Viacom is making good on its promise to parcel out its channels as individual services for cord cutters. It's launching a BET Play app that lets you watch the network's black culture programming for $4 per month on your Android and iOS devices. You...
Apple's TV box is getting more internet TV friendly with the addition of Sling TV, but that's not the end of the announcements today. Apple TV will be the first platform with Sling's new "content-centric" UI. A big addition is the "My TV" section tha...
Viacom networks Comedy Central, BET, MTV, Spike, Nick Jr. and others will land on Dish's streaming service, Sling TV, in the coming months. These channels will be available in single-stream and multi-stream packages, though there's no word on specifi...
Seeing that DirecTV and Viacom can't even agree on the number of channels that have gone off the air (one says 17, the other 26) as a result of their deal expiring last week, it's no surprise that the two are continuing to challenge each other's statements on every element of the negotiations. The latest tiff? DirecTV claims it has "accepted all material terms...including an increase that was more than fair" for the channels that were pulled, but accuses Viacom of trying to force an addition of the Epix channel package at a cost of around half a billion dollars. Viacom, for its part, calls the statement a "complete work of fiction" and accuses DirecTV of creating more obstacles in the way of a compromise. Both point of views are linked below, we figure DirecTV customers will have plenty of time to read them while they're busy not watching the new episodes of Workaholics and Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta until this is resolved.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
DirecTV and Viacom disagree on their disagreements, standoff continues originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As we feared, DirecTV and Viacom didn't work things out and before the clock struck midnight ET, all of the network's feeds went dark for the satellite company's customers. Of course, both sides are throwing barbs with Viacom saying DirecTV was not interested in engaging in "meaningful conversation" and that their last contact was at 11AM. On DirecTV's side, it's claiming it sent proposals but never heard anything back and as such was forced to pull the channels. Viacom has been running ads and notices all day to make sure kids big and little call DirecTV to apply pressure about missing their television shows. DirecTV is firing back with the Kids Mix channel (shown above) that replaces the pulled children's programming and points out content on other stations, and even suggests customers check out sources like Amazon Prime or Netflix to keep watching their shows in the meantime. There's no telling who may blink first, or when, but you can look at each company's statement and hear the sabres rattling for yourself after the break. Any bets as to who will work out a deal first between these two and Dish Network / AMC?
Continue reading Viacom channels disappear from DirecTV after the two companies can't reach a deal
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Viacom channels disappear from DirecTV after the two companies can't reach a deal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The latest participants in the carriage dispute dance are DirecTV and Viacom, with the two companies attempting to reach a new agreement before their existing one expires tonight. If they don't, the network's 26 channels (MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon etc.) could be cut off at midnight. As usual, each has its own side of the argument with Viacom claiming DirecTV has been underpaying for years, while DirecTV accuses Viacom of seeking an increase that will add up to a billion dollars in a year and is responsible for pulling the channels while negotiations continue. We're not particularly sympathetic to the plight of either corporate behemoth (or optimistic that any savings will ever reach customer's pockets) but if you must support one over the other then there's plenty of propaganda to be found at the links below. This may not be as crucial as Dish Network's (potentially) Breaking Bad-interrupting tiff with AMC, but if we have to miss an episode of Workaholics or Awkward it's going to be bad for everyone.
Update: We've revised the total channel count from 26 as Viacom stated to 18 -- as much as we like HD feeds, we don't usually count them twice.
[Thanks, AJ]
Filed under: Home Entertainment
DirecTV vs. Viacom squabble could see MTV, Comedy Central and 16 others go dark at midnight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While Twitter has had expanded tweets for photos and videos, it's been necessary to click through to full news articles to see any of their content, sometimes even for the headline. A newly-launched update to the desktop and mobile web versions of Twitter is making that at-a-glance reading easier. Major traditional outlets like the New York Times, Der Spiegel or Time now show a brief snippet of an article when the linking tweet is given a click. More Internet-focused sources such as BuzzFeed and TMZ are also in the batch, and videos from the likes of BET and Dailymotion will play in-line. Android and iPhone users will see the same expansion from their native apps in the near future, although we're already weeping quietly for attention spans everywhere.
Update: If you're craving shots taken with a Lytro camera, the company has revealed that its interactive, infinite-focus photos are included in the expanded tweet collection.
Twitter brings expanded news tweets to the web, makes skimming articles all too easy (update: Lytro too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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