Viacom vs. DirectTV, Yet another content vs. carrier war

A few weeks ago it was Dish vs. AMC. Now it's DirectTV vs. Viacom. This seems to be happening more and more often, and both sides like to use their long suffering customers as pawns in their games.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/directv-and...mb-dispu,82285/

Now Viacom has pulled episodes from their websites. Sure, let's punish all fans of THE DAILY SHOW, not just the DirectTV subscribers.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/07/vi...ntract-dispute/

Following last night's DAILY SHOW in which Jon Stewart roundly mocked both DirectTV and his corporate masters, Viacom restored THE DAILY SHOW and COLBERT REPORT web streams. But only TDS and CR, nothing from their other channels, which include MTV and Nickelodian. I thought they were really petty to pull the streams, but putting them back up again might be counter-productive since it will highlight just how little worth watching is on Viacom networks. I mean, TDS and CR are pretty much it. Maybe FUTURAMA and SOUTH PARK. But what else is there? SPONGEBOB? That's all I can think of.

I dropped DirecTV a year ago because I realized that I was only watching The Daily Show, Colbert and an occasional movie on TCM. Just didn't think it was worth my money to pay just for that, even though I loved all three.

Now I spend my time watching free-TV occasionally and some DVDs and I'm pretty happy with not feeling like I have so many things to get back to and watch on TIVO.

I wonder if all this fighting is just going to lead to more people going the same way eventually.

I would have a hard time cutting the cable since I watch stuff on AMC, FX, SyFy, TNT, USA and Showtime. And TCM, of course. Occasionally Cartoon Network, Sundance and E! (strictly for THE SOUP. Their reality programming makes me want to barf.) I used to watch a lot of History channel before that network succumbed to the reality infection. I loved CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD. Now it's all PAWN STARS and SWAMP PEOPLE. There's still the 20 or so hours a year that BBC-America puts something decent on. I think DOCTOR WHO is coming up pretty soon.

Not in any meaningful numbers, unless the sports programming gets hit.

*THEN* it would be mass pitchfork time. ESPN is able to get $4-$4.5 per cable/sat household for a reason.

History recently enjoyed a ratings bonanza with their mini-series THE HATFIELDS AND THE McCOYS, so perhaps that may push them to consider more ventures into scripted dramas.