EchoStar Willing to Drop CBS in Dispute With Viacom

[dbronstein]

People will wait a couple of days if the stations are pulled, but then they'll start leaving. The bottom line is Viacom knows that if dish drops them, the customers will eventually go to D* or cable and they'll get the subs back. And Charlie knows if he drops Viacom, the subs that leave aren't coming back.

Dennis

 

[TBarclay]

I get amused by all the gloom-and-doom postings that come up every time one of these negotiations become public. I'd be willing to bet a settlement will happen before we lose any channels and Charlie will talk nice about Viacom and vice versa. It's happened so many times before. Even when we lost ESPN Classic for a little while, the channel came back. Why don't we wait until something happens before we get all worked up!!

 

[justdaved]

I don't care too much if we lose the channels but, our monthly bills have better be adjusted!

 

[Claude Greiner]

Another Cat and Mouse Game with CBS And Viacom

This is funney as hell, im watching Comedy Central and there is a scroll telling people if they have Dishnetwork to call in and complain and they give DISH Networks 800#

I guess they got someone watching it, because as soon as the scroll message appears DISH Network looks like they are blacking it out

 

[BobMurdoch]

I was just watching Grease on VH1 (Don't know why... I just wound up there to ogle Sandy for a few secs when I see a crawl where they say that Dish wants to drop my channels "that (I paid) for" and that I should call 1800 333DISH to tell them not to. Hmm. No mention of their extortion attempt... I wonder why?

Note to Charlie: You better start swapping your response in for a few of their commercials as they are painting YOU as the villain. Might be time to say something about double digit increases and forcing subscribers to pay for additional channels with reruns of shows on channels you already get or something to that effect..

 

[Neutron]

Man, I hate being stuck at work and not being able to see the scrolling message. We do have D* here and I watched Spike TV for a little bit hoping I would see the scrolling message but it never appeared.

 

[dta316]

Certain people need to....

get their head out of their

I mean sure I am new to this forum(which is great by the way!) But who wins in this situation? As you all have seen I am a new sub to E* and am having the install done today. If I don't have Nick(for the 4 year old ) or Nick@Nite(for me) I will be devistated(not ). Life goes on. I mean you stick with your favorite ball team?

 

[snathanb]

get their head out of their

I mean sure I am new to this forum(which is great by the way!) But who wins in this situation? As you all have seen I am a new sub to E* and am having the install done today. If I don't have Nick(for the 4 year old ) or Nick@Nite(for me) I will be devistated(not ). Life goes on. I mean you stick with your favorite ball team?

Same boat here..... my install in scheduled for 20 minutes from now. But, I still have my D* hooked up, and will not be taking it down. I signed up for the DHA plan so I could bail on E* if I didn't like it.

 

[orcatek]

Seems like an automatic wavier to me if they refuse transmission rights. Then E* can provide a distant CBS to all the O&O markets.

Like to see E* do it, but I'm sure there is plenty of legal crap to slow E* down.

 

[EdV]

The 1999 SHVIA Act essentially says that neither the station owner (in this case Viacom) nor the satellite company are required to provide or carry the channel for a particular DMA area. It further states that if both parties don't agree, then the satellite company cannot carry that channel and they cannot carry the network feed of another station into that DMA.

Since Viacom has lumped everything into an all or nothing package, once the injunction expires in a week or so, if an agreement has not been reached on the package, it will be Viacom's call (not E*'s) to shut the CBS feeds down in their O&O markets.

However, there's one possible twist in this scenario. The two CBS HD feeds that E* carries came about in late 2001 via a combined agreement between CBS, Samsung and Sears in order to provide CBS's HD coverage of SEC football among other things. So even if Viacom forced the shut down of the SD feeds, there could be some contractual obligations that would preclude Viacom from turning off the two HD channels. If this were true, it would only affect the small number of us who qualify for the HD feed and have E* HD receivers.

 

[orcatek]

Hmmm - wonder if CBS advetiser are aware they will be losing millions of viewers. I'd demand a refund on as my rate is based on viewers.

 

[jrv331]

Id like to get a clarification,if E* does lose Viacom will all E* subs lose the programming or just the 13 markets mentioned. Im in Ohio and was wondering if I would be effected.
Thanks
John

 

[EdV]

Just the 13. Actually it's 17.

 

[caseyatbt]

I still can't believe that Charlie is acting like this. All of this crap over one station that Viacom wants DISH to carry?????

Which channel is it?

JC

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The channel that Viacom wants carried is Nicktoons.

While I myself would like Nicktoons, I must ask how many channels that show no new content must we have?

 

[slojim]

I'm probably one of the very few that would not miss ANY of those channels, except CBS itself, but Viacom won't let us have CBS bt itself.
I'm sorry I have more than plenty cartoon and children's shows, at least more than my 3 grandchildren ever possibly want!
~Jim~

 

[bcshields]

My gf saw the scrolling message while I was at work and asked me about it. I started to tell her and about 3 minutes into it she said "I'm sorry i asked"

I'm sure that Joe Q. Consumer doesn't care why the channels aren't there.. they just want them.

 

[James Long]

The 1999 SHVIA Act essentially says that neither the station owner (in this case Viacom) nor the satellite company are required to provide or carry the channel for a particular DMA area. It further states that if both parties don't agree, then the satellite company cannot carry that channel and they cannot carry the network feed of another station into that DMA.

Not quite. The satellite provider *cannot* refuse a station that has elected "must carry" - it can refuse to accept the terms of stations electing "consent to carry". Since most major stations elect "consent to carry", it is up to the agreement between the station and the satellite provider. The station would have to wait for the next election cycle to choose "must carry" and force their way back on the satellite provider. The satellite provider is not required to carry any particular market (DMA) ... but "carry one - carry all". They can't just pick and choose broadcast channels.

As for bringing OTHER channels into the DMA, that is perfectly legal and provided by SHVIA. The customer just needs to be located outside of the Grade B coverage of all affiliates of the network. The distants law (SHVIA) is not limited by carrying or having available local affiliates in the customer's DMA.

JL

 

[Mr Tony]

My gf saw the scrolling message while I was at work and asked me about it. I started to tell her and about 3 minutes into it she said "I'm sorry i asked"

I'm sure that Joe Q. Consumer doesn't care why the channels aren't there.. they just want them.

EXACTLY!! My grandma called me yesterday asking about it, because the CBS in Minneapolis is O&O and she saw a scroll Saturday night on WCCO.

I explained it as simple as I could (Viacom owns WCCO and they want more money) and my grandma, god love her, says "Is this like last year with that f-ing Fox Sports Net?" (last year FSN wanted more money on Time Warner, and TW yanked FSN for about 3 1/2 months..they chucked cable and got Dish..)

My grandparents don't watch any Viacom channel except for WCCO (CBS).
If they pull the plug and my Grandma cant watch "Young & the Restless", I'm going to run....I do not want to see her angry

 

[Mr Tony]

If they do yank the Viacom stuff, do people who have locals and their CBS is O&O, will we get a $1 discount on our locals? (or prorated if its less than a month?)