Viacom Inc. and DirecTV came to an agreement Friday to restore Viacom’s channels to the satellite television service after a 10-day blackout.
Viacom will receive $600 million a year from DirecTV in programming fees after signing a seven-year contract. Before the agreement, DirecTV said that Viacom was demanding a 30-percent increase, which would total more than $1 billion.
“They’re both winners here,” analyst Amy Yong of Macquarie Capital USA Inc. in New York was quoted as saying. “DirecTV got a deal that was less that Viacom wanted, so on the margin, that’s a win for DirecTV. But it’s also a win for Viacom because they get more money.”
Channels such as Nickelodeon, MTV, and Comedy Central were pulled off the satellite network for more than a week, preventing DirecTV subscribers from watching some of their favorite programs. Rising content costs tends to mean increased customer bills.
“Viacom is extremely pleased to bring its programming back to DirecTV subscribers, and thanks everyone affected by the disruption for their patience and understanding during this challenging period,” Viacom said in a statement.
Derek Chang, executive vice president of content strategy and development for DirecTV, released a statement about Viacom’s tactics during the blackout.
“The attention surrounding this unnecessary and ill-advised blackout by Viacom has accomplished one key thing: it serves notice to all media companies that bullying TV providers and their customers with blackouts won’t get them a better deal,” the statement reads. “It’s high time programmers ended these anti-consumer blackouts once and for all and prove our industry is about enabling people to connect to their favorite programs rather than denying them access.”
DirecTV also negotiated the rights to carry Viacom-based programming online through a system that would require subscribers to sign in order to watch their content
