Viacom Directv fiasco

[Lex]

What do you think? Seems we as viewers lost Nick, MTV, VH1, and maybe something else. So, are we getting a discount f rom Directv for programming they no longer pay for? I'd like my discount please.

Further, I say, tell Viacom to take a hike, and make the discount permanent. If there is additional demand for similar channels, they will be created, as a lesser rate by someone. That's my take.

[Kevin P]

They really need to listen to the consumers (those who ultimately pay their salaries) and stop being so greedy and stupid. Offer channels a la carte so people can pick and choose the good channels and drop the bad ones. MTV would go out of business if that happened... or they would be forced to go back to the way they used to be and offer stuff worth watching.

Also, if your channel has commercials, it should be free for us. Quit the double-dipping BS. I'm glad I only have limited basic cable (broadcast channels only). The rest is 99% junk.

[Chris D]

Follow-up to this debacle. As everyone probably knows, DirecTV and Viacom did finally reach an agreement after a couple weeks, and the channels were restored to DirecTV. (this included Nickelodeon and stuff, that was the primary thing that my daughters watched) As part of the settlement, they announced there would be a price increase that would be passed to the consumer in the near future.

I called DirecTV, and used a "secret" way to get straight to their top retention customer service reps so I didn't have to deal with multiple low-level reps that would pass me back and forth. I told them how disappointed I was with what happened, and asked to confirm the information that a price increase was coming. The official answer was, "we can't say for sure... don't know". I told them how disappointing that was, and how me being charged anywhere between $60-100 per month was getting increasingly ridiculous, since I started with DirecTV for $20/mo back in 1997. I was also having receiver problems.

I asked if there would be any partial refund for the Viacom service that was missed. The rep said no, but offered a small bill credit for a few months. He also offered to upgrade my receivers and get everything running right. Since DirecTV now has Home Media DVRs, I asked if he would upgrade both my DVR's to those. He said no, but offered to do one. So in the end, I thought that wasn't enough, and asked for cancellation. He did it right away.

I think you shouldn't bluff unless you're willing to accept the consequences, and I have been okay with not having anything but some OTA channels. (we don't get FOX and a few others, though) Well, a month or so later, and Dish made me a REALLY good offer, including two of their top-end Home Media "Hopper" DVR's. My wife was missing the DVR capability, so we decided to try it out. Dish has its issues, but so far we're liking it better, and it's cheaper.

Ironically, AFTER we got the Dish service, DirecTV E-mailed us a comparable offer. Similar prices and service. But they still weren't offering two Media Center DVR's. The only thing that would have been better than Dish would have been the Sunday Ticket, but other than my own Denver Broncos, I'm not THAT huge into watching all the other football games. So we're cool, and we'll see how Dish does. Up front, the only real downside I'm seeing is Dish not having AMC, which for me really just means the upcoming Mad Men season.