NICKELODEON MAKES A COMEBACK

It may have been a case of “nowhere to go but up,” but the Nickelodeon kids channel, which had seen the bottom drop out of its squarepants since the fourth quarter of 2011, reported on Tuesday that its ratings have risen for the 15th week in a row. Its audience numbers for last week, it […]

AS DVD SALES SINK, SO DO ACTORS’ SALARIES

If movie stars are no longer able to command fees of tens of millions of dollars from studios, they can blame the slump in DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales, Viacom chief Philippe Dauman indicated on Wednesday. Speaking at an investors conference in New York, Dauman said that while revenue from digital platforms has helped to […]

NETFLIX’S LATEST LOSS IS AMAZON’S GAIN

Netflix’s streaming service seemed more like a television package than a movie collection Tuesday as it ended its exclusive deal with Viacom’s Epix cable network (it will still have non-exclusive access to the Epix library until next year). Rival Amazon moved in quickly to sign a licensing deal with Epix, which offers films from Paramount, […]

DOWNTURNS AT CABLE, FILM HIT VIACOM

Sumner Redstone, the chairman of CBS and Viacom, got good news and bad about his two media companies on Thursday. On the one hand, CBS reported record profits in the last quarter; on the other hand, Viacom’s profits sank. The blow to Redstone’s older and larger media conglomerate might have been less troubling had its […]

APPARENT VICTORY FOR DIRECTV IN ITS DISPUTE WITH VIACOM

It appeared today (Friday) that the week-long carriage dispute between Viacom and DirecTV has ended in a victory for the latter. Terms of the new deal were not disclosed, but DirecTV exec Derek Chang, who has acted as spokesman for the home-satellite company, issued a statement that chastised Viacom for removing its channels “to try […]

NO END IN SIGHT FOR VIACOM-DIRECTV STAND-OFF

Analysts are expressing surprise that the carriage dispute between Viacom and DirecTV has now gone into a second week with no sign of a settlement. “We never thought a cable network with the scale of Viacom would be off the air for even a week,” Evercore Partners analyst Bryan Kraft said in a note to […]

VIACOM IS POUNDED AGAIN BY DIRECTV– AND BY JON STEWART

DirecTV is stepping up its attack on Viacom, which yanked its channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central off the satellite service last week following a breakdown in talks over a new carriage contract. In a video message running on the blanked-out channels DirecTV CEO Mike White lashes out at the “bundling” practices of some […]

SHOULD “STRIKING” CABLE NETS ALLOW THEIR SHOWS ONLINE?

Viacom, which is engaged in the equivalent of a strike against DirecTV, and AMC, which is engaged in a similar action against DISH, are taking two opposite approaches to the Internet during the current crises. Viacom, whose channels went dark on DirecTV earlier this week, has pulled its shows off the Internet in an apparent […]

DIRECTV’S STRATEGY IN VIACOM DISPUTE SLAMMED

DirecTV may have blundered when it began telling subscribers on which websites they could find content from Viacom’s channels, after the channels went black on the satellite provider this week. BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield noted on Wednesday that DirecTV had only succeeded in calling attention to the fact that, unlike its cable competitors, it cannot […]

VIACOM CHANNELS GO DARK ON DIRECTV

At midnight Eastern Time, some 20 million DirecTV subscribers lost Viacom-owned channels including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, Logo, TV Land and a dozen other channels. In a statement, DirecTV exec Derek Chang said, “We have been very willing to get a deal done, but Viacom is pushing DIRECTV customers to pay more than a […]

Next Page »