DirecTV customers lose numerous channels

As of Wednesday, July 11, 2012
© Copyright 2013 Albany Herald

DirecTV and Viacom failed to reach a new deal on programming fees, resulting in a blackout of many popular cable networks, including MTV, Comedy Central, TV Land, CMT, Spike TV and Nickelodean.

The blackout is the result of the latest dispute between entertainment companies and the distributors, which include the cable, telecom, and satellite-TV providers. There have been an increasing amount of disagreements over how much distributors have to pay to carry the various networks, resulting in public spats such as this.

Viacom confirmed the blackout on its blog earlier today.

"We are deeply disappointed that DirecTV dropped Viacom's channels before our midnight deadline this evening, severing our connection with its nearly 20 million subscribers nationwide," the company said. "We proposed a fair deal that amounted to an increase of only a couple pennies per day, per subscriber, and we remained willing to negotiate that deal right up to this evening's deadline. However, DirecTV refused to engage in meaningful conversation."

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Cartman 10 months, 1 week ago

You guys are losing SouthPark?

Shinedownfan 10 months, 1 week ago

I'll miss Tosh.O on Comedy Central more than anything else on there.

ontario1966 10 months, 1 week ago

I got rid of direct tv long ago, due to programming and the over high bills, and constant channel outage? I have been with Dish network for about 4 years now, and they have alot of local channels, and we never have a problem at all! And the customer service is excellent! I have been so satisfied after getting rid of Mediacom and direct tv! And I have saved alot of money.

Engineer 10 months, 1 week ago

Doesn't matter to me, I can watch the same programs for free online, many on their own website or on Hulu.

VSU 10 months, 1 week ago

They spelled Nickelodeon wrong. They say only a couple of pennies a day, but when you add 20 million customers, that is $400,000 dollars a day. They run those stupid commercials on TV saying "Get rid of cable, get Direct TV" Looks like people will get rid of Direct TV and go to Dish Network or whatever whenever they get off their signed contract.

This is why I don't subscribe to satellite. You sign this contract, then you can't get out of it and you don't know what you get in the end. If it wasn't for live sporting events like football, baseball etc, I wouldn't need any of them. I like the old sitcoms and could either watch the DVD's or watch them online.

Shinedownfan 10 months, 1 week ago

I'd rather lose all these channels than lose AMC like Dish did. I'd really miss The Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels, & CSI Miami (since I dont have local channels, never seen them before). But I agree with Engineer, these satellite and cable companies are gonna screw up and people are gonna drop them all and get Hulu and Netflix accounts and watch whatever they want, whenever they want like my brother does now.

LuLu 10 months, 1 week ago

I woke up this morning and checked, and sure enough, it's true. I didn't have time to study it too much, but alot of channels are gone and they added several 4-digit channels with nothing on them to my menu. They better get this fixed fast or there will be an exodus to Dish.

KaosinAlbany 10 months, 1 week ago

Going to switch back to Mediacom after two years of DirectTV's crappy television stations. I miss PBS and the local channels.

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