Poll: How long until Viacom/Dish settle?

[BobMurdoch]

They gave notice on the Charlie Chat back in December.

It has also been talked about in numerous newspaper and internet discussions for months.

If that obscure #2 font laden in the "Public Notices" section of your paper is considered sufficient notice, consider yourself SOL with this argument.

Of course you COULD hire a lawyer, but that will be more than the $250 "piss off" fee you would probably pay now to just leave.

OR you could just switch to a minimum package and hook up cable to hold you over if you just can't wait.

Then again, go the antenna on the roof route if you can and watch the fracas from the sidelines..... (This will be my solution if it goes more than a week. I've got a 921 anyway and I was gonna add it this summer)

 

[Sparkman]

You forgot a button for "Who Cares".

If you don't care, why'd you look at the thread?

 

[Claude Greiner]

I could really care less!

On the bright side, I was on Tv today
http://www.dishretailer.com/viacom/ch7dish(big).wmv

 

[Big Bob]

I think this will also bite DISH quite a bit. I called Directv to get a price this morning and waited 10 minutes to talk to someone. They said that Dish customers had been flooding them to switch. This was at 7am EST this morning. Dish networks website has been unreachable for me 1 out of 5 tries every time I try to get to it. Also, My wife, kids and I have long memories. I will be leaving DISH as soon as my contract is up regardless of the outcome. Of course if they put Nick and Noggin back on and send me a free 921, maybe I'll stay.

But it will take longer for it to hurt Dish.
Dish will lose money $40 - $100 at a time
Viacom just lost an account worth $hundreds of thousands or $millions
(I don't know the total amount of their contract with Dish)
Plus, their advertisers will be demanding partial refunds on ad spots now that their channels are reaching a small audience.

Dish is in the volume business, lots of little accounts worth a small amount.
It takes a lot of those accounts to go away for it to hurt and it will take a long time for them to go away.

Viacom has a small amount of account worth a lot of money. Lose one and it hurts right away.

 

[martin1]

Once my year subcription is up in April I going to D* anyhow.(for the HDtivo).
Hope this don't make the waiting list for D* longer when I do.

 

[DarrellP]

If you don't care, why'd you look at the thread?

I like to watch everyone whine.

 

[hometheaterman]

If they bring any of the viacoms back Noggin and MTV 2 better be there also or Id seriously consider switching otherwise I probably wont and I may not if I dont get them but will consider. I don't care if I get them back all that much anymore but If Im going to get them back I want all of them back. Id just assume not get any of them back for a while.

 

[vicw]

My ox has not been gored in this, since there isn't a single Viacom channel that I couldn't live happily without forever, and I don't need CBSHD. I hope that Charlie holds a hard line on this one. It may just help to slow the excessive price increases that are hurting us as consumers.

 

[scott5626]

We have got 2 Billion dollar companies that don't really care about you and I they care about the almighty dollar. Who's ever greed gets the best of them will give in the soonest. If Charlie cared so much about his customers and that was his only concern then why didn't he eat the cost of the increase and not just lose what you and I really pay for anyway, Charlie has no company without us.

 

[bcwmachine]

We have got 2 Billion dollar companies that don't really care about you and I they care about the almighty dollar. Who's ever greed gets the best of them will give in the soonest. If Charlie cared so much about his customers and that was his only concern then why didn't he eat the cost of the increase and not just lose what you and I really pay for anyway, Charlie has no company without us.

If Charlie ate the cost, and increased the subscription prices next year it would cost him a lot less in the short term. I think that he is looking a bit further ahead than you are. It is costing Charlie a lot of money to look out for your intrests, even if you can't see it. In the long run it will also help him.

 

[scott5626]

How is it going to help him when a large % of his customers are gone.

 

[SignGuyDino]

I say screw Viacom. I don't see their CEO daring to go on live call in shows. Their scrolls at the bottom of TV shows are petty, cowardly, and childish.

 

[orcatek]

It Viacom and E* want to really let the public know the truth - broadcast the negotiations live on the dead channels.

Then everyone will know who is doing what. It'll never happen, just as we will never know the details of the settlement (if any). Both will give their spin to make themselves look like heros. Pretty much why you can't believe anything you see or read in the news.

 

[bcwmachine]

How is it going to help him when a large % of his customers are gone.

I am quite certain that Charlie has a pretty good idea of how many subscribers would jump ship, and how long it will take to recover.

What do you think Charlie's reasons were for trying to get a better deal from viacom rather than just passing the increases on?

 

[scott5626]

He says he was trying to avoid jacking up our prices, I dont know his true intentions maybe he was sincere, but just allowing them to remove the channels because he did not want his co. to suffer still is not correct answer. I think Dish should have ate the cost until they could reach a better agreement on a price. Bottom line is did he take care of the consumer? $1 month is not the answer to upset people.

 

[aperry]

I'll guess 46 hours and 10 minutes!

 

[Stargazer]

I think Charlie saw that him and his subscribers were going to lose one way or another so he thought he would try fighting it to help things out over the long term and perhaps do this as an experiment to see how the customers react and in the long term perhaps him and his subs could save not only with Viacom but the other providers that may try to do the same. Perhaps he thinks if he goes through all of this once that it will prevent him from having to go through it so much in the future when doing negotiations with others. In other words, he is setting an example for anybody else that wants to mess with him.

 

[BobMurdoch]

He says he was trying to avoid jacking up our prices, I dont know his true intentions maybe he was sincere, but just allowing them to remove the channels because he did not want his co. to suffer still is not correct answer. I think Dish should have ate the cost until they could reach a better agreement on a price. Bottom line is did he take care of the consumer? $1 month is not the answer to upset people.

$1 for 48 hours works out to $15 a month when broken down to a per day charge......

Not TOO shabby.

OK, now on to the next breathless debate. Is MLB Extra Innings coming? (TNGTony says it has begun being uplinked in the hidden menu)

 

[aperry]

I figure it went down something like this:

1. Viacom proposes the rate increases and channel additions they want in the new contract.

2. Dish says, "No way!", and makes a counter offer.

3. Steps 1 & 2 were repeated ad nauseum into January 2004.

4. Viacom thought that Dish would certainly settle before the Super Bowl. Dish went to court to make sure that the channels stayed on long enough to see the Super Bowl. Viacom secretly breathed a huge sigh of relief (they would not have to refund money to advertisers for the 1.6 million fewer subscribers).

5. Steps 1 & 2 were repeated ad nauseum until the restraining order expired.

6. Dish removed the Viacom channels.

7. Viacom was "disappointed and disturbed" that Dish took the channels off the air. Truth is, probably, that they were in shock that Dish would actually go as far as to let that happen over what was (according to the Viacom spin) only 6 cents per subscriber. Another theory is that Viacom was upset that Dish removed the channels, because now they could not sue Dish for broadcasting the channels without paying for them.

8. Various "spins" on what happened and why start appearing on Dish and the Viacom website.

9. Magically, less than 48 hours after the channels disappeared, a deal was reached and service was restored.

Now on the dollar amount that Dish is paying to its customers. They will be out a minimum of $10.6 million of lost revenue ($1 to each of 9 million subs, another $1 to each of 1.6 million CBS subscribers). And that assumes that noone uses the PPV coupon they will receive.

 

[DishSatUser]

Hope this helps explain to customers that the $0.06 issue was probable a falsehood. What company would have taken a $10.6 Million + hit over such a minor cost?

Of course, once everything has been delt with, hindsight is always 20/20.