The Verge - Viacom and DirecTV: how a royalty dispute resulted in 26 channels going off-air

Viacom will receive over $600 million annually as part of new DirecTV deal, says Bloomberg

2012-07-20T15:22:30Z

Earlier today Viacom and DirecTV announced a new long-term agreement that would bring all 26 Viacom channels back to the satellite network, but at the time terms of the agreement weren't made clear. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Viacom will receive more than $600 million annually as part of the arrangement, which is said to be a seven-year-long deal. Citing "a person with direct knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg says that the $600 million number is an increase of at least 20 percent from the previous agreement between the two companies. DirecTV had previously claimed that Viacom was attempting to increase its fees by 30 percent.

Viacom originally pulled channels including MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon over a week ago, due to...

MTV, Comedy Central and 24 other channels return as DirecTV and Viacom settle dispute

2012-07-20T10:27:53Z

Viacom and DirecTV have reached a long-term agreement to bring all 26 Viacom Networks channels back to the satellite network. DirecTV Subscribers have been without Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and others for over a week after the two companies disagreed on contract renewal terms. DirecTV claimed that Viacom was attempting to increase its carriage fees by 30 percent, and refused to pay the higher price.

The exact terms of the agreement aren't clear at present. In a press release, Viacom said:

"Viacom is extremely pleased to bring its programming back to DirecTV subscribers, and thanks everyone affected by the disrupting for their patience and understanding during this challenging period."

Update: DirecTV has replied, revealing a...

DirecTV CEO: Viacom should give 'the choice to pay for only those channels you watch'

2012-07-14T22:33:01Z

The scuffle between DirecTV and Viacom to negotiate a new contract continued today with a new ad featuring the satellite provider's CEO Mike White addressing customers and (naturally) placing the blame on the media conglomerate for "the regrettable tactic" of deciding to "take their channels away from our customers." None of that is new — not to this dispute and not to these ever more frequent contract renegotiation battles — but White continues in the ad to say that "At the very least, we think Viacom should be willing to give your family the choice to pay for only those channels you watch." At first blush that certainly sounds a lot like DirecTV is interested in offering channels à la carte — a very appealing option for...

Viacom pulls 'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report,' and other shows offline in wake of DirecTV dispute

2012-07-12T00:38:27Z

Viacom pulled 26 of its channels from DirecTV today as a result of failed contract renegotiations between the two companies. As noted by the Washington Post, Viacom has now turned off one of the few fallbacks for DirecTV customers, putting a halt on the streaming of full-length episodes from several of its websites. MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and several others have removed episodes from their sites — trying to watch an episode of The Daily Show returns the above notice that they are no longer available — and instead visitors are treated to an ad prompting viewers to call DirecTV and complain about the outage.

With no easy way to determine just which internet users are DirecTV subscribers or not, Viacom has yanked online...

DirecTV loses 26 Viacom channels after contract dispute

2012-07-11T04:49:57Z

DirecTV and Viacom played chicken, and the customer lost: Viacom just pulled the plug on as many as 26 DirecTV channels, including MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, VH1, and Nickelodeon. As usual, the loss of service is the direct result of a contract renewal dispute. DirecTV claimed that Viacom was seeking an additional 30 percent increase in royalties from DirecTV to renew its subscriptions, estimated at an additional $1 billion outlay in total, and apparently DirecTV wasn't willing to pay up nor Viacom willing to budge in time to avoid a blackout.

As usual, both parties have public relation campaigns in place to ensure that customers blame the other company for the loss of service. DirecTV has a web campaign, "DirectTV Promise," which calls...

DirecTV to lose MTV, Comedy Central, and 24 other Viacom channels tomorrow due to contract disputes

2012-07-10T12:30:23Z

Viacom is apparently using a strong tactic in its contract negotiations with DirecTV — the TV provider now says that it will lose access to a total of 26 Viacom channels (including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and more) as of July 10th if a deal isn't reached. For its part, DirecTV says that it has urged Viacom to keep the channels available to customers while they work out negotiations, but the provider claims that Viacom sent a letter yesterday stating its intention to remove these channels unless DirecTV pays an additional 30 percent (or a claimed one billion dollars) over what it currently pays. Viacom, of course, is painting DirecTV as the bad guy — in a video spot, the network conglomerate claims that "DirecTV is getting...