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DirecTV/Viacom Dispute?

433K views 3K replies 511 participants last post by  NewForceFiveFan 
#1 ·
So, I was just flipping through channels and when I stopped on Nick, I happened to see a crawl at the bottom of the screen.

It states:

Attention DirecTV Customers - Call 1-800-531-5000 Now!
Tomorrow Night, DirecTV will drop this and 25 other channels.
You will lose Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, Spike, TV Land and many more. You can stop them! Call now and demand that DirecTV keep these channels on the air. You must be at least 18 years old to call.

This is the first I've heard about any DirecTV/Viacom dispute and haven't seen the crawl on any other Viacom channels. Also, I would assume that the crawl would have started running prior to the night before.

Any one have any information on this?

Dan
 
#2,302 ·
#2,304 ·
Guesst925XTU said:
If we lose the Viacom channels so be it, just don't raise our bill!!! Personally I would think it would be great if we could only pay for the channels we actually watch.
Ultimately that is probably what you'll have - either via smartphone apps or channels on Roku or similar devices. If D* never brings the Viacom channels back, I'm sure a Viacom subscription-based app will appear somewhere shortly thereafter. And if that is successful other media companies might do the same. That is a-la-carte in the 21st century sense. And that could spell big trouble for D* in the long-term.
 
#2,305 ·
"Pepe Sylvia" said:
Meh, up to a point. If you have a only have a minimal stake as part of a 401k, factoring in the increases, you're just taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other.
The way things are right now, anything not involving loss is a good thing. Although losses to a certain point can be good I guess as long as things improve at some point. The lower the value the more your investment which increases every 2 weeks can increase when things recover. I really wish I had bought about $200 worth of SXM stock in 2008 when it plummeted to $.05 a share. It's still not doing gangbusters or anything but it would be a nice sum I'd be sitting on now.
 
#2,312 ·
Alan Gordon said:
I could be wrong, but I suspect that MTV and CMT has probably gotten better ratings with their reality shows than they did with their music.

They have other programming as well...

TV Land has reruns not found on those channels, and that doesn't even account for TV Land's five original scripted programs.

~Alan
TV Land is on the Net as well.
 
#2,313 ·
bones boy said:
Ultimately that is probably what you'll have - either via smartphone apps or channels on Roku or similar devices. If D* never brings the Viacom channels back, I'm sure a Viacom subscription-based app will appear somewhere shortly thereafter. And if that is successful other media companies might do the same. That is a-la-carte in the 21st century sense. And that could spell big trouble for D* in the long-term.
That is really my hope for all of this. Once upon a time, the providers used to be the ONLY way to access content (non-FTA anyways) and they took full advantage of that. Now, with emerging on-line technology, apps, smart-tv's, MS Media, HMCs, Apple TV, etc. they are becoming less powerful and in many cases, stand in the way of that access. To be sure, they are still the most practical method today, but hopefully each one of these battles will drive the content owners a little bit closer to making the big move.
 
#2,315 ·
mitchflorida said:
Time is on DTV's side. They have already been hit with tens of thousands of calls, have given everyone who asks $15 over three months . . they can just chill. It is at $2.30 a month now. Viacom wants $3.00. My guess is split the difference, $2.65, which is still too much .
So instead of giving Viacom $3/month, they're giving $5/month to their customers. Some people got free NFLST, a $200 value, or free Showtime for six months, or both.

D* can't give away the freebies forever. Eventually they'll end up paying more than an average of $3/month to keep their customers. Time is ultimately on Viacom's side.

FYI, "rumor" has it the final price will be $2.85. But no one knows about which channels will go into which packages yet.
 
#2,316 ·
By your reckoning, time is on Viacom's side, but when the next ratings book comes out Viacom will be in pain based on recent articles. Not to mention the amount they are not getting right now in retrans fees, which is somewhere between $20 million and $100 million a month depending on whose numbers you believe.

One has to wonder how long Viacom will choose to take the loss on its channel portfolio.
 
#2,318 ·
Stuart Sweet said:
By your reckoning, time is on Viacom's side, but when the next ratings book comes out Viacom will be in pain based on recent articles. Not to mention the amount they are not getting right now in retrans fees, which is somewhere between $20 million and $100 million a month depending on whose numbers you believe.

One has to wonder how long Viacom will choose to take the loss on its channel portfolio.
Not just that, but sponsors are going to start pulling ads or requiring rebates on their contracts, because their programming is not getting to 20 million households.
 
#2,319 ·
SPACEMAKER said:
Wow. That's a pretty severe hit Advertisers are probably fuming, especially movie studios touting new releases. I hope DIRECTV keeps holding out. I have already found an alternative source to watch Tosh.0 and Workaholics so I am all set.
The problem is, the numbers don't really affect the 'broadcasters' simply because the ad rates, set by the Nielsen, are changed only...

ONCE EVERY SIX MONTHS

That means that no matter what the 'dailies' or any other ratings show, the 'broadcaster' simply gets s 'free ride' on whatever the viewership was, and the ad rates set, for several months no matter WHAT happens (up to and including the earth slipping out of it's orbit swinging into the sun).

That's the upshot, the 'broadcasters' can wait out whoever they're dealing with until the next ratings period. Still collect their bonuses.

So, the re-transmitters (DirecTV, Dish, Cable) need to go into the negotiations with a six-month strategy; tell their customer right up front that this is the way things are set up (the 'broadcasters' continue to rake in the cash 'skating' on their old viewership) and that it will take up to six months to actually put any pressure on them the other direction.

Folks think that things are 'instantaneous' and they aren't. The 'broadcasters' use this fact to their advantage, period.
 
#2,320 ·
1948GG said:
The problem is, the numbers don't really affect the 'broadcasters' simply because the ad rates, set by the Nielsen, are changed only...

ONCE EVERY SIX MONTHS

That means that no matter what the 'dailies' or any other ratings show, the 'broadcaster' simply gets s 'free ride' on whatever the viewership was, and the ad rates set, for several months no matter WHAT happens (up to and including the earth slipping out of it's orbit swinging into the sun).

That's the upshot, the 'broadcasters' can wait out whoever they're dealing with until the next ratings period. Still collect their bonuses.

So, the re-transmitters (DirecTV, Dish, Cable) need to go into the negotiations with a six-month strategy; tell their customer right up front that this is the way things are set up (the 'broadcasters' continue to rake in the cash 'skating' on their old viewership) and that it will take up to six months to actually put any pressure on them the other direction.

Folks think that things are 'instantaneous' and they aren't. The 'broadcasters' use this fact to their advantage, period.
If it becomes protracted, into a six month window, then Viacom becomes anxious. Even a 3 month delay would show in the next set of numbers. Ad rates would be affected, considering that 20 million households would not have access to the programming and commercial ads.

Since Directv has started down this road, they should maintain their stance and make Viacom come back to the table and accept better terms.
 
#2,321 ·
ciurca said:
If any of you who are crying corporate greed owned stock in either company, you would be happy they are protecting your investment return.
But "the wealthy" and "greed" are the latest buzzwords today. That perspective taints many people's entire world view. They are always so critical of the wealthy's obsession with money, and strangely enough they do it with their own obsession with how much money people have and what they should do with it.
 
#2,322 ·
bones boy said:
Ultimately that is probably what you'll have - either via smartphone apps or channels on Roku or similar devices. If D* never brings the Viacom channels back, I'm sure a Viacom subscription-based app will appear somewhere shortly thereafter. And if that is successful other media companies might do the same. That is a-la-carte in the 21st century sense. And that could spell big trouble for D* in the long-term.
For people who live in urban areas and only want one (or maybe two) programs at a time, perhaps, but high speed internet, 3G, and 4G are not going to be able to keep up with the demand of multiple HD streams or penetrate areas with low housing densities. Satellite delivery will be around for a long time.
 
#2,323 ·
bobcamp1 said:
So instead of giving Viacom $3/month, they're giving $5/month to their customers. Some people got free NFLST, a $200 value, or free Showtime for six months, or both.

D* can't give away the freebies forever. Eventually they'll end up paying more than an average of $3/month to keep their customers. Time is ultimately on Viacom's side.

FYI, "rumor" has it the final price will be $2.85. But no one knows about which channels will go into which packages yet.
The difference is that DirecTV is giving $5/month only for three months and only for the people who bother to call and ask for it. Viacom wants $3/month for all 20,000,000 DirecTV customers for 5 years.

I know $3 x 60 is a lot more than $5 x 3, and I suspect that very few customers actually call to ask for the discount.
 
#2,324 ·
1948GG said:
The problem is, the numbers don't really affect the 'broadcasters' simply because the ad rates, set by the Nielsen, are changed only...

ONCE EVERY SIX MONTHS

That means that no matter what the 'dailies' or any other ratings show, the 'broadcaster' simply gets s 'free ride' on whatever the viewership was, and the ad rates set, for several months no matter WHAT happens (up to and including the earth slipping out of it's orbit swinging into the sun).

That's the upshot, the 'broadcasters' can wait out whoever they're dealing with until the next ratings period. Still collect their bonuses.

So, the re-transmitters (DirecTV, Dish, Cable) need to go into the negotiations with a six-month strategy; tell their customer right up front that this is the way things are set up (the 'broadcasters' continue to rake in the cash 'skating' on their old viewership) and that it will take up to six months to actually put any pressure on them the other direction.

Folks think that things are 'instantaneous' and they aren't. The 'broadcasters' use this fact to their advantage, period.
You are acting like you know what you are talking about, and you don't. When Viacom doesn't deliver the amount of households promised, they have to use advertising slots for "make goods", to make up for the lower viewership. Instead of using the slots for new money, they are using them to compensate the old advertsiers.
 
#2,325 ·
fleckrj said:
For people who live in urban areas and only want one (or maybe two) programs at a time, perhaps, but high speed internet, 3G, and 4G are not going to be able to keep up with the demand of multiple HD streams or penetrate areas with low housing densities. Satellite delivery will be around for a long time.
True, but the majority of handsets each come with their own 3/4G access (even though you can tether - most people do not bother).

And I know for a fact that Verizon Wireless had a long term plan when they rolled out 4g (hence they put a fiber backhaul where AT&T put copper backhaul from the towers - AT&T are running bonded T1's in our area for their 4G LTE). They got caught on the hop when people dropped land lines in favor of cell phones - they missed a lot of opportunity and marketing there. So this time around they have planned their 4G to be in speeds of 200M+ by the end of 2015 (it could be 2016 my memory is not so good). They are targeting DSL and cable internet users.

Remember a decent HD (current HD) stream needs about 3M to view. I get close to 30M on my Verizon 4G phones and tablets, so I could easily stream enough to view all on my household.

No one should predict what can't be done in 3 to 5 years (ask Facebook, Apple etc.), because you will be very disappointed. And I am sure Directv is monitoring all this internet speeds and distribution carefully.
 
#2,326 ·
Santi360HD said:
I think this is good, because it's a plus for consumers, but I'm boggled how anyone feels this is a win for DirecTV, or in fact why they slammed Viacom for doing so in the first place.

DirecTV crowing (e.g. here: , here: , directvpromise.com, etc.) about the online return and saying we'll watch you tomorrow on Hulu is silly. Doubly so since they have publicly castigated Viacom for even offering their programs online to begin with, saying it "devalues" their product.

So if Viacom posts the content online, they're cheating DirecTV, and if they remove it they're jerks who should be slammed?

Dumb all around. I'm not fan of Viacom, but I don't pay Viacom (directly). I pay DirecTV, which is why main beef is with them.

If these stupid channel blackouts become the normal negotiating tactic for DirecTV, and other providers, as predicted by some, my prediction is that more and more customers will say, 'Why bother?,' save their money and find their entertainment elsewhere.

Seriously I've called the tactics childish before, but it honestly feels like that's insulting to most children, who handle themselves better, and with more concern for those their actions effect, than these mega-corps.
 
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