UPDATED : Viacom and DirecTV's managers go down the line tonight on a fight against contract renewal with high efforts for both sides. Conversations continued after midnight ET deadline, and the channels remain on DirecTV.
A board of Viacom leaders led by Tom Gorke, exec VP and distribution and business development, has been parked in DirecTV's headquarters in El Segundo since Wednesday. The business spins over a wagon renewal pact for Viacom's 23 cable channels.
On Tuesday afternoon, Viacom launched an aggressive promotional campaign to warn viewers like Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, VH1 and other channels could be dark as Saturday if the pages cannot be expressed. Viacom achieved a number of stars across its channels to shed the company's case in short digital videos spread through YouTube and others.
Viacom needs a healthy renewal agreement from AT & Ts DirecTV, the country's largest MVPD with approx. 24.5 million subscribers (including U-verse), to provide stability for future earnings. If DirecTV shuts off Viacom's pricing and volume of channels that are carried, Viacom will hit a big hit and face similar setbacks from rival MVPs such as Comcast and Charter. Viacom, in the midst of a turnaround after a long decline, cannot afford to carry that kind of setback. DirecTV and streaming bundle DirecTV Now carries 1
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However, DirecTV has every incentive to push Viacom hard on a speed reset because the singer breaks with a shrinking subscriber base, combined with AT & T's need for reliable earnings to the shoulder its $ 170 billion plus debt burden that spiked last year's $ 85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. DirecTV's performance has flagged since AT&T purchased $ 49 billion in satin casting in 2015.
DirecTV has a number of major top-level innovations over the coming months, including CBS, Viacom's corporate siblings under the Redstone umbrella and the recently expanded Disney. There is no doubt that the company will send the message in the Viacom conversations that it will hit the programming cost increases among the gyrations on the pay-TV market.
DirecTV has its status as serving viewers, nationwide, and Viacom's confidence in an estimated $ 1 billion in annual licensing revenue it receives from Satcaster. At the same time, a long blackout of founder such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET will increase hackers with subscribers and will likely accelerate DirecTV's regular quarterly subscription losses. DirecTV and Viacom have previously undergone a 9-day blackout in a renewal stop in 2014.
More to come
