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Say goodbye to the Colbert Report, Spongebob Squarepants and yes, even The City (we hardly knew ye), Gawker is reporting that "From New York to Los Angeles, Viacom channels like Comedy Central are set to flicker off cable systems in the first minute of 2009." The two companies have been not-so-publicly negotiating for some time, and now the network is holding their channels hostage.
On Time Warner's site, they note: "We are negotiating earnestly, honestly and fairly with MTV Networks, but so far have been unable to reach an agreement or get an extension. MTV Networks may pull these channels from your lineup on January 1st." Their explanation, which can be read in full after the jump, includes Viacom wanting to charge more for their channels despite decreased ratings.
Viacom issued a statement as well, explaining: "We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks’ channels. We make this request because TWC has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long." Hmm, maybe if they didn't substitute John Norris with Whitney Port we'd consider loosening the change purse a bit.
The network has also released an ad campaign that includes some of their Nickelodeon cartoon characters crying, to which the Wall Street Journal says: "While programmers and operators often battle fiercely over contract renewals, Viacom's campaign is notable in its willingness to pull children into the debate."
• MTV Networks wants our customers to pay millions more. They are currently demanding price increases that are nearly triple the rate of increase under our current agreement. These increases would be excessive even in a strong economy, but given the current conditions, it’s simply not fair to our customers.• MTV’s demands are outrageous and would force our customers to pay millions of dollars more per year. MTV’s networks are not worth so much more today than they were yesterday, especially given the fact that their ratings are mostly declining in recent years.
• Much of their popular programming is also available for free online. In this economy, we don’t believe it’s appropriate to ask our customers to pay so much more for programming with declined ratings or that's available for free.
• We’ve successfully negotiated hundreds of programming agreements with other cable networks, many within the last few months. Our hope is that we will come to an agreement with MTV Networks that is fair to our customers.
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Yet another excuse to dump Cablevision and keep the dumb pipe.
"We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks’ channels."
oh, a penny per day, that's like nothing, in fact, let's round it down to nothing. oh, i can get it for free online? nevermind.
go ahead viacom, you already pulled your shows off youtube, pull your channels off cable. bittorrent ftw!
"Cable networks affected:
Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite
MTV
VH1
Spike
TV Land
Comedy Central
Noggin
MTV2
VH1 Classic
Logo
Nick Too
Nicktoons
The N
Palladia HD"
Good fucking riddance! What a pile of garbage channels. All this is gonna do is make flipping between Law & Order and Top Chef less time-consuming
More greed. TV is garbage anyway. There are more commercials and reality shows than regular programming.
MTV is making their increase appear so insignificant. According to Wikipedia, 2006 statistics show 20.7 million TWC basic and digital cable subscribers. Add $0.25 per viewer per month and that's an extra $5,175,000 per month. And judging from the comments above, MTV's channels don't appear to be undervalued even by "less than a penny per day."
Another stupid game of cable chicken. In the end, we need passage of that a la carte cable bill that every greedy republican and democrat in Congress has blocked in the past. Allow people to pick and choose and guess what? No more MTV.
Well, you are all such high-minded TV-avoiders... Pat yourselves on the back!
I admit am a TW subscriber and I watch TV and I will be pretty damn sore if I cannot get my Colbert! They should pay the damn 25 cents! They get more than enough money from me.
wrong dude, i watch more tv than you can possibly imagine. (i own a 100-hour dvr & a 60gb pmp that lets me watch my tv shows on the subway.)
the only channel maybe worth keeping is noggin. the rest of those channels are filled with fakeality crap & stuff u can get from netflix.
there are a few shows (daily, colbert & spongebob) but most of those can be found online & i can live without best week ever thanks to the soup.
You can watch the most overrated show on television on the Comedy Central website, you know
If you really need that laugh you get from every sixth joke
So no Mind of Mencia marathon? awwww
Ha!
It seems clear that folks here watch enough of those channels to declare them "garbage".
If they were garbage and you "weren't" watching them, why even care enough to bother commenting anyway?
No, really, you don't have to watch every episode of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" to know that it sucks. You can pretty much tell that it sucks from the giant "sucking" sound coming from whatever pink/black hole the she-beast resides in today.
Meh.
I mean, really. The City? The Hills? What 12-year old girl comes up with this crap, anyways? Viacom is welcome to leave my cable box -- good riddance.
I find Colbert rather annoying. I would, however, miss Jon Stewart. He amuses me. But I would still be able get the Daily Show on Hulu, i hope!
i forgot to mention that "they" aren't going to pay the fees. "you" are, because time warner is going to pass the "savings" on to "you" in your cable bill.
& guess what every other network provider is going to do? they are also going to raise their rates because viacom was able to do so.
guess who is going to pay the increased fees?
I work at a call center in Az. and as a matter of fact I am fielding calls as we speak in the Billing dept. of TWC and let me tell you these customers are PISSED. The only recourse I have is to inform them that TWC and Viacom are as we speak in Negotiations and that the amount of time that they are without their precious visual opiates we will compensate them with credits towards their account!!! Can some skilled Sniper back home Oswald me from there??
I guess that answers my question. Are we going to have to ask for that credit or will it be given automatically.
Because frankly, I couldn't give a shit about MTV or Comedy Central but I want my SpongeBob SquarePants!
So......is Time Warner going to give me a discount if they stop airing all these channels which they will no longer be paying for?
May Operation Humble Kanye live in infamy.
Fuck Viacom AND Time Warner Cable!
It seems Viacom has the upper hand here. TWC will cave and use it as an excuse to raise rates beyond their already criminal levels.
I can't believe more people aren't pissed that The Daily Show will be gone from the airwaves. F Colbert, I'm not a big fan of that show, but give me Jon, Aasif, Riggle and the rest.
let me make this easy for you people:
for the daily show click here
for the colbert report click here
for spongebob squarepants click here
happy new year
That's not easy enough for me. What does that red "click here" mean?
As much as I like the Interwebs, I'd much rather sit on my couch and watch it on a regular TV screen than plopped in front of my monitor for even more hours in a day.
Thank you!
Most modern TVs have inputs that will take PC video output.
I've never been more happy that I dumped TWC for Verizon Fios. And Fios is cheaper for more channels and faster internet. Switch if and when you can, TWC can go to hell.
I WANT MY MTV!!!
Oh no you don't.
Unless you're a total douchebag.
Sorry My Superiors inform me that I must make your suffering LEGENDARY in cable HELL!!!
Since Bloompig is solving the economic crisis and the Arab-Israeli conflict maybe he should step and and solve this one too. With all of his experience with broadcasting, I'm sure Bloompig can make sure his buddies stuff more money in their pockets and we get stuck with the bill.
Right, most of us will miss "The Hills", "The City" and "Real World: Brooklyn". I hope TW stands firm, even if that means a few weeks/months without these crappy channels.
Fuck Viacom and their greedy pockets. They love to ruin once good things from MTV to Adult Swim.
Maybe the gentry will realize there actually is more to life than TV.
No surprise. Just two media giants (which happen to own two competing film studios) butting heads. The only channel I'd even vaguely miss is TV Land, and that's just a shadow of its former self. How a channel that once featured classic TV shows now shows Scrubs five nights a week is beyond me.
What the hell happened to them anyway? "Original programming"? Isn't the point of TV Land that we don't have to suffer through that crap? And I gave up on them when they ran Sanford and Son everyday for the last six years.
Not likely to pass that discount onto their subscribers are they? hummm...
This is quality Sunday morning hangover TV. No more Celebrity Rehab or Rock of Love? Tragic.
MTV has been over for years...btw, the John Norris interview was excellent!