacom-Facebook Page
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