Viacom/Dish Dispute Forthcoming?

[zippyfrog]

Today Dish and ViacomCBS reach a deal. I was hoping we would get some more channels in HD, but that doesn't seem to be the case as there will be no changes on the Dish side.

ViacomCBS Reaches Multi-Year Deal with Dish & Sling After Lengthy Extension

After months of extensions, Dish and ViacomCBS have reached a deal that will keep their channels on both Dish Network and Sling TV. Sources familiar with the matter tell The Streamable that no changes will be made on …

thestreamable.com

"Sources familiar with the matter tell The Streamable that no changes will be made on the Dish side, but there will be changes on Sling. In the near future, it’s expected that ViacomCBS channels carried on Sling Blue base package, will also be available on Sling Orange. "

 

[Bruce]

There is not a single channel under the Viacom umbralla that I can stomach to watch with Viacom channels filled with OLD repeats of OLD shows and OLD movies we've already seen, and even MTV has very few compelling new content with the super cheap to produce Ridiculousness airing at virtually all hours of each day. Dish can park Viacom next to RSN's if they would like, and I would support such a decision. Viacom today is a waste of bandwidth and channel numbers on Dish--or anywhere.

That is the majority of programming for most cable channels.

 

[pattykay]

That is the majority of programming for most cable channels.

Yes, even the ones that run new programming likely suffered significant delays in production due to the coronavirus crisis. So, expect even more reruns, at least for the immediate future. Meanwhile, series that had already completed production are having their schedules stretched out, instead of airing the new episodes as quickly as they otherwise would have aired, just so the channels can still say that they have some new content.

 

[Joe h]

Can we go back to getting the endless showtime for $5 per month for 6 months promo again?

 

[bnewt]

Today Dish and ViacomCBS reach a deal. I was hoping we would get some more channels in HD, but that doesn't seem to be the case as there will be no changes on the Dish side.

ViacomCBS Reaches Multi-Year Deal with Dish & Sling After Lengthy Extension

After months of extensions, Dish and ViacomCBS have reached a deal that will keep their channels on both Dish Network and Sling TV. Sources familiar with the matter tell The Streamable that no changes will be made on …

thestreamable.com

"Sources familiar with the matter tell The Streamable that no changes will be made on the Dish side, but there will be changes on Sling. In the near future, it’s expected that ViacomCBS channels carried on Sling Blue base package, will also be available on Sling Orange. "

WHY would they not add the HD versions???

with all the channels Dish customers have lost,. what is their hold up?????

 

[pattykay]

WHY would they not add the HD versions???

with all the channels Dish customers have lost,. what is their hold up?????

Maybe Dish is trying to lose enough channels that they can justify no longer using at least one of their orbital slots, such as 129. That way, they could go back to using the old Dish 500's for a complete Western Arc.

 

[Yespage]

Glad to see an agreement was reached. I'm not a big Viacom watcher, but my daughter is Nick Jr aged.

Can we go back to getting the endless showtime for $5 per month for 6 months promo again?

Isn't it already $5 for 6 months?

 

[zippyfrog]

WHY would they not add the HD versions???

with all the channels Dish customers have lost,. what is their hold up?????

I know...I was hoping for at least TVLand in HD. Maybe the article is wrong, but it clearly states no changes on the Dish side.

 

[pattykay]

I know...I was hoping for at least TVLand in HD. Maybe the article is wrong, but it clearly states no changes on the Dish side.

Well, we will see on July 15, when Sho*BET launches. Instead of being a straight swap-out for Showtime Showcase as originally announced, they are shuffling things around a bit. Sho*BET will still get Showcase's old channel number, and will presumably be carried in HD. However, Showtime Beyond is being shut-down, to be re-branded as Showtime Showcase, on Beyond's old channel number. As a result (unless Dish changes the way they carry these channels) the "new" Showtime channel will be carried in HD, but an existing service will (in effect) be downgraded to SD-only carriage. Of course, Showtime carriage may have already been covered by a separate contract, not the one being discussed in this thread. It will still be interesting to see how this plays out, though.

 

[DJ Lon]

Did ya ever think "no changes" could just mean that the existing ViacomCBS channels are staying put in their respective tiers?

 

[zippyfrog]

Did ya ever think "no changes" could just mean that the existing ViacomCBS channels are staying put in their respective tiers?

That would be nice - keep the same tiers but add the HD channels. It crossed my mind, but I was very pessimistic when I read it the first time

 

[dennispap]

That would be nice - keep the same tiers but add the HD channels. It crossed my mind, but I was very pessimistic when I read it the first time

You and almost everyone on here. "SOON"

 

[lakebum431]

Yes, even the ones that run new programming likely suffered significant delays in production due to the coronavirus crisis. So, expect even more reruns, at least for the immediate future. Meanwhile, series that had already completed production are having their schedules stretched out, instead of airing the new episodes as quickly as they otherwise would have aired, just so the channels can still say that they have some new content.

Yes and no. We shouldn't be seeing much of that yet. It is not uncommon for productions to be "in the can" for as much as a year prior to being aired (especially for "normal" cable content). So there should have been a backlog of new content to last several months. However, you are right that there is likely to be a dead time at some point in the future for the period when no productions were going on. That said, there are a LOT of production companies back to work now so maybe it won't be that bad.

 

[Tampa8]

You and almost everyone on here. "SOON"

Soon™

 

[pattykay]

Well, we will see on July 15, when Sho*BET launches. Instead of being a straight swap-out for Showtime Showcase as originally announced, they are shuffling things around a bit. Sho*BET will still get Showcase's old channel number, and will presumably be carried in HD. However, Showtime Beyond is being shut-down, to be re-branded as Showtime Showcase, on Beyond's old channel number. As a result (unless Dish changes the way they carry these channels) the "new" Showtime channel will be carried in HD, but an existing service will (in effect) be downgraded to SD-only carriage. Of course, Showtime carriage may have already been covered by a separate contract, not the one being discussed in this thread. It will still be interesting to see how this plays out, though.

It looks like I was right. The uplink report with these changes posted earlier today.

Uplink Activity Updates » Blog Archive » 7/15/20 at 11:42am ET (v20) – 6 changes seen

Channels Renamed
323 SBYND Showtime Beyond renamed SHOCS Showtime Showcase (110° TP 1 SD Instant Order)
323 SBYND Showtime Beyond renamed SHOCS Showtime Showcase (72.7° TP 5 SD MPEG4 Instant Order)
9513 SHOCS Showtime Showcase renamed SHBET (321 HD) (119° 3sA27 (Hawaii) HD Hidden)
9513 SHOCS Showtime Showcase renamed SHBET (321 HD) (119° 5sA24 (Alaska) HD Hidden)
9513 SHOCS Showtime Showcase renamed SHBET (321 HD) (129° TP 18 HD Hidden)
9513 SHOCS Showtime Showcase renamed SHBET (321 HD) (72.7° TP 27 HD Hidden)

 

[pattykay]

...and now, with the SD feed of channel 321 being removed from Western Arc, it looks like the new channel 321 will be HD-only.

Uplink Activity Updates » Blog Archive » 7/15/20 at 3:15pm ET (v22) – 25 changes seen

Uplinks Removed
321 SHOCS Showtime Showcase removed from 110° TP 21 (SD Instant Order)

 

[dennispap]

...and now, with the SD feed of channel 321 being removed from Western Arc, it looks like the new channel 321 will be HD-only.

Uplink Activity Updates » Blog Archive » 7/15/20 at 3:15pm ET (v22) – 25 changes seen

Uplinks Removed
321 SHOCS Showtime Showcase removed from 110° TP 21 (SD Instant Order)

So from what i can tell we lost Beyond.(Discontinued) Showcase was downgraded to SD and ShoBET was added in HD only.

 

[Conway]

it's 2020 Dish should have TV Land in HD and the rest of the Viacom channels in HD.. Dish has room for it. If they want to keep people subscribing you would think it would be a priority for dish to have as much HD as possible. On dish anywhere the channels can stream in HD.

 

[pattykay]

So from what i can tell we lost Beyond.(Discontinued) Showcase was downgraded to SD and ShoBET was added in HD only.

That is correct. I feel sorry for the Showtime subscribers who are still using old, outdated, SD-only Dish receivers. They now have one fewer Showtime channel than they had been getting until earlier today, and I bet that they do not get any break on the monthly price, either.

 

[pattykay]

it's 2020 Dish should have TV Land in HD and the rest of the Viacom channels in HD.. Dish has room for it. If they want to keep people subscribing you would think it would be a priority for dish to have as much HD as possible. ...

If they want to keep people subscribing, it is a priority to keep the price as low as possible. If Dish can save some money by only carrying SD feeds (so that they do not have to raise package prices by as much as they would otherwise) while still not losing very many customers due to the lack of HD feeds of those channels, then that is what Dish will do.

... On dish anywhere the channels can stream in HD.

And that is precisely where Dish is going with most new channel additions. This is especially true with Hopper-family receivers, which are capable of putting streaming channels in the guide, so that they are seamlessly integrated with the satellite-delivered channels. Dish may have room on the satellites, but maintaining that fleet of satellites still costs money. If Dish can move away from satellite delivery of most channels (and end their leases for orbital slots and satellite capacity) while still delivering the same number of channels (or even more channels) by a cheaper method such as streaming, then Dish will do so.