Viacom Channels Risk DirecTV Blackout at Midnight Tuesday .

WSJ.com ^ | July 10, 2012 | William Launder

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Viacom Inc. (VIA, VIAB) channels could go dark for DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) subscribers at midnight in one of the more-significant recent standoffs over television carriage fees.

The pending blackout further highlighted mounting pressure on Viacom, which has seen its ratings fall off in recent months for top shows like Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's "Jersey Shore."

Viacom class A shares fell 2% Tuesday to $49.98, while DirecTV shares slid 0.5% to $48.77.

Viacom is seeking an increase of 30%, or more than $1 billion, in carriage fees, DirecTV said in a statement on its website Tuesday. The country's second-largest pay-television operator, reaching about 20 million households in the U.S., said it is still "working diligently on a new agreement" to keep Viacom channels available for its subscribers.

[jeffc]

I read up on some of this (I have direcTV). Looks like direcTV wants to keep paying the same seven year old rate, when all the other carriers are paying more. They characterize it as Viacom wanting to raise the subscriber's rates 30%. Sorry, direcTV. If my rates get raised, it will be direcTV's fault - they're the ones I pay, not viacom.

My kids will miss Nick stuff, but I don't watch much stuff anyway; some ION, NHLN, ID, etc. I emailed directv and told them if they drop viacom, I'd better see a rate decrease or they're history.

[I am Richard Brandon]

I like DirecTV BUT I resent having to pay for all the channels that I do not want to watch in order to get the 10 - 12 that I do want to watch The business model of the 'cable' industry SUCKS!

[Ol' Sox]

Viacom dios!

I always wanted to do that...

[Voltage]

I wish channels were offered al a carte. I would only pay for a few dozen, rather than 100. If there were enough like met the lefty channels would file for bankruptcy.

[oh8eleven]

It’s funny, there was more to watch when I only got 3 channels.
I remember when cable TV started spreading across the country and saying to myself - I'll NEVER pay for TV. LOL ...
The only redeeming value of Ted Turner's sorry, left wing, commie-loving, whacko life is TCM.

[nascarnation]

there was more to watch when I only got 3 channels.

You guys must not watch sports or biz channels on cable.

[StAnDeliver]

"There is an episode of the original Star Trek where Mr. Spock reveals that the medium known as television “did not survive much beyond the start of the 21st. Century”.

Phasers on stuned!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Direct and Viacom are still running notices that it’s not a done deal. Viacom’s notice has it at 25 channels.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It's almost funny now now with both Direct TV and Viacom running dueling crawlers on the subject stations. The messages blame each other.

[Fledermaus]

And why is this bad? Who watches these bad channels?

[Fledermaus]

You can watch the vast majority of those programs online.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

DirectTV now shows something called a mix channel on all of those former Viacom stations.