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Viacom/Dish Dispute Forthcoming?

zippyfrog

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It looks like the Viacom contract is going to be ending shortly. The last Dish/Viacom contract was signed on April 21, 2016. I personally can't see this channel, but I see channel 900 is an info channel about a potential dispute. I found it here: DISH TV Online Channel Guide | MyDISH then typed in channel 900 to read the little bit that is there.

I don't see anything on Dish Promise yet, so my guess is that this channel is getting ready in case one happens?
 

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I didn't realize how much Viacom is being hammered right now from a financial perspective since the CBS merger. This article back from Feb mentions that the Dish renewal was upcoming, and that if Viacom was going to put things on it's streaming service, why would Dish choose to keep their channels?

 
Reactions: MikeD-C05 and bspei
There is not a single channel under the Viacom umbralla that I can stomach to watch with Viacom channels filled with OLD repeats of OLD shows and OLD movies we've already seen, and even MTV has very few compelling new content with the super cheap to produce Ridiculousness airing at virtually all hours of each day. Dish can park Viacom next to RSN's if they would like, and I would support such a decision. Viacom today is a waste of bandwidth and channel numbers on Dish--or anywhere.
 
Reactions: Cold Irons
I warned about this back in February, in this thread:

As you pointed out at the time, these messages have been there ever since 2016:
So, it looks like Dish has continued to remain prepared for this dispute the entire time, ever since before the last contract was signed.

Based on recent uplink reports, this new Info channel was originally on channel 360, before being moved to channel 900:
New Uplinks / Mappings – Channels Available
...
360 INFO Info Channel added to 110° TP 10 (SD Hidden) AVAILABLE (Limited)
...
9541 INFO (360 HD) Info Channel added to 110° TP 13 (HD Hidden) AVAILABLE (Limited)
9541 INFO (360 HD) Info Channel added to 72.7° TP 23 (HD Hidden) AVAILABLE (Limited)


Channels Renumbered
360 INFO Info Channel renumbered 900 on 110° TP 10 (SD Hidden)

Other Changes
9541 INFO (900 HD) Info Channel 110° TP 13 HD Hidden – Mapdown Changed (was 360 HD)
9541 INFO (900 HD) Info Channel 72.7° TP 23 HD Hidden – Mapdown Changed (was 360 HD)



So, if I had to guess, I would say that this upcoming dispute is mainly about those Flex-Pack-only Viacom channels in the 360's range.
 
I know this is Sling, but I assume the Dish contract is the same. Looking at the press releases from April 21 and 22 2016, they list out Dish and Sling services.

Sling lists out dropping BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Nick Jr, Nicktoons, TeenNick, Paramount, TV Land and VH1.

 
Does that mean I will no longer have access to those channels that I have never watched or intentionally subscribed to.
I want a discount going forward.
 
That ought to make this year's annual Dish Kids' Binge-A-Palooza Watch Event interesting...
First no HBO Family, and now they may be dropping the Nickelodeon channels. Keep this up and there won't be any kids' channels left to "binge-a-palooze."
 

Viacom channels still up on Sling but seems they maybe pulled really soon on Sling/Dish
 
Sling took the page down, guessing was just getting the page ready and they jumped the gun.

That is my guess. As I mentioned in a previous post, the last contract was signed on April 21, 2016, so my guess is that it expires on April 20 or 21. I think we would see dishpromise.com, that sling page, as well as keepviacom.com updated to reflect the spat beween Dish/Viacom in the next few days. Unless a new contract is signed ahead of time! It would be great to get TV Land in HD. That is the only channel I really watch out of the Viacom channels. Maybe I will turn on Comedy Central to have South Park on in the background - but just for nostalgia sake as that was so big when I was college some 17 years ago, I really don't care if I lost it though
 
Reactions: charlesrshell
Maybe we can finally get TV Land HD?
I have a sneaking suspicion that Dish has always had the option of adding that, since at least the last contract, if not longer. There was an unannounced free preview of TV Land (SD) right before the Flex Pack was introduced. I had speculated at the time that the free preview was intended to promote the launch of the HD feed. (Dish had done something similar with Outdoor Channel, right before launching its HD feed.) Then, when Flex Pack was first introduced, TV Land HD was mistakenly listed in the Flex Pack channel lineup chart on Dish's website. Eventually, Dish did add the ability to live stream TV Land HD on Dish Anywhere, but still did not add the ability to get the HD feed through the satellite receivers.

So, with this new contract (whenever one is reached) it could go one of two ways. Either TV Land HD will finally become available through the Dish receivers (either as a satellite-delivered channel, or as a streaming channel available on Hopper and Wally receivers) or Dish will lose TV Land entirely. I suppose it is also possible that both sides could agree to simply maintain the status quo.
 
Reactions: andrewj0781