Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable channels owned by Viacom were removed from DirecTV's lineup early Wednesday, starting channel blackout that has outraged millions of customers across the United States. This issue was caused by a contract dispute between DirecTV Group Inc. and Viacom Inc.
The two sides failed to come to an agreement on programming fees. According to the Wallstreet Journal, the blackout also comes as Viacom has seen its ratings decline recently for top shows like Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's "Jersey Shore."
On Tuesday, DirecTV posted this note online: "DIRECTV customers were left without Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 14 other channels today, after Viacom dropped its networks from DIRECTV at approximately midnight EDT. DIRECTV executives reached out to Viacom both yesterday and today with a new proposal and a request to keep the channels on while we continued to negotiate, but never heard back, so DIRECTV had to comply with their demand to take the channels down or face legal action."
DirecTV is the largest U.S. satellite TV provider with nearly 20 million subscribers. The company said that its executives had approached Viacom with a new proposal and a request to continue broadcasting the channels as talks continued, but received no response.
According to Reuters, DirecTV's contract with Viacom, which had been in place for the last seven years, expired at midnight on Tuesday.
While "Direct TV" and "Viacom" began trending on Twitter, celebrities began tweeting about the situation. Khloe Kardashian wrote: "Dear Direct TV.... Please get your sh*t together. I want my expensive service to include all the channels I once had. Thanks"
Comedian Wanda Sykes tweeted, "Hey DirectTv, how am I going to explain to my kids that they can't watch "BubbleGuppies?" They don't know Viacom."
Comedian Daniel Tosh wrote on his Twitter page, "30 minutes until all of you directv viewers will watch your last episode of tosh.0 ever. #sadface"
"We have been very willing to get a deal done, but Viacom is pushing DirecTV customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion, despite the fact that the ratings for many of their main networks have plummeted," DirecTV Executive Vice President Derek Change said in a statement.
This is not the first time that a distributor has blacked out Viacom's channels due to a contract dispute. In 2004, Dish dropped some Viacom networks after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on a new distribution deal, according to Reuters. That blackout lasted only 48 hours.
