If you are a DIRECTV customer like I am, you may have noticed temporary Mix channels in place of Spike, BET, Centric, MTV, MTV2, Comedy Central, VH1, VH1 Classic, Nickelodeon, TV Land & CMT to name a few this morning. There's a reason for it, and for nearly 20 million customers across America, it is an inconvenience.

Apparently, the parent company of these channels, Viacom, which is a unit of CBS Corporation these days, is at odds with DIRECTV over fees. While DIRECTV claims Viacom wants a 30% rate increase in carriage fees, Viacom claims they only want a "couple pennies" more per subscriber. With the two sides far apart on a new deal, DIRECTV temporarily pulled the plug on some 17 Viacom-owned channels, including as many as 26 in crystal-clear HD. It's unclear how long customers will not be able to watch some of their favorite shows on the above channels as a result of the current DIRECTV/Viacom dispute. One channel that's not affected is the CBS Sports Network, which you can still find on DIRECTV 613.

DIRECTV is no stranger to such disputes. Back in late March/early April, a similar dispute left local viewers of WGN's CW9 as well as national viewers of WGN America, DIRECTV 307, inconvenienced for several days before the two sides were able to reach a new deal just before the Cubs' home opener at Wrigley Field.

oh noez, how will you keep up with snooki and j-pow now

MTV should be outlawed. What a piece of shit that station is. No wonder the youth of today is retarded.

I'm sorry but if you have Dish anymore you shouldn't dbag anyone. Not with the type of deals that people can get now for switching back to comcast or Uverse. I had Dish for about 6 months and got tired of it consistently going out in crystal clear weather. Douchebag yourself.

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Here we go again. The only channel on there I would miss is Comedy Central, I think that's the channel that has Tosh.0 and Workaholics.


CIJ, I've had Directv for over a decade and its never gone out in crystal clear weather. Sounds like an issue with the equipment you had or the install. Plenty of isues with comcast and Uverse too. There are channel disputes at Uverse, I think they were without AMC for a while or something like that.

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These fights are likely to continue between content providers and the delivery companies. I have always supported Directv because they are trying to keep subscribers costs down. Their customer service is terrific. My only complaint is that their DVR Receivers are terribly slow and inconsistent in changing channels. They have to fix that software.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

While I'm old enough to remember when everybody wanted their MTV in classic promos when the channel actually played nothing but music videos, circa 1981, I realize they're nowhere near where they used to be some 30 years or so ago. That being said, there will be quite a few people that will be inconvenienced. I heard something during the Mac show today that this Viacom/DIRECTV dispute could last maybe a week or perhaps the next month according to what an industry analyst told the New York Times.

DirectTV should tell Viacom to pound sand. Most of the shows that are on these networks can be watched for free online.

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No one will miss anything of value by not being able to watch MTV.

If Comcast ditched it I wouldn't have a problem with it either.

While I wouldn't necessarily miss either MTV or MTV2, there are other shows on other channels such as "The Colbert Report" & "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central, all those original cartoons on Nickelodeon, classic TV shows on TV Land that you don't see on MeTV locally, as well as all those action films on Spike that folks everywhere will definitely miss the longer this dispute lasts.

I mentioned at the start of this post that if you tune into any of the Viacom-owned channels that normally air on DIRECTV right now have been temporarily replaced by impromptu Mix channels. They are 8 different channels, much like there are for News & Sports. You click on the one you want, and it takes you there...like that.

I think it's funny when they have a dispute like this and the commercials says, "Switch to cable." The truth is that if you cancel dish, you have to pay a cancellation fee that you wouldn't make up by switching.

Now I can see how not having certain channels is a pain for some people. I don't care for MTV and it has very little to do with actual music television. I think the larger point is that people in this society are so used to having everything that living without a cable channel is made out to be a bigger deal than it is. This thing will probably get fixed in two days. That's shorter than a lot of people were without power for last week and that was much worse than no Jersey Shore. Let's get some perspective America!

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To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I'd like to think that myself, Mini.

Uh oh, I see the next Mini Ditka thread: Your favorite cable channel.

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How will people ever do without "Pimp My Crib?"

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Interestingly enough, guys, that commercial you're referring is for DIRECTV.

One of the guys who came up with Pimp My Ride:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxml

Spice



I think Mark Knopfler is gonna sue SHARK for copyright infringement.

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Too bad Mark Knopfler doesn't know who SHARK is.

can't confirm until I get home but heard the Pallidia channel 567 is out as well. That channel has some great, and some not-so-great, concerts - music related programming on it. I remember having to call Directv and subscribe to some other additional package just to get this channel.

Question - What does directv due for us, the subscriber? I want credits! I'm on "eternal" hold right now to see what they will do for me.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

If you press them hard enough, DTV will give you all sorts of credits. Last year I got them to give me the redzone package for $100 without having to subscribe for the NFL package after I was initially told that there was no way I could do that.

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DIRECTV & Viacom have set up Websites for those wondering about the status of Palladia and other Viacom-owned channels that are temporarily down & out. These are the sites...

http://www.directvpromise.com/
http://whendirectvdrops.com/

UPDATE - 15 minutes on hold....they gave me the whole rigga-ma-roe BS, and they offered me a "whopping" $5 a month credit for 2 months. $10 total. I told them that was a "slap in the face" and they'd be better off offering me nothing....another 5 minutes on hold and they came back and discounted me the HD charges for 12 months...so that equates to $120 total credit. I'll take that for now.

I agree with you Shakes...I have called them many times in the past and always got some sort of credit(s). That said, I still pay a ton of dough to them every month...it seems.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

When you were on the phone did you air quote 'slap in the face'?

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He will find out soon if you keep stealing his lyrics.

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If you're looking for webisodes of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" & "Colbert Report", TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland" and MTV's "Jersey Shore" to name a few, you are out of luck, too. Viacom has yanked online access to these and other shows as a result of the DIRECTV dispute.

Also, Viacom has started quite a full-court blitz on CBS Radio-owned outlets across America, starting today, encouraging viewers to call DIRECTV and get their favorite channels back.

Shark, the updates aren't really necessary. If you are a DTV subscriber you've been through this plenty of times already. The way it plays out doesn't change, both sides act like 5 year olds blaming the other and then running a smear campaign against the other. This goes on for XX amount of time until they finally reach an agreement. No point to even follow it, one day it will be resolved.

I tend to blame DTV in these disputes. Personally I don't mind paying a few extrac cents on my bill if that's what it takes to avoid months of channel disputes, but DTV refuses to budge and tries to pretend that they are doing it to save the consumer money, like the give a shit about that.

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It is an inconvenience, that's for sure.

I called 'em up first thing the next morning, when they opened at 7AM.

Free Red Zone Channel for the third consecutive season - and $10 off my bill each month for a year.

Fuck Snooki and the Situation.

what did you say to get the free red zone channel? Also, do you already subscribe to Sunday Ticket?

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I basically tell them I'm livid that I can pay $20 a month with another provider for Red Zone - and I'm switching to them.

I laid it on REAL thick this time about how my wife loves Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and my teenage kids watch Jersey Shore (which they don't) - and I watch That Metal Show.

Bypass the customer service dept though - go right to 'cancel service'. Don't fuck around, and they won't think you're fucking around.

Of course I've got a couple of HD Receivers, HBO and Encore (I think). ...and I pay my bill on time every month - pop for a PPV event once or twice a year.

Ironically I tried this on Sunday because I got double-billed for the UFC148. I got nowhere, but I knew I had another month to go. Once the Viacom shit-storm hit, I called them at 8AM (7AM Chicago time) as quickly as possible - as that's when they opened. I didn't want to get stuck behind a bunch of people on hold.

Them throwing in the $10 off each month for a year was a sweet surprise.

They also tried to shove Showtime at me for 6 months for free and $5 off a month for six months. I just wanted Red Zone though... I'm not greedy.