Viacom Channels Returning To DirecTV After $600 Million Deal

It has been about a week since Viacom and DirecTV disagreed about the terms of a deal.  Viacom pulled channels like MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickeloedeon from DirecTV because the two companies failed to reach an agreement up until now.  DirecTV said that they are adding access to Viacom content on mobile devices, PCs, and other media devices as part of DirecTV Everywhere.   According to sources with Bloomberg, DirecTV will now be paying Viacom more than $600 million per year, which is about 20% more than what Viacom was getting before.  Below are press releases from the companies.

Continue reading →

DirecTV Loses 26 Channels After Viacom Talks Fall Apart

Viacom has disconnected 26 DirecTV channels including MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon.  This left millions of people without content that they expected to have when creating a DirecTV account.  DirecTV claimed that Viacom wanted a 30% increase in royalties for DirecTV to renew their subscription, which would be around $1 billion in total.

Continue reading →

DirecTV Subscribers May Lose Access To The Daily Show, Jersey Shore, and SpongeBob

DirecTV is having disagreements with Viacom Inc., which may result in DirecTV subscribers losing access to shows like The Jersey Shore, SpongeBob Squarepants, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report.
Continue reading →

The Appeals Court Rejects Viacom’s Arguments Against YouTube

Back in 2010 a district court threw out Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube because the video website was protected by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Viacom appealed the case based on certain legal theories that would get around the DMCA safe harbors. However many of their arguments were not as receptive by the court system as they had anticipated.
Continue reading →

Viacom’s $1 Billion Lawsuit Against YouTube Moving Forward

Just when you thought Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube was over, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan has ruled that YouTube will need to defend themselves from the lawsuit by Viacom in court. Viacom filed the $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube in 2007. Viacom said that YouTube was responsible for a huge amount of copyrighted material uploaded by YouTube users.
Continue reading →

Viacom Ordered To Pay Rock Band Creator Harmonix $383 Million

Viacom has been ordered to pay Rock Band creators Harmonix Music Systems $383 million. This is a bit over half of the money that is being sought by former shareholders in Harmonix. Last year, former Harmonix CEO/co-founder Alex Rigopulos and co-founder Eran Egozy sued Viacom over unpaid bonuses. The bonuses are based on Rock Band sales goals that were met. In 2007, most of the payments were made but they stopped coming in 2008. According to arbitration accountants, Harmonix shareholders are owed $383 million as part of the 2006 acquisition. [Kotaku]

Colbert Report and Jon Stewart Return To Hulu Through Viacom Partnership

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are returning to Hulu.com through a broad content agreement with Viacom. Each of the shows will be available on Hulu.com the morning after they air. Hulu will also offer episodes of Jersey Shore, The Hills, Chappelle’s Show, Reno 911, Teen Mom 2, and Tosh.0 21 days after the on-air premiere. “Welcome to Hulu Plus, Snooki,” wrote CEO Jason Kilar on the Hulu blog.