Viacom Threatens To Pull Content Offline > TWC/Brighthouse ftw

reply to cypherstream

Re: TWC/Brighthouse ftw

I didn't say it was a conspiracy, just an immature method of conveying their stance. Not only the delivery method itself, but also how the message implies that it's all TWC's fault, so call them and bitch. It's a disagreement between BOTH parties, making each party equally responsible. Yet Viacom wasn't giving out THEIR phone number, only TWC/BH's.

As I said, childish behavior, because they know they have just as much (more, IMHO) to lose if TWC tells them to shove it.

So how else were they to get all viewers to know the channels were being pulled?

Inserting the crawl in at master was the cheapest and most effective way to do it. The other cable companies seeing the message was simply collateral damage.

Why did they need to at all? Since they ended up renegotiating the contract before they pulled the channels anyway (as they pretty much knew they would since in my time I've never heard of Viacom actually pulling all those channels from a major provider), all they managed to do was alarm a bunch of subscribers unnecessarily.

Not only that, they weren't JUST notifying viewers that the channels were going to be pulled, but also implying it was TWC/BH's fault by asking viewers to call TWC/BH and complain. As I said before, notice they weren't putting up their own number? They didn't even mention their own name (a lot of viewers don't realize that Viacom owns all those channels).

I think that TWC should be able to sue Viacom for defamation. They did a good job making TWC look really bad, simply because THEY (Viacom) wanted a huge increase.

If I went around as a sat installer doing shitty installs and telling customers it's DirecTV's fault that the install sucks so bad simply because I wanted a raise and they wouldn't give me one, I guarantee you DirecTV would fire my ass. The only difference is DTV could get a new installer to replace me. TWC can't get MTV, Nick, and Comedy Central from somewhere else.

That still doesn't mean they should have to tolerate the badmouthing, though. Viacom should give up their right to even ask for an increase after that smear campaign. If I went around telling my customers that DirecTV sucks, I certainly wouldn't expect a raise.

Dream on.

It's just business as usual. Viacom presented the facts. There's no defamation. Both of them were playing an elaborate game of chicken.

It's not like this hasn't happened before. Charlie Ergen ALWAYS has fights with programming providers, which is why DISH keeps dropping channels from time to time and then picking them back up.