Direct TV Vs Viacom (1 Viewer)

[Regulus]

I just found out Direct TV and Viacom have reached a deal. The Losers will be the subscribers, who will get hit with higher fees. Oh, well, I'll continue my way, and I invite all of you to follow.

 

[Stan]

I just found out Direct TV and Viacom have reached a deal. The Losers will be the subscribers, who will get hit with higher fees. Oh, well, I'll continue my way, and I invite all of you to follow.

How long did the Direct TV-Viacom stalemate last?
I'm with DISH and their war with AMC ended up with AMC channels being dropped about three weeks ago. Not at all familiar with the Viacom thing, but just curious how or if it affected Direct TV. Did you lose anything? New channels substituted? (We now get HDNMV which runs movies from the early 80s through early 2000s, actually kind of nice).
In a way it's to bad things like this aren't set up like pay channels like HBO, etc. That way if the company screwing with the programming got dropped, they'd get a very immediate message as people stopped service. Sadly, if it's bundled with a package of channels, they don't get any financial feedback that they're the reason people are dropping.
Other than calling or emailing the companies to let them know, if I drop because of them, they don't receive their $3-4 a month from my fees, but have no idea they're the cause of the problem.
Once again, another argument for al a carte programming. If AMC screws with their programming and pricing, I could then choose to drop them and only them, sending a very clear message to their financial gurus. But being bundled with a bunch of other crap, there's no way to single out the channel or company you don't want to deal with.
The more this happens, this more I'm thinking about cutting the cord. OTA covers the Big 3 networks and a few others. Maybe stream most everything else, and for the rest just wait and rent it.
Sorry to have somewhat hogged this thread, but the whole situation and what might be coming just really pisses me off.
On a positive note, glad the Direct TV-Viacom mess has cleared up for you, at least temporarily. Sadly, they will obviously pass any increased costs onto you and the other subscribers.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

How long did the Direct TV-Viacom stalemate last?

Nine days. The complication with the AMC/Dish dispute is that it's less about the transmission fees than it is about the $2.5 billion lawsuit against Dish that AMC has pending in New York State Supreme Court. Until the lawsuit's settled, Dish probably isn't going to be in a negotiating mood.

 

[Stan]

Nine days. The complication with the AMC/Dish dispute is that it's less about the transmission fees than it is about the $2.5 billion lawsuit against Dish that AMC has pending in New York State Supreme Court. Until the lawsuit's settled, Dish probably isn't going to be in a negotiating mood.

Never even heard of the lawsuit until you mentioned it, time for a little research on my end. Just the fact of the suit explains a lot. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Joe_H]

Man, I would so love to dump pay TV, but until I can get Sunday Ticket as a standalone package I don't see myself doing it.

For what it's worth, if you claim that for some reason you can't have DirecTV, like you live in an apartment or condo or something, you can get Sunday Ticket to Go as a standalone thing (at least that's been the case in the past four or five years). The problem there is that it costs $350 for the season, which is pretty ridiculous when an MLB.tv season, which has something like ten times the number of games, is a third the price. Plus, that doesn't include Thursday, Sunday Night, or Monday Night games.

 

[Stan]

Just saw a crawler on the Fox Network pretty much stating that they have parted ways with DirectTV (at least in my area). I'm with DISH so no problems yet, but looks like this stuff is starting to get a little more serious. DISH dropped AMC, which is not much of a problem. But for a system to drop Fox impacts a lot more people. They actually suggested people bring out their digital antennaes if they still wanted Fox. Good luck with that.
This may be old news, but we as the consumer always seem to be the losers in these battles. If this really does start to influence my viewing choices, I may eventually join the growing crowd and "cut the cord" or whatever the phrase is to dump cable, satellite, etc. and find other ways to view shows I like. Or even ignore them completely. I've got a pretty extensive DVD library that would probably take me several years to catch up on.

 

[JohnS]

Just saw a crawler on the Fox Network pretty much stating that they have parted ways with DirectTV (at least in my area). I'm with DISH so no problems yet, but looks like this stuff is starting to get a little more serious. DISH dropped AMC, which is not much of a problem. But for a system to drop Fox impacts a lot more people. They actually suggested people bring out their digital antennaes if they still wanted Fox. Good luck with that.
This may be old news, but we as the consumer always seem to be the losers in these battles. If this really does start to influence my viewing choices, I may eventually join the growing crowd and "cut the cord" or whatever the phrase is to dump cable, satellite, etc. and find other ways to view shows I like. Or even ignore them completely. I've got a pretty extensive DVD library that would probably take me several years to catch up on.

There was a crawler on CW last night also.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This may be old news, but we as the consumer always seem to be the losers in these battles. If this really does start to influence my viewing choices, I may eventually join the growing crowd and "cut the cord" or whatever the phrase is to dump cable, satellite, etc. and find other ways to view shows I like.

You can get a really solid rooftop antenna like this one for less than you're probably paying for one month of satellite.

 

[Stan]

You can get a really solid rooftop antenna like this one for less than you're probably paying for one month of satellite.

Might be worth looking into. I honestly have no idea what 50% of the info on the site even meant, but could be a very definite possibility.
Semi-inherited my grandparents home and they had the home wired in the 70s with coax cable connected to a chimney mounted antenna. Probably an easy switch to digital without using those silly set top boxes. Would miss out on a lot of channels, but lots of stuff is available online now that would easily fill the gaps.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Semi-inherited my grandparents home and they had the home wired in the 70s with coax cable connected to a chimney mounted antenna. Probably an easy switch to digital without using those silly set top boxes. Would miss out on a lot of channels, but lots of stuff is available online now that would easily fill the gaps.

If you've already got a rooftop antenna mounted, it would be worth plugging a TV into it some afternoon as an experiment when you have some time to kill and see what channels you get and how good they come in. When FiOS dropped the local Fox affiliate, I dug an old set of rabbit ears out of the basement (where they'd probably been sitting since the '70s), plugged it into the coax jack on the TV, did a scan and the channel came in crystal clear. The only time the signal broke up was when someone walked in front of the antenna. With a rooftop antenna, that wouldn't be an issue.
I have FiOS where I'm living now, but I spent the three years I lived in Boston without cable and honestly barely missed it. Right now, I'd miss "Doctor Who" if I lost BBC America, and I'd miss "Alphas" on Syfy and a couple shows I enjoy on ABC Family. But that's about the extent of it, I think.

 

[ScottH]

I could care less about FOX or any of the local networks, but one thing I wonder about...if you're a Directv Sunday Ticket subscriber, and Directv dropped your local FOX affiliate, they couldn't black out the FOX games on Sunday Ticket, could they?

 

[Stan]

I could care less about FOX or any of the local networks, but one thing I wonder about...if you're a Directv Sunday Ticket subscriber, and Directv dropped your local FOX affiliate, they couldn't black out the FOX games on Sunday Ticket, could they?

Tricky question, don't honestly know how it would be handled. I'm guessing since it's a FOX network you'd be out of luck but I would certainly hope Direct TV would adjust your bill and refund anything they might owe you.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have DirecTV, but my Fox station is still on.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by Stan /t/322361/direct-tv-vs-viacom/30#post_3963702
Tricky question, don't honestly know how it would be handled. I'm guessing since it's a FOX network you'd be out of luck but I would certainly hope Direct TV would adjust your bill and refund anything they might owe you.

See, I'm thinking as long as it's not your LOCAL affiliate, you'd be okay, but I'm just guessing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Yes, the carriage agreements are between the station owners and the carriers. The only time a network's cable assets will be at risk is when an O&O (owned and operated) station gets into a contract dispute. The Fox Broadcasting Company owns the following stations: City of license/Market Station Channel
TV (DT) Owned since Affiliation Phoenix KSAZ-TV ++ 10 (10) 1997 Fox KUTP ¤¤ 45 (26) 2001 MyNetworkTV Los Angeles KTTV ** 11 (11) 1986 Fox KCOP ¤¤ 13 (13) 2001 MyNetworkTV Washington, D.C. WTTG ** 5 (36) 1986 Fox WDCA 20 (35) 2002 MyNetworkTV Ocala - Gainesville, FL WOGX
(semi-satellite of WOFL) 51 (31) 2002 Fox Orlando - Daytona Beach WOFL 35 (22) 2002 Fox WRBW ¤¤ 65 (41) 2001 MyNetworkTV Tampa - St. Petersburg WTVT ++ 13 (12) 1997 Fox Atlanta WAGA-TV ++ 5 (27) 1997 Fox Chicago WFLD-TV ** 32 (31) 1986 Fox Gary, Indiana WPWR-TV 50 (51) 2002 MyNetworkTV Baltimore WUTB ¤¤ 24 (41) 2001 MyNetworkTV Boston WFXT 25 (31) 1995
(previously owned from 1987–91) Fox Detroit WJBK-TV ++ 2 (7) 1997 Fox Minneapolis - St. Paul KMSP-TV ¤¤ 9 (9) 2001 Fox WFTC 29 (29) 2002 MyNetworkTV Secaucus, New Jersey WWOR-TV ¤¤ 9 (38) 2001 MyNetworkTV New York City WNYW ** 5 (44) 1986 Fox Philadelphia WTXF-TV 29 (42) 1995 Fox Memphis WHBQ-TV 13 (13) 1994 Fox Austin, Texas KTBC-TV ++ 7 (7) 1997 Fox Dallas - Fort Worth KDFW-TV ++ 4 (35) 1997 Fox KDFI-TV 27 (36) 1998 MyNetworkTV Houston KRIV ** 26 (26) 1986 Fox KTXH 20 (19) 2002 MyNetworkTV All other stations are affiliates owned by other companies. My local Fox affiliate is owned by Newport Television after Clear Channel had to unload a lot of its TV assets.

 

[Stan]

I have DirecTV, but my Fox station is still on.

I just commented on a crawler that appeared on my local Fox station regarding DirecTV. Since I have Dish Network doesn't affect me and I haven't really checked it out. Maybe it's just a local thing or the corporation that owns the local station is having issues with DirecTV.
I do recall reading something about the corporation that owns the local station also owning stations in different states, so might just be a hit or miss situation depending on where you live. Although I believe the Dish/AMC dispute is national and anybody who gets signals from Dish is out of luck.