DirecTV & Viacom

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Looks like DirecTV and Viacom are the latest to have a carriage dispute and networks like CMT, TV Land, Spike, all of the Nick channels, etc. were pulled last night.

Considering that CMT shows Extreme Makeover Home Edition and movies like Christmas Vacation more than they do music videos and that TV Land airs more original programming and primetime shows from the 90’s more than they do classic shows and we won’t even talk about MTV or how Viacom destroyed VH-1 Classic, as a DirecTV subscsriber, these channels going dark are no big loss to me.
 
I saw the notices last night as we watched … nothing important. There’s never anything on TV anyway, I’m thinking of just unsubscribing to DirecTV since it’s a big bill every month for nothing.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
I saw the notices last night as we watched … nothing important. There’s never anything on TV anyway, I’m thinking of just unsubscribing to DirecTV since it’s a big bill every month for nothing.
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Yeah, I hardly watch TV anymore (how many reruns of the various CSI and Law & Order series spread acrossed what seems like a dozen channels can a person tolerate?) and my interest level in sports has not been the same snce the Sandusky news broke last fall.

If not for having my son every 2 weeks, the thought has crossed my mind of dropping DirecTV (have already dropped down a programming package and cancelled the sports pack) and going with HSI through the local cable provider who has ESPN3, I currenly have a pathetic 1.5 down DSL from CenturyLink. With all of the digital subchannels, I can get about 20 local stations via rabbit ears and 2 of the subchannels that unlike TV Land, actually airs classic TV shows.
 
I never watch those channels anyway. I would miss TCM and TNT though, but I agree that during the summer at least there are way too many repeats on the other cable channels. Thankfully, neither of us likes sports so as far as I’m concerned ESPN doesn’t need to be there either, unless you don’t have to pay for it

I do like the DVR though, although the HD one isn’t as good as TIVO. I can then even record religious programs on EWTN that I may like and watch later, as well as some of the old classic movies that can appear at odd times.

With the Summer Olympics coming though, most of the others believe that everyone’s watching them and the programming will get much worse.

I don’t subscribe though to any of the movie channels, hear that HBO is pretty bad, but if they are kicking Nickilodeon off I bet the kids will miss that. I think we should have a choice on some of the channels, mainly MTV,infomercial ones, and the ones that carry the horrible so called “reality shows”. I have blocked most of them but new ones always seem to creep up.
 
I wonder why the cable companies don’t just go to a common carrier mode. They would have a fixed charge for their service and an additional fee for each channel one wanted.

I wonder if this packaging of channels violates some monopoly law.

Just my thoughts. I haven’t watched anything in several years. My last link went when Grissom left CSI.
 
I’m expecting that channel that you can’t turn off any day now…

:eek:
 
utah_rose said:
I never watch those channels anyway. I would miss TCM and TNT though, but I agree that during the summer at least there are way too many repeats on the other cable channels. Thankfully, neither of us likes sports so as far as I’m concerned ESPN doesn’t need to be there either, unless you don’t have to pay for it

I do like the DVR though, although the HD one isn’t as good as TIVO. I can then even record religious programs on EWTN that I may like and watch later, as well as some of the old classic movies that can appear at odd times.

**With the Summer Olympics coming though, most of the others believe that everyone’s watching them and the programming will get much worse. **

I don’t subscribe though to any of the movie channels, hear that HBO is pretty bad, but if they are kicking Nickilodeon off I bet the kids will miss that. I think we should have a choice on some of the channels, mainly MTV,infomercial ones, and the ones that carry the horrible so called “reality shows”. I have blocked most of them but new ones always seem to creep up.
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Great point with the Olympics coming up. If this dispute drags on, which I don’t think it will, but if it does, people will quickly soon forget about the Viacom channels on DirecTV as viewers will flock to NBC and all of their cable networks for the Olympics.
 
Longer this drags on, the Viacom channels will become a distant memory will become a distant memory for DirecTV subscribers. You want a classic TV shows? There’s ME-TV, Retro TV, and the Attenna channel. You want kids programming? There’s Disney, Hub, Sprout, Disney XD and Disney Jr. You want country music programming? Unlike CMT, GAC is country 24-7. Cann’t get your NCIS fix on Spike? It’s on every other cable channel.

nytimes.com/2012/07/19/business/media/dispute-with-directv-aids-viacoms-rivals-in-childrens-programming.html?_r=1
“The first two days were rough on my toddler,” Mary Pedone Howard wrote on the Facebook wall for Viacom, where hundreds have posted angry rants against the company (and against DirecTV). Now, though, when it is TV time, she said her daughter asks for the Disney Channel instead. “Leave it to a 3-year-old to show mom that adaptation is a great thing,”
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In the first six months of the year, the Disney Channel had about 1.64 million viewers at any given time. In the first five days of the DirecTV blackout of Viacom programming, it had about 2.27 million viewers.
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Smaller channels for children have seen sharp gains, as well. The Hub, a relatively small player in the space co-owned by Discovery Communications and Hasbro, had about 88,000 viewers at any given time earlier this year, and about 159,000 viewers since the blackout took effect. Sprout had about 153,000 viewers before the blackout, and about 264,000 since.
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I don’t watch most of those channels but I pay a pretty large bill every month and those are part of the package. I called DirecTV and asked them what kind of credit they are offering for the channels that aren’t being shown. They gave me $10/mo. off my bill for a year, $5 off for a year after that, and 3 mos. of Showtime. (I won’t watch the Showtime anyway, but it’s the principle that matters to me.)

Even with that offer I am still considering changing to cable. I can save a lot if I bundle my internet and TV.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
I don’t watch most of those channels but I pay a pretty large bill every month and those are part of the package. I called DirecTV and asked them what kind of credit they are offering for the channels that aren’t being shown. They gave me $10/mo. off my bill for a year, $5 off for a year after that, and 3 mos. of Showtime. (I won’t watch the Showtime anyway, but it’s the principle that matters to me.)

Even with that offer I am still considering changing to cable. I can save a lot if I bundle my internet and TV.
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Impressive. I’ve known from posting on DBS Talk that the CSR’s at DirecTV are good at giving discounts for the sports packages (Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, etc.).
 
garn9173 said:
Impressive. I’ve known from posting on DBS Talk that the CSR’s at DirecTV are good at giving discounts for the sports packages (Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, etc.).
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Well, the only sport watched in this house is soccer, so ESPN and ESPN 2 are critical to our lives. :rolleyes: That’s why we switched to DirecTV in the first place, so we could get the Premier League and World Cup games. If I can re-negotiate to get another channel that carries European football, that would actually be better than Showtime (which I don’t watch).
 
We got Hulu Plus and Netflix. We had Dish network for years I mean before satellite was cool, I was in the Signal Corps I installed it myself and did upgrades for years. Then I looked at what we were paying!!! It was over a hundred dollars a month and we only watched a few stations.

With Hulu Plus and Netflix we watch what we want to watch, when we want to watch it; also have an antenna for local networks. We save a lot of money doing this. I’ll never subscribe to a TV cable/satellite service again. Since I don’t pay for that expensive TV services anymore I now subscribe to Sirius/XM satellite radio which I love.

The reason cable is buried—because it’s dead. 😛
 
Cavman said:
We got Hulu Plus and Netflix. We had Dish network for years I mean before satellite was cool, I was in the Signal Corps I installed it myself and did upgrades for years. Then I looked at what we were paying!!! It was over a hundred dollars a month and we only watched a few stations.

With Hulu Plus and Netflix we watch what we want to watch, when we want to watch it; also have an antenna for local networks. We save a lot of money doing this. I’ll never subscribe to a TV cable/satellite service again. Since I don’t pay for that expensive TV services anymore I now subscribe to Sirius/XM satellite radio which I love.

The reason cable is buried—because it’s dead. 😛
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🙂 Ha ha on the cable…

I looked at the channels they gave me for 3 mos…One of the movies showing was “Brokeback Mountain.” 😛 YUCK. The rest of them were useless too.

My problem is that hubby wants to see European soccer. 🤷
 
We also have Netflix and Amazon streaming, and there’s a lot to pick up from there. Only problem is is sometimes if we have a wind storm or something our internet tends to be sporadic,

We don’t get any of the movie channels either, and I’m with you about the selection they offer. We do have Direct TV but fortunately my husband’s not a sports fan and the comedy channel is the only one we watch occasionally.

There’s so many DVD’s out now (and some pretty cheap) we find we’re watching more and more of these. Not much on the summer anyway.
 
garn9173 said:
Longer this drags on, the Viacom channels will become a distant memory will become a distant memory for DirecTV subscribers. You want a classic TV shows? There’s ME-TV, Retro TV, and the Attenna channel. You want kids programming? There’s Disney, Hub, Sprout, Disney XD and Disney Jr. You want country music programming? Unlike CMT, GAC is country 24-7. Cann’t get your NCIS fix on Spike? It’s on every other cable channel.

nytimes.com/2012/07/19/business/media/dispute-with-directv-aids-viacoms-rivals-in-childrens-programming.html?_r=1
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NCIS doesn’t air on Spike, you’re thinking of CSI
 
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