Dish Network/Vaicom Update: Deal Reached, No Blackout of Nickelodeon & Other Viacom Channels

*Update: As of 12:30 P.M. EST Thursday Viacom and Dish network reached a deal, so no blackout of any channels.

No details as of yet on the terms of the deal. You can read the original article, outlining the conflict, below.

If you’re a Dish Network subscriber and love VH1, TV Land or any other Viacom owned network you may be watching a blank screen come tonight at midnight(12:01 A.M. EST Thursday).

Vaicom and the Dish network’s original carriage agreement expired in January, and Viacom has granted mini extensions over the past few moths as they negotiated, with the latest extension set to expire.

So, unless an agreement can be reached, or Viacom decides to extend once again, all of their networks will go black in the early morning hours of Thursday.

Viacom is running a disclaimer about the situation across the bottom of their networks for Dish subscribers.

According to Viacom, Dish network “has not engaged in a serious way to reach an agreement for Viacom’s number one family of cable networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, MTV, BET, Spike, TV Land and CMT.”

They also state on a web page about the dispute, that they have taken every step to make a deal and that these tactics are “par for the course for Dish”.

Dish network disputes they are the problem, saying it is Vaicom and their unrealistic and unfair raise in pricing that is causing the hold-up.

In a statement, Dish says Viacom: “is asking hundreds of millions of dollars in increases, despite the changing landscape that includes drastically reduced viewership of Viacom channels and wide availability of their content across multiple platforms, frustrating consumers who don’t want to pay twice for the same content. Dish will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that works for both sides.”

Viacom has seen viewership dip in the past year as more and more consumers look to cut the cord and use alternative ways to watch and stream TV.

If no deal is met and Viacom lowers its prices to make a deal happen, they may be forced to do the same with other distributors, hurting their bottom line and lowering their value.

Dish network is not in the clear either, as losing those channels would upset many of their viewers and possibly force them to look outside of Dish to see their favorite shows.

Hopefully, both sides can put the viewer’s needs first and figure something out, before midnight Wednesday.

What do you think of this latest issue between Viacom and Dish Network?

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