Get ready for a new round of battles between media companies: the giant Viacom conglomerate is flexing their muscles, trying to force Echostar, the parent company of Dish Network, to carry the Nick GAS Channel as a condition of carrying CBS. This is a pretty standard practice in this day and age where a few corporations own most of the channels — force cable and satellite operators to carry less popular channels or you won’t give them the popular ones. It’s also the reason that we pay such high monthly rates for a bunch of channels we don’t want. From TV Week:
EchoStar Communications’ DISH Network satellite service will stop carrying signals from CBS’s 15 owned-and-operated television stations at midnight Monday if the satellite company and CBS parent Viacom can’t resolve a legal dispute over retransmission fees and the networks EchoStar must carry.
The deadline stems from a restraining order imposed by a federal judge that was set to expire March 8, after which EchoStar must cease airing those 15 O&Os if the two companies have not reached a settlement. Local affiliates not owned by Viacom are not affected.
At issue is the rate EchoStar must pay Viacom to retransmit CBS and which cable networks the satellite operator must carry. Specifically, EchoStar officials are balking at Viacom’s demand that in order to carry CBS it must also carry the Nickelodeon GAS channel. EchoStar filed an antitrust suit against Viacom to challenge the media giant’s demands.
If no agreement can be reached by the deadline, all of the Viacom networks carried by EchoStar would go dark. In addition to top-rated CBS, the networks affected include MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
