Viacom Demands Huge Hikes From Hundreds of Cable Companies

[Mr Tony]

I saw that the local podunk cable company where my uncle lives is dropping Viacom at the end of the month. (thank god he has Directv)

also noticed that they have 3 more contracts coming up this year.

Runestone Telecom Assn. has announced that channels provided by Viacom will be removed from the Runestone cable television system. These channels, which include TV Land, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, CMT, Spike, Comedy Central, NickJr, Nicktoons, CMT Pure Country and VH1 Classic, will be removed at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 30th. During recent contract negotiations, Viacom demanded rate increases beyond what Runestone considered reasonable to pass on to subscribers. There will be no refund or reduction in rates as other cable channels have also raised their rates offsetting the savings from the removal of the Viacom content.
There are several ways to continue watching many of your favorite Viacom programs. You can purchase Dish Network (available from Runestone except in the Herman area) or DIRECTV satellite service. Shows can also be seen on the websites for Viacom's individual channels. For example, you can go to www.cc.com to watch Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" or "The Colbert Report" free of charge. Many are also available on subscription services such as Amazon Prime or hulu.com.
It is not easy to remove channels or raise rates. In this case, Runestone determined it was a better decision to remove the Viacom channels. There are three more major programming contracts to negotiate this year including: ESPN-Disney (expires 7-3-14), Scripts Network (includes Food Network and HGTV, expires 9-30-14), and Discovery Networks (expires 12-31-14).

What's interesting is about a year ago they (Runestone) became a Dish retailer....so its easier for them to drop channels off cable and then try and sign them up on Dish. They dropped USA and ScyFy late last year.

They still are one of the worst cable companies I've seen. They have a whole 7 (yes SEVEN) HD channels. The Big 4, PBS, ESPN and FSN

 

[osu1991]

Cableone still holding out.

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/sm...r-franchise-fees-charter-cable-one/2014-04-16

I suppose it is Viacom propaganda claiming small cities could be hurt if everyone cancels cable because they do not have Viacom channels... (i.e. no cable franchise fees).

Like anyone in small towns wants to watch the crap Viacom puts outs.

Posted Via The FREE SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[mike123abc]

Like anyone in small towns wants to watch the crap Viacom puts outs.

Posted Via The FREE SatelliteGuys Reader App!

Which is why I think it was a hit piece put out by Viacom. If you read it they say the town could lose $130k/year. Turns out that would only happen if ALL the subs to Cableone left...

The ongoing spat between Cable One and Viacom over how much Viacom's programming is worth—and whether Cable One is willing to pay for it—could cause Duncan, Okla. to lose $130,000 in franchise fees.

If others follow her lead and drop the cable service, the city could receive less than $130,000 in subscriber-based franchising fees this year, ultimately impacting the overall budget.

This just in Viacom saves city budget!

 

[Mr Tony]

Like anyone [strike]in small towns [/strike]wants to watch the crap Viacom puts outs.

fixed that for ya

 

[osu1991]

fixed that for ya

Thanks, I didn't want to be presumptive and speak for everyone

 

[Mr Tony]

so I was at the lakehouse the past few days and was able to see some Viacom stuff and simple response....why dont more companies drop this crap?

My dad watched Andy Griffith yesterday on TVLand and it was a "38" minute episode. They had 6 minutes of commercials to come back for under 2 minutes for the finish of the show
The whole "oddball ass times" is really annoying
I tried to watch The Dukes on CMT. They cut out full parts of the show. Not 30 seconds but almost 5 minutes to fill with.....more commercials

 

[Don in CT]

God forbid people are not allowed to watch Musicless Television. Or Reality Show Hits One.

 

[mike123abc]

Another week gone by, and still have not missed them...

 

[CK SatGuy]

The only one I'd miss is Comedy Central but since one would be able to watch the Daily Show and Colbert online, it wouldn't be a huge loss.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I saw that the local podunk cable company where my uncle lives is dropping Viacom at the end of the month. (thank god he has Directv)

also noticed that they have 3 more contracts coming up this year.



What's interesting is about a year ago they (Runestone) became a Dish retailer....so its easier for them to drop channels off cable and then try and sign them up on Dish. They dropped USA and ScyFy late last year.

They still are one of the worst cable companies I've seen. They have a whole 7 (yes SEVEN) HD channels. The Big 4, PBS, ESPN and FSN

Sounds like they are the worst cable provider in the country.

 

[Mr Tony]

Sounds like they are the worst cable provider in the country.

nah. can beat that......easily
thread form a couple years ago
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...iggest-case-for-a-dish)?p=2517321#post2517321

Got a buddy who has a cabin in Northern MN in a place called Remer. He's outside of the "cable" area but he did check with the Telco (who does everything) and was floored at it
12.00 a month and they bill you for 3 months at a time. Here is the channel list

2 TNT
3 CNN
4 WGN
5 TBS
6 KARE (NBC)
7 ABC FAMILY
8 ESPN
9 KAWE (PBS)
10 DISCOVERY
11 FS NORTH
12 KCCW (CBS)
13 WDIO (ABC)
15 USA

14 USE to be FoxNet (yes the same Foxnet in areas where there was no Fox near there). I dont know if they have a Fox station or not.
edit: there is no Fox on cable even now.

 

[Mr Tony]

Interesting....
so I checked the website of my uncles cable company (telephone/internet/cable/dish monopoly)

They pulled Viacom and added AntennaTV, MeTV, ThisTV and Live Well (which is on subchannels of the Minneapolis stations...they are part of the Mpls market) but in their newsletter they actually are ASKING the subscribers if they want all the Viacom channels back......for a pretty substantial price.

 

[Tampa8]

I occasionally watch CMT, I do watch TV Land. Beyond that if I didn't have any of those other channels I might not even notice for quite sometime.

I think TV land would do better if it was is in HD, I'm guessing it isn't on most systems. (It isn't on DISH) Seems to me Viacom would be one of the easiest to simply say no to especially given the huge drop in viewership.

 

[mike123abc]

It will be an even bigger drop in viewership if they do not get these cable systems back in time for May sweeps.