Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Viacom Warns Dish Customers May Lose Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central And More Following Carriage Dispute

Viacom Inc. has said its discussions with satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. to renew carriage of its TV channels have broken down, and its programming will likely go dark for Dish customers on Wednesday 20th April 2016 if the two companies can't agree to new terms for carriage.

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Viacom's carriage deal with Dish Network is scheduled to expire on Wednesday 20th April 2016 and no agreement is in sight, a Viacom spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

Viacom is also warning Dish consumers via a on-screen graphic visible at the bottom of the screen when watching Viacom's channels.

The media company, owner of networks such as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and TV Land, accused Dish of making unreasonable demands, despite its offer of a best-in-class deal on rates and terms for carriage of its networks.

In the statement issued to the press on Tuesday, Viacom said:

"We are extremely disappointed that Dish has not engaged in a serious way to reach an agreement for Viacom's No. 1 family of cable networks."

"This is par for the course for Dish, which has deliberately derailed 10 renewal negotiations since last year by engaging in unproductive discussions and contentious public battles."

"In addition to depriving our fans of our networks and programming, Dish is further undermining their fundamentally disadvantaged business by driving their subscribers to switch to another provider."

Dish's agreement with Viacom had been set to expire two months ago, though the parties agreed to an extension, which expires Wednesday night.

Negotiations with Dish are the first test for Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman, an attorney who is known for his negotiation prowess, since he became executive chair of the company earlier this year.

Dauman previously said negotiations were extended and he expected to reach an agreement with Dish next quarter.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo! News, MarketWatch, Reuters.
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