I really believe that some people just want to "hate" anyone who has achieved more in life than they have and are simply jealous with an illogical passion. Therefore no matter what Charlie does for us these hateful people will always find some excuse to accuse Charlie and others like him that he is an evil person. While I don't feel Charlie is perfect I do think he tries to do the proper thing to maintain a certain image. I also admire his approach to going on TV each month and explaining the Dish position even though he often get's caught showing off his own ignorance of what's going on in his company to the delight of those who hate everything about him, giving them fuel for their arguments.
In the aftermath of the blackout-
My favorite quote from Charlie during a caller question on Charlie Chat special edition was when asked- "Since Viacom says in it's public ads that all it wants is just the equivalent of 6 cents per subscriber increase why do you think that is an outrageous increase? Why is your 40% you keep saying so much higher than the 6 cents they claim is all they'er claiming?"
Charlie's answer was classic- " Well 6 cents is NOT what they have in their contract but if that is what they want, let them put that in the contract and I'll sign it right now. We'll even add those channels I don't believe are worth adding. We invited the COO of Viacom to come on this show and explain his ads and why Viacom says something different but he refused to accept our offer to explain why the contract is different than his advertising. You do the math, Based on 9.3 million subs, the 200 + 350 million increase for the CBS and MTV networks equates to about $5.00 - $6.00 increase per subscriber, not 6 cents as reported in those ads. Again, if they put their 6 cents in the contract, I'll sign it right now as that is a fair increase. I have to hold on what is in the contract, not what was in those ads." { I did my own math and have to agree with Charlie $550Mper yr/9.3subs/ 12Months/yr = $4.92 per sub. } Later when asked in a press conference how it all came about, among other reasons, Charlie said "there was a difference of the amount of the increase which got quickly resolved late Tuesday, ( I believe it was about 2 hours after Charlie's statement that IF Viacom puts the 6 cents in the contract they claimed in their ad campaign he will sign it and agree to put the additional channels up as well) Then Charlie said "it took about 46 hours for the lawyers to make the agreed changes to the contract to get it ready for signing. And that is how it took 48 hours to have a signed agreement but really the terms were agreed upon Late Tuesday night in about 2 hours."
I really believe that it was Charlie's put up or shut up and put it in the contract what you are telling the public that was the turning point of the Viacom deal.
Bottom line for me is that Viacom tried to pull a fast one spinning public opinion in their ads while having something totally different in the contract. Kudos to Charlie for getting the truth out on what I believe was a Viacom scam trick.
While Charlie may not be the most liked person he was open and public as well as he could be in this ordeal. Viacom remained secretive and deceptive in their attempt to pull a fast one that failed. Is it really a loss to have a few more parts of a sat transponder tied up with what Charlie believes is a wasted channel of one more cartoon? I don't agree with Charlie on this and it's importance factor. I believe Charlie was using the additional channels as a tool of negotiating. Anyone who has ever negotiated a deal understands the importance of having these tools, something you can give up to get what you really want. What Charlie really wanted was the low price and was willing all along to give up the refusal to carry those channels.
I also believe that Charlie was hoping for a deal with the increase to be in the 30 cents (just a guess on my part) as a fair increase but with the ads claiming 6 cents, he was quite surprised and just offered to quickly agree to that IF Viacom put their contract where their advertising mouth was.
If truth were known, I would not be surprised if those ads claiming 6 cents were really meant to be 60 cents and the ad people just made their own math error. With Viacom caught in a huge public ad display, they had to suck it up and agree to what they said in front of the entire nation. How would it appear if they tried to claim the ad campaign was a typo? Probably about as ridiculous as their claim that the Janet Jackson nipple exposure was an accident?
Believe in Charlie or Viacom that is the question? In this case, I side with Charlie.