Around 20 million Americans were left without Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 14 other channels on Wednesday after Viacom Inc demanded that its networks be dropped from DirectTV's lineup in a dispute over programming fees.
The dispute over programming fees came to a head with both sides blaming each other in blogposts and YouTube videos. According to DirecTV, Viacom was looking for a 30 percent increase in royalties to renew its subscriptions; a figure DirecTV claimed was too high.
"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," Viacom said in a statement.
The dispute between the two media companies over the cost of content is the latest in the industry. These providers pay a fee to media companies that allows them to carry channels such as MTV. Earlier this month, AMC Networks, the company behind shows such as "Breaking Bad," "The Killing" and "Mad Men," was removed from the Dish Network after the two companies failed to reach a new contract.
Derek Chang, DirecTV executive vice-president of content, strategy and development, said: "We have absolutely no problem compensating Viacom fairly, but they have now knowingly put our customers in the unreasonable position of either accepting their extravagant financial demands or losing some of their favorite TV shows."
In a similar dispute two years ago, Cablevision customers lost Walt Disney Co's ABC channel for several hours, before a deal was reached and transmission restored during a live broadcast of the Academy Awards.
