Viacom and Dish Network are still haggling over the terms of their new long-term contract. If negotiations fail, homes served by the network will go blackout early Thursday morning.
The talks usually go down to cost and control.
If the two parties could not agree on the terms, customers could be in danger of losing their favorite TV shows since this deal is a big one involving the likes of MTV, Comedy Central, Nick, Nick, Jr., TeenNick, TV Land and other cable channels owned by Viacom.
"There actually probably is a path to continue carriage, but it's not done yet," said Charlie, Ergen Dish Network CEO on Wednesday afternoon. "The devil is in the details," he added.
"As a long-standing partner, we are hopeful that we can work together to reach a deal," said the New York City-based company in an email.
Shares of Viacom rose 1.5 percent due to the comments after dropping over 1 percent on Wednesday. The shares of Dish did not change significantly.
The two companies have been negotiating for months if Dish will continue to carry Viacom's 18 channels and the price for the service. When a blackout ensues, it would leave 14 million subscribers unable to access TV shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants" on Nickelodeon and "Broad City" on Comedy Central.
"Over the past 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of concerned subscribers have reached out to implore DISH to negotiate reasonable terms with Viacom for continued carriage of our networks," said Viacom.
"Based on year-to-date Nielsen data, our networks represent nearly one fifth of cable viewership on Dish, which gives Dish enormous incentive to renew our agreement," the mass media company added.
If the two companies cannot agree on the terms, the blackout will take effect at midnight Eastern Time. Viacom stand to lose considerable subscriber revenue from Dish Network and the latter would anger some of the 14 million households who can't suffer a day without watching MTV.
