One of the biggest US cable media blackouts in recent history has been settled after DIRECTV and Viacom todayannounced that 17 Viacom channels restored to more than 20 million cable subscribers.
Following the announcement, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Spike, CMT, TV Land and ten other channels will come backto DirecTV, after theywere unceremoniouslypulled on July10.
The deal extends to a new media partnership that sees DirecTV subscribers gain access to Viacom shows using their smartphone, tablet and computers via DirecTV’s Everywhere service.
Just yesterday, Viacom said that talks had broken down and there didn’t see “anyend in sight.” What a difference a daymakes.
It’s interesting to note the language used in the press release, where DirecTV executive vice president Derek Chang accuses Viacom of pulling the channels to “gain leverage”and that customer pressure eventually won out:
“We arevery pleased to be able to restore the channels to our customers and thank them for their unprecedented patience and support. It’s unfortunatethatViacom took thechannels away from customers totry to gain leverage, but in the end, it’s clear our customers recognized that tactic for whatitwas.”
“Theattention surrounding this unnecessary and ill-advised blackout by Viacom has accomplished one key thing:itserves noticeto all mediacompanies that bullying TV providers and their customers with blackouts won’tget them a better deal. It’s high time programmers ended these anti-consumer blackouts once and for alland proveour industry is about enabling peopletoconnecttotheir favorite programs rather than denying them access.”
DirecTV says that it received support from “hundreds of thousands of customers” but also a number of its direct competitors. It saw 850 small independent local cable channels belonging to the American Cable Association join the cause, followed byCox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Mediacom.
My prediction came true.
