Viacom stops streaming full episodes of Teen Mom, The Colbert Report, more over DIRECTV feud

Jul, 12, 2012 | AUTHOR: Asa Hawks; | Related : News

The showdown continues between media giants Viacom and DirecTV as the the two sides continue to be unable to reach a new contract agreement, resulting in all of Viacom’s networks (including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon) to be unavailable to DirecTV subscribers since Tuesday night at midnight. In reaction to their subscribers outrage over not being able to see certain programs, DirecTV posted a list of “Other ways to watch” Viacom programming that included links to the programs that offered full episodes streaming on network sites. In an apparent reaction to those links, Viacom has since removed recent full-episode streaming content for some of its shows, including Teen Mom, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

Here is the error message that shows up when attempting to view The Colbert Report:

And after trying to watch the most recent episode of Teen Mom, I received a message that read, “We’re sorry, this video isn’t currently available but will be soon.”

DirecTV seems to have picked up on the change and doesn’t appear to have the networks’ sites listed any longer, although they do still have links to pay-per-view streaming sites such as Hulu, iTunes and Amazon. They also provide a list of “Other Shows You Might Enjoy on DIRECTV” that included these suggestions for Teen Mom fans:

Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Miss Advised
Pregnant in Heels

For those of you that missed it, just before last night’s midnight cut off, DirecTV and Viacom were scrolling competing propaganda across the bottom of the screen proclaiming how greedy the other party was in the dispute and how they were doing everything within reason to assure fans would be able to continue watching their favorite Viacom programming, blah, blah, blah. It was almost as hilarious as it was annoying as I missed out on the subtitles for numerous conversations during Teen Mom!

Here is a complete list of Viacom networks currently not available to DirecTV subscribers:

MTV
Nickelodeon
Comedy Central
VH1
TVLand
BET
Spike
Nick@Nite
Nick Jr.
TeenNick
VH1 Classic
NickToons
Loop
CMT
Tr3s
Centric
Palladia

In addition to their aggressive campaigning on their own sites, it appears that both Viacom and DirecTV have spent a great deal of the money in question to buy up advertising to promote their arguments! Just do a Google search for Nickelodeon, or Teen Mom, or DirecTV and in almost every instance the top two “paid” search results are competing ads from Viacom and DirecTV. Here’s an example of the results when I searched for “Nickelodeon:”

If you’re not up to speed on the two sides of the argument, Viacom is renewing its contract for the first time in seven years and is asking for a 30% increase (reportedly close to one billion dollars). They claim that their networks account for 20% of DirecTV viewership. DirecTV says the 30% increase is too much and it would force them to raise their rates dramatically. (You can read their more in-depth arguments here.)

In the end it all sounds like a big bad pissing match that will play a huge part in the percentages of revenue involved in similar negotiations in the future. Prior to the deadline I think DirecTV had the upper hand as far as the court of public opinion, but now it appears the tables have turned as Viacom seems to be holding all the cards. They’re getting tons of publicity for their networks and shows, and the worst case scenario is that they lose out on 20% or so of their viewership for the immediate future. DirecTV subscribers are going to go from slightly annoyed to downright angry if this doesn’t get fixed soon, and if it starts to look as though a deal isn’t going to get done, this will cripple DirecTV’s ability to sign new subscribers.

I suppose there is a possibility the two sides will agree on some sort of premium pricing package for DirecTV subscribers that wish to have Viacom networks, but you know DirecTV doesn’t want that! (Dish Network would eat that up in their marketing campaign! “Do you realize watching Dora the Explorer will cost you and extra $20 a month on DirecTV?”)

Either way, what started out as yet another seemingly amusing DirecTV contract showdown has suddenly become a lot more serious. I have DirecTV and if this thing doesn’t go away soon I’m going to have to switch because my job literally depends on it! (It’s hard to offer up commentary on Big Ang amd Snooki & JWoww when I can’t watch the episodes!) So enough with the silliness, I’m sure there is some way to slice up those billions that makes everyone happy!

spacer

You also might like

No items

Katie

We don’t have directv so I can’t comment about how it’s affecting me personally but I think I’d be pretty pissed by it all. I mainly wanted to thank you for writing out the whole situation so succinctly and understandably I didn’t really know what was going on so thanks!
jessica

I’m pissed they better fix this by next week or my business is going some where else I can go a week without snooki but anymore then that no, and I’m pissed I was looking forward to the next episode with the other cast members now I have to wait and try explaining to my 4 year old where Dora went ughhhh
- Tabitha
  
  I agree with ya on the Nick Jr. They better fix it soon. Im tired of watchen the same dvd of Dora.
Brittany

I’m with Viacom. DirecTV’s Profits have grown in the past 7 years and not giving Viacom more would be ridiculous. Their shows have spiked viewers since their contract because of all the new programs they’ve brought to the table and Viacom certainly deserves more money for this. I’m pissed because I can’t watch Tosh.O, The Colbert Report, or The Daily Show. Teen Mom can suck it because I can get a full recap online with all of the blogs.
They have the stupid CEO sitting up there in his nice office, trying to tell us that DirecTV has to raise our bill substantially to make Viacom happy. BS! They just don’t want to have to sacrifice their overly-abundant profit and corporate lifestyles. They’re going to lose more money than if they had just agreed to Viacom’s request.
I’m giving them until Friday morning, even though I know nothing will happen. I’m canceling. I hate Dish but DirecTV needs to pay for this, so I’m switching over to the dark side.
L

I am more pissed at MTV than DirecTV. Instead of putting their viewers first and allowing us to watch their programming on their website since they know we now can’t see it on TV, they decide to be dicks and shut down all of their programming.

Thanks MTV. Now I’ll just stop watching your shows altogether since I have no other option. Good job.

And I love how they’ve been bombarding everyone within a 3000 mile radius with “we care about your rates” “we want you to be able to watch our programming” which is obviously complete crap, otherwise they wouldn’t punish their viewers and restrict them from viewing their shows on their website. It’s all about ratings and $$$$ for them too, which is painfully obvious.

I’ll stay with DirecTV and stop watching MTV. They have thoroughly pissed me off.
- Tracie
  
  No No, that was Viacom. They stopped streaming all episodes online so that Direct TV subscribers wouldn’t be able to watch it
- Tracie
  
  Did you even read this article? It’s in the FIRST paragraph:
  
  Viacom programming that included links to the programs that offered full episodes streaming on network sites. In an apparent reaction to those links, Viacom has since removed recent full-episode streaming content for some of its shows, including Teen Mom, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.
  
  So maybe not you’re just pissed at yourself and not MTV
  - L
    
    Actually, you idiot, I’m still pissed at MTV/Viacom.
    
    They are a part of the same company so I am directing my anger at the right place.
    
    Excuse yourself.
- Babyvamp
  
  Viacom owns MTV
  - bobbeh
    
    you are all dumb and so is mtv.
Jen

I am wondering if DirecTV will reduce rates since my current rate includes the Viacom channels that I am no longer getting.
It is also a dick move of Viacom to pull the online option. That shows that they don’t give a crap about viewers. Its not like they don’t make money off of the ads that air before and during my online viewing. This is such stupidity on both sides.
However, if DirecTV doesn’t do something, we will switch providers. This is pretty much just a pissing contest now to see who has the most power.
Diane

I’m tired of seeing both sides acting like immature little shlts. Get it together already! The viewers are the ones getting bent over in all of this. Viacom stop acting like a bunch of greedy bastards.
kim

i have optimum so im not being affected by this, but i remember something like this happening a year or so ago too, i dont remember what companys it was. but i think this this whole fighting thing is so incrediably dumb and neither of them deserve to have custumers if their going to fight like children. “oh youre going to offer your shows online? well im just gonna pull them all so you have nothing to offer!” i mean come on! grow up! youre not gonna have any customers at all if you keep up this act.
Tosh Fan

We have direcTv and this is freakin ridiculous!!
Monica

Pulling the on line viewings was extremely shitty and petty on the part of Viacom. I am sure there is a solution that both can come to that would not end with them raising the rates on the customer. I don’t have DirecTV but I do have Verizon and I get so sick of losing channels because they become a part of a separate package and not seeing that reflected on my bill. If I wanted to add channels they would up my price so I feel if they take my channels that should be reflected on my end.
Kait

I think that both parties are at fault for this disagreement… but it makes me mad that Viacom has pulled episodes off of the internet. What about all of the other people who have absolutely nothing to do with this? I’d still like to watch episodes of shows i’ve missed online..but because DirectTV and Viacom are acting like babies, I cant.
Babyvamp

I really thought they would settle it last minute. Oh well, I guess. Comedy Central hasn’t had good shows in a long time and I won’t exactly be crying over missing Teen Mom lol. I am curious if we could get some kind of credit on our accounts though. This is a big chunk of channels that I’m still paying for! That’s the only thing that irks me. I think Viacom is in the wrong. To turn around and not at least make your programs available to viewers online is REALLY trying to punish the customer now.
OhMyGeez

This whole thing is ridiculous. If you drop our channels, you should drop the amount we pay.

Not like I care much about the channels they dropped though. Music channels that play little music and a whole lot of crappy reality shows. Nick being gone means no more Spongebob. The others, I never watch anyway.
OMG

People act like they have never seen this stuff happen before. I live in NJ and we have Cablevision/Optimum. In the Fall of 2010 we lost Fox for a very long time-first smack in the middle of football season and the MLB Playoffs/World Series. MLB Playoffs and World Series were being broadcast on Fox and TBS, so only the games on TBS were able to be seen. And the New York Giants play their games on Fox, so their HOME fan base couldn’t even see them! Plus all of the other shows/news, etc on Fox. Fox also redistricted customers of Cablevision to view shows online. And what was even more annoying, was that Fox 5 was set as the channel when you turn on the tv/box, so everyone would turn on the tv to a blank screen.

At one point we also lost Food Network, HGTV and a couple other stations over a dispute. This stuff happens-it pisses off customoers but people act like this has never happened before. Switching is ridiculous because no matter what provider you have, their is just going to be a dispute at some point.

Cablevision also has never settled a deal with the NFL Network and we have had to fight to be able to see the Jets and Giants locally broadcast to us when the play on the NFL Network because we have no way of even watching the games.
- OMG
  
  And just in case anyone was wondering-we lost Fox for TWO WEEKS. It has been TWO DAYS for you guys, get over it!!!!
noname

That picture of Snooki is going to give me nightmares.
Judy

If Direct TV wants to make a special package just offering Viacom, they can as far as I am concerned. I don’t watch MTV or any of those channels, so I don’t miss them. I’d rather that the customers that want those channels, pay for them, and I will pay for the ones I watch.
Ron

Turned off the TV and went outside. Thanks Viacom.
tanja

so, how can i watch teen mom online? any links?
it was har denough anyway to watxh it from europe as mtv didnt stream it there….thanks to any suggestions.
jerks

If you go to the newest teen mom episode on mtv and scroll down to the comments there is an eu link that worked for me. Just watched the show. I don’t think I’m allowed to actually post the link here though.
whoa

it sucks but there are several sites out there that offer streaming of these TV shows for free. Are they 100% legal? No but they are out there. Viacom is showing how money hungry they are because they have taken the online streams away from all viewers now instead of just targeting directTV. Even if you have cable but watch the shows online you no longer can. Viacom will now lose more money because people won’t click on the videos to watch therefore no money from ads.