Items tagged with viacom
PlayStation Vue is dropping a few things, and some subscribers are likely to be unhappy. All Viacom-owned networks, including Comedy Central, Spike, and MTV, will no longer be available on PlayStation Vue. Vue will cut the stations at 12:01am EST on Friday, November 11th. According to Sony, “As part of our ongoing evaluation of the PlayStation Vue offering, we have determined that removing the bundle of channels from Viacom is the best way for us to continue to offer the most compelling value to our fans.” Sony did not explicitly state its reason for dropping Viacom. The change is likely an attempt to keep Vue prices down and therefore “offer the most compelling value”. Sony giveth and Sony taketh...
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At this point, it's not really a question of whether the television industry will be massively disrupted, but when. Analysts have been expecting Apple to take the lead, but it has been smaller outfits such as Roku and Hulu changing things up. But, there's still no true replacement for pay-TV, at least not yet, as most channels that offer online viewing options won't allow streaming without a pay-TV subscription. But Sony may come out of nowhere and shock us all, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. The company has reportedly inked a deal with Viacom in order to carry MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon on a "planned pay-TV service." Intel, Google and Apple have yet to land such a content...
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TV is about to get a lot more social. Twitter has made no bones about its ambitions to become the go-to source when it comes to mapping out popularity of television programming, and now, Viacom + Twitter have announced a partnership to deliver social video advertising campaigns around the most popular shows and biggest events throughout Viacom's network portfolio. That portfolio is mighty robust, including MTV, VH1, CMT, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV Land, Spike and more. Viacom is the latest media company to join the Twitter Amplify program. The partnership will launch with the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, during which MTV will deliver real-time, sponsor-supported highlights of the show's...
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Amazon is serious about shoring up its catalog of streaming titles, so much so that it went and cut its biggest check ever for a subscription-streaming license. The Prime video provider struck a deal with Viacom, forking over more than $200 million to secure the rights to hundreds of kids' shows, including the wildly popular Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer franchises. Citing a "person familiar with the deal," Reuters says the deal is good for more than two years and includes a deeper library of titles than what Netflix previously had access to. Speaking of which, the timing of the deal comes only a few days after Netflix stopped streaming Nickelodeon shows, as that deal just expired....
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Intel is getting into the TV business, that much we already knew. But how soon? That's a question that's seemingly close to being answered. According to a new Bloomberg report, Intel -- the chip-making giant -- is "making progress in talks with Time Warner, NBC Universal and Viacom to obtain TV shows and films for a first-of-its-kind pay-TV service." Of course, these reports aren't being confirmed nor denied by Intel, but it's awfully likely to be true. After all, Intel wouldn't announce that it would be trying its hand at TV distribution without some deals being within reach. It sounds as if money is the major hurdle remaining. Intel isn't hoping to deliver a la carte content; rather, it's in...
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Good news for DirecTV customers who have been paying for over two dozen blacked-out channels for the last week or so (seriously DirectTV, can we get some money back on our next bill for that mess?): Viacom and DirecTV have settled their dispute, and Viacom has restored 17 of the 26 channels it blocked when a distribution deal between the two companies expired and new terms couldn’t be reached. It’s not clear what the financials of the new deal are--neither company disclosed them--but a Bloomberg report has it pegged at $600 million. Previously, DirecTV said that Viacom wanted a cool billion, so the former is getting a great deal. Even so, it doesn’t appear that the two sides...
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Usually, when industry titans do battle, it’s a good thing for consumers (patent wars notwithstanding). Companies scramble to outdo each other, one-upping the competition’s latest product and forcing down prices, and begging for our loyalty and money. In the TV world, unfortunately, the sniping and quarreling only serve to tick everyone off and suck in innocent bystanders, like an ugly divorce where each partner tries to enlist the support of the kids by bad-mouthing the other. The latest scrum is between DirecTV and Viacom over an expiring distribution agreement; apparently, the two sides can’t agree on a fair renewal price. Viacom took a swing late last night with a press...
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Taxpayers in the United States could soon be stuck footing the bill for some very costly copyright infringement enforcement. For those that don't know, the PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 or Senate Bill S.968) is a piece of controversial legislation introduced on May 12, 2011 intended to force private ISPs, search engines and other parties to censor websites accused of facilitating copyright infringement. The bill is supported by a large number of infamous IP-protective agencies, including the MPAA, Viacom, SAG, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others. The legislation is a re-write of the Combating Online Infringement...
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After some six weeks on the auction block, beleagured Blockbuster has found a buyer. The Dish Network has agreed to purchase its erstwhile competitor. The company won the auction with a bid of some $320 million and expects to pay ~$228 million once other transaction adjustments are completed. The purchase process will reportedly be finished by the end of the current quarter. "With its more than 1,700 store locations, a highly recognizable brand and multiple methods of delivery, Blockbuster will complement our existing video offerings while presenting cross-marketing and service extension opportunities for DISH Network," said Tom Cullen, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Programming...
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Hulu has struck a content deal with Viacom that returns "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" to Hulu.com and brings shows from other networks to the subscription service, Hulu Plus. At the same time, Hulu's CEO hinted that the days of fully free access to the service might be numbered. The agreement covers shows on Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV and TV Land. As of February 2, current, full episodes, of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" became available on the free Hulu.com service as well as Hulu Plus. Now, if you want more highbrow stuff from Viacom than Comedy Central's two famed news parody shows, you can...
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YouTube has won the lawsuit filed against it by Viacom, over copyright infringement. That said, Viacom has promised to appeal. YouTube had used the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as its defense, and U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton agreed. Those provisions protect sites and ISPs against any copyright infringement by their end users. Meanwhile, Viacom contended that copyright-infringing content was so abundant on YouTube, that suggesting that YouTube didn't know they existed on the site was ludicrous. Stanton disagreed, nothing that once notified of infringement, YouTube removed such clips, and that was all that was required to qualify for DMCA "safe...
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We don't enjoy saying that the first ball has dropped here, but it sure seems that way. Hulu, which was called by NBC an "evil plan to destroy the world," might just be destroying NBC's hope of raking in any serious profits. The site delivers all sorts of television programs to online viewers at no cost, only requiring them to watch ads along the way. For many, it has been seen as something that was "too good to be true." But still, Hulu was making money from ads, and viewers were tuning in in greater numbers due to the flexibility of being able to watch their favorite shows whenever they pleased. In a way, Hulu helped to revolutionize the way we view content. Now, tons of online portals have...
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Earlier we reported a court decision that handed over all YouTube user data to Viacom. As we know Viacom and YouTube are enmeshed in a lawsuit over copyrighted material uploaded to YouTube. The information was to assist Viacom in its case, but it was unclear why they needed user data to prove the amount of copyrighted material uploaded or viewed.It seems (perhaps?) common sense prevailed, or maybe it was The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) chiming in (thank you), indicating that this was a clear violation of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).Either way, Viacom and YouTube have come to an agreement. On Monday, in a blog post, YouTube said: We are pleased to report that Viacom,...
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Google has been ordered to turn over their logs of user activity on their YouTube site to Viacom. Viacom is suing Google over copyright infringement, and wishes to see how many YouTube users actually look at Viacom copyrighted material on the video service, then compare it to the amount of traffic any given non-copyrighted video might garner, in order to prove that Google is making money off Viacom's Intellectual Property, and assess potential damages. As you might expect, privacy mavens are up in arms over a judge ordering that usernames, IP addresses and logs of videos viewed for everyone who's ever logged onto YouTube. When it initiated legal action in March 2007 the firm {Viacom]said it had...
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Viacom filed suit against YouTube last year, alleging that YouTube wasn't taking sufficient measures to ensure that copyrighted material wasn't being freely distributed by the YouTube community. YouTube seems to have taken complaints from Viacom and others seriously, and has developed an anti-piracy technology that requires copyright holders to submit source material to be compared to existing media found on YouTube.Viacom doesn't exactly seem thrilled with this new measure:Appearing at the Web 2.0 Summit Thursday, Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman said Video Identification falls short of what is needed and that he doesn't intend to drop the suit. "I don't think we're quite there," he said. "Google...
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Viacom, purveyors of fine video entertainment such as SpongeBob Squarepants, among many others, is not happy. They've been in negotiations with YouTube's parent company, Google, to allow their content to appear for a cut of revenue. They've decided to go the direct route instead: Sue Google for a billion dollars worth of copyright infringement. "Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws," the media-entertainment firm said in a statement. Viacom filed suit in a New York district court accusing YouTube...
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Gamers around the world will rejoice in the news that Viacom is purchasing XFire, a free program that automatically keeps track of when and where gamers are playing PC games online and lets their friends join them, for $102 million. We are very pleased to announce that Xfire has entered into an agreement to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTV Networks. What does the acquisition mean to you? It means that Xfire is now backed by one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media. It means that Xfire will continue to grow and enhance your gaming experience. Xfire was created by gamers, for gamers. We will always...
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