The Lady Geeks Topic of the Day: Viacom and Direct TV: Update

 Tales of the Lady Geek

The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day: Viacom vs Direct TV: Update

Greetings dear readers and welcome to today's journey into the world of technology.  Last night, I found myself channel surfing with no real idea of what to watch. Friday night's at home are something quite unusual for this Geek Girl.  However, last night was one of those rare nights where none of my carefully made plans went through and so, here it was, about eight pm and the house was remarkably quiet.

Not feeling like reading or gaming and not wanting to picking a random episode of some favored show or movie on Hulu or Netflix, I instead reached for my remote and just started channel surfing with the intention of finding something  mind numbing to lose myself in for a few hours.  That's when I noticed something I hadn't seen in a week.  The Viacom channels were back in my Direct TV lineup!

Well, after surfing through the mind numbing reality overload and discovering that apparently they'd reached an agreement, this Lady Geek went to investigate the Direct TV Promise website where I quickly discovered that the two television giants indeed had seemingly come to an agreement about the shows.  The next question I had was, how is this going to affect both my bill and my entertainment life?  I mean, sure the educational programming is top notch, with shows for my preschooler such as "Yo Gabba Gabba" and "Dora the Explorer", but really, did anyone adult age miss the rest of Viacom's lineup?  Personally, no.

A quick recap of the situation. On July 10th, Viacom forced Direct TV to remove all of the television channels that they own from Direct TV's lineup.  That included such channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and fourteen other channels. Viacom did this because after the term of their seven year contract was over, they wanted a pay increase from the television provider in order to continue providing the same content. According to Direct TV, "...customers were left without Nickelodeon, MTV,  Comedy Central and fourteen other channels today, after Viacom dropped its networks from Direct TV...Viacom wants customers to pay over 30% more to keep the same channels you are already receiving", which they said equates to more than a billion dollars.  Viacom, meanwhile said "Direct TV is throwing around some big numbers that are misleading..." 

Then there was some monkey business brought to the social networks with Viacom using YouTube to mock Direct TV CEO, Michael White's, video explanation of the problems, and using their loveable characters like Spongebob Squarepants in videos and memes in order to blast Direct TV. 

 

I like that Direct TV decided to opt for the higher road and kept us informed on it's promise website and Facebook page.  The company maintained it's dignity in the face of blatant childishness and offered a solutions page that pointed to elsewhere on the internet to stream your favorite shows. Viacom's solution to this was to take some of it's most popular shows out of circulation. 

 

Honestly, the drama looked like two children squabbling on a school yard with one being only slightly more right than the other in how they dealt with opposing opinions. 

 

While we, the customers had to sit back and watch

 

Sometime during July 20th they finally reached an agreement.  According to Direct TV's promise website, "Direct TV has reached a new long-term agreement with Viacom to restore 17 channels that Viacom had taken away from Direct TV customers on July 10th."  Further in their statement, Direct TV says that as part of their new contract's perks, customers now "...gain the ability to see Viacom programming on tablets, laptops, handhelds (etc.)..."  

A final thought from Direct TV on the whole Viacom public shame, "It's unfortunate that Viacom took the channels away from customers to try to gain leverage...this ill-advised blackout by Viacom has accomplished one key thing: it serves notice to all media companies that bullying TV providers and their customers...won't get them a better deal...."

 

So how will this new contract affect  my bill?  Well, the actual financial terms haven't been disclosed as of yet, but my gut feeling is that with the new bells and whistles, I'll be paying those 'few extra pennies' with my next bill.

What did we take away from this situation?  Well, for me, I took away that I can live without cable thanks to the internet and also that spoiled pampered children grow up to be spoiled pampered corporate creeps that throw temper tantrums when they don't get their way.

 

 

So tell me, what are your thoughts on the subject?

Written By: MaryAnn Paris
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