Discovery said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with Altice USA for carriage of its full suite of networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Altice USA, which offers pay TV service under the Optimum and Suddenlink brands, will continue to carry Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science, OWN, American Heroes Channel, MotorTrend, Destination America, Discovery Family Channel, Discovery Life Channel, Discovery en Español, and Discovery Familia. 

News of the carriage deal comes a day after Discovery revealed that it has about 11 million subscribers to its Discovery Plus streaming service, launched in January. 

AT&T and Viacom said early Monday that they had reached a carriage deal for the programmer’s networks, avoiding a blackout of more than 24 million AT&T customers across four platforms.

Viacom’s carriage deal officially expired Friday, but the parties continued to negotiate through the weekend, keeping the channels live to about 24 million DirecTV. DirecTV Now, Uverse and AT&T WatchTV customers.

“We are pleased to announce a renewed Viacom-AT&T contract that includes continued carriage of Viacom services across multiple AT&T platforms and products,” Viacom and AT&T said in a joint statement. “The deal also brings AT&T customers more choice and improved value for Viacom content. We expect to announce additional details in the near future.”

As Charter Communications and Viacom continue to negotiate their carriage renewal agreement – the programmer granted the operator a short extension Sunday night – Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan warned that any price cuts could trigger similar arrangements with other distributors.

“By early this week, we expect the contract will be renewed,” Eagan wrote in a note to clients Monday (Oct. 16). “But, we also expect it will be renewed at lower rates and for fewer channels. We expect this deal will translate to lower domestic affiliate revenue and a lower value for Viacom equity holders.”

Viacom’s carriage deal with Charter, representing about 16.6 million customers across the country, including New York and Los Angeles, was set to expire on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. While there was much chest thumping leading up to the deadline on both sides, Viacom issued a statement Sunday night that it had granted a short extension to the deal, which would keep its programming on Charter systems while it worked toward a conclusion.

But whatever agreement is eventually worked out, it will likely be for a lower affiliate fee than what Viacom had been receiving in the past – Viacom has said in statements that it offered lower rates to Charter but was rejected – and possibly for fewer networks. Viacom has about two dozen channels, but in February said it would focus on six core networks – MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central and Spike TV (to be renamed Paramount Network).

In the note to clients, Eagan wrote that he expects Viacom’s new Charter rate to be about 15% below what the MSO had paid in the past and for fewer channels. At the lower rate and for just six channels, Charter would see the affiliate fees it pays Viacom reduced by about 24%, Eagan added.

But Charter is the third largest multichannel video programming distributor in the country – behind AT&T-DirecTV and Comcast, which likely have MFNs that guarantee other smaller providers don’t have better deals.

In his note Eagan estimated that Comcast is likely paying about 3% less than Charter, and coupled with a reduction in the number of networks they would have to carry, could translate to 14% less affiliate fees paid by Comcast. Also assuming that AT&T-DirecTV is paying about the same as the new Charter rate, having to carry fewer networks would translate into an 11% reduction in their affiliate fees.   

Viacom stock took a beating early last week – it reached a seven year low on Oct. 9 after Citigroup media analyst Jason Bazinet slapped a “sell” rating on shares and speculated that Charter would drop one or all of the Viacom networks. The stock has since begun a climb back – it was up 2% (54 cents each) to $26.54 per share in early trading Monday. But Eagan warned the lower affiliate fees could also result in a $2.10 per share reduction in Viacom’s overall valuation.

Ride TV has signed a distribution pact with CenturyLink that will see the equestrian-focused programmer added to the Prism TV Sports Plus package on April 19. The network, which launched in 2014, also is carried nationwide by satellite-TV provider Dish Network and by wireline distributors Armstrong Cable, Jefferson County Cable, Shentel and Windstream. 

“We are extremely pleased to have reached this agreement with CenturyLink. Being able to tell the stories and show the unique lifestyles of real horsemen and women (to an audience who would not ordinarily see it) has been a life-long goal,” Ride TV president Craig Morris said in a release. “I want to personally thank the leadership at CenturyLink for recognizing the important role that horses have played in shaping the world we live in. There would be no cowboy if it were not for the horse.”

“Prism TV has experienced exponential growth over the past few years and their markets line up perfectly with our core demographic,” network SVP of global distribution Michael Trujillo said in the release. “As they continue their expansion across the United States, we’ll be right there with them providing their subscribers with unique programming that embraces the equestrian lifestyle.”

RFD-TV founder Patrick Gottsch once again is unleashing the force of his subscribers’ complaints — by phone, email and printed letter — this time on Verizon FiOS TV, as his network is slated to be dropped from the FiOS lineup on Jan. 31.

Gottsch sent Multichannel News a fat binder filled with thousands of pages of, mostly, printed-out emails that RFD-TV viewers sent him protesting the FiOS drop. Binders also were delivered to Verizon officials, including chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam and vice president of programming and marketing Terry Denson, amid other expressions of protest from RFD-TV and customers encouraged by the network to complain.

In 2013, Gottsch sent Multichannel News a similar binder from customers protesting Comcast’s planned drop of RFD-TV in some Western markets. Comcast didn’t restore the rural-focused programmer, and FiOS doesn’t seem to be prepared to change its mind either, as Gottsch said Denson told him.

“This was not one of those rate-increase fights,” Gottsch said. “It wasn’t even discussed. They just dropped us.” RFD-TV — not one of FiOS’s higher-rated channels — costs “pennies,” and Gottsch said he offered to cut the rate by 25% to forestall a drop.

Raymond McConville, a Verizon spokesman, said Friday the RFD-TV drop is part of an ongoing effort to control content costs.

Gottsch pointed out that FiOS over the past year dropped Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, BlueHighways TV and The Weather Channel, and said, “It would just seem to me that the guys in the New York office just have no connection with rural programming, and they need to get out of the office more and realize that they’ve got a substantial number of subscribers that do subscribe to Verizon for this rural-themed programming.”

McConville said Verizon had no bias against rural programming — “it’s just an unfortunate reality of the business” that sometimes channels have to be removed to control costs.

Despite weeks of what were sometimes contentious negotiations and threats that it would drop its suite of channels, AMC Networks said it has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative, avoiding a blackout of the organization’s more than 700 member cable operators.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

AMC said the NCTC deal includes all six of its networks – AMC, IFC, WeTV, Sundance, BBC America and BBC World News. But sources familiar with the negotiations said AMC and NCTC were able to smooth out their two biggest hurdles to an agreement.

According to those sources, AMC has recognized that a large number of NCTC members have system capacity constraints, and the new deal does not require that all members carry all six channels on their most popular tier. In addition, the parties agreed to an affiliate fee increase that is significantly less than what had initially been proposed -- in some cases by as much as 400%.

“We are pleased to have reached a new distribution agreement with NCTC,” said AMC Networks' Bob Broussard, president of network sales,  in a statement. “We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with NCTC and we look forward to continuing to provide our popular and acclaimed programming to NCTC members and their customers.”

The AMC deal was the biggest dispute in what has been relatively quiet end-of-year carriage negotiation period. At one point, NCTC members warned that AMC could lose access to their nearly 4 million subscribers across the country.

As the Dec. 31 deadline neared, Alaskan cable operator GCI said it would drop the AMC networks, amid other channel changes, on Jan. 1 (GCI said Monday it followed through on the drops). In an interview, NCTC president and CEO Rich Fickle said while some members had opted to drop the AMC channels after the Dec. 31 deadline passed -- AMC did not pull its signal at any time during the negotiations -- he believed that most of the membership will accept the agreement.

"I think we reached a great creative compromise," Fickle said.

“We appreciate AMC Networks’ willingness to take the time to understand our members’ unique challenges and concerns, and their creativity to construct an agreement that addresses the concerns of many of our members,” said NCTC executive vice president of programming Judy Meyka in a statement. “AMC Networks has made a significant investment in the programming on their networks and we are pleased that our members have the option to continue offering this programming to their customers.”

AMC Networks and the National Cable Television Cooperative are still in talks concerning their carriage deal, and have continued to air the networks well past the deadline.

AMC Networks’ deal with the NCTC officially expired at 12:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. However, early on Jan. 1 AMC said negotiations were continuing but that they were hopeful a deal could be reached. That hasn’t happened as of 3:35 p.m. EST on Jan. 2, but the parties still appear to be talking.

The NCTC, which has about 750 members representing nearly 4 million customers, had complained of the networks’ rate increase demands (some as high as 400%)  and a requirement that they carry all six of AMC’s channels (AMC, IFC, WeTV, Sundance, BBC America and BBC News). AMC had countered that it was only charging fair market rates for its content.

Several operators had said they were considering dropping the channel if a deal wasn’t reached, including Alaskan cable company GCI, which said it would jettison the channels along with Spanish-language programmer Univision in 2016.

Buckeye CableSystem has launched Tennis Channel as part of a multiyear carriage agreement with the dedicated racquet sports service.

The pact, financial terms of which were not disclosed, came in time for Buckeye HDTV Basic Pak subscribers to watch Tennis Channel's coverage of the 2015 Australian Open both on the linear network, as well as myriad devices via the TV Everywhere component of the agreement. The MSO is offering its customers TV Everywhere access to the network at no additional cost. Subscribers who have the HDTV Basic Pak are able to watch Tennis Channel’s linear coverage stream on the go through a multitude of platforms, including smartphones, tablets and computers from anywhere in the U.S.

“We’re excited to welcome Buckeye viewers back to Tennis Channel in time for the Australian Open,” said senior vice president of distribution Patrck Wilson. “Tennis Channel has 90 percent of the live tennis on U.S. television today, and with TV Everywhere capabilities tennis fans can tune in when, where and how they want to.”

Noted Buckeye chief administration officer Brad Mefferd: “We are happy that Tennis Channel is back on our programming lineup. The network does a great job of covering a sport so many of our customers follow.”

Tennis Channel's Australian Open coverage will be led by Bill Macatee, and feature Lindsay Davenport, Martina Navratilova, Jim Courier, Jon Wertheim, Justin Gimelstob and Brett Haber.

All told, Tennis will present nearly 200 hours of tournament coverage from Down Under, including more than 30 live match hours, 60 hours of encore replays and 12 hours of lead-in show Australian Open Live.

Buckeye served Tennis in the past under the network’s initial National Cable Television Cooperative agreement.

DirecTV and The Walt Disney Co. have reached a new multiyear carriage accord, encompassing linear network renewals, as well as a host of on-demand and streaming content.

The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, includes the Watch Disney suite of products, which has represented the last significant hole in the programmer’s TV Everywhere initiative. It also includes online and streaming content from Disney apps and services, including the SEC Network.

Continuing to negotiate after their 10-year pact expired on Sept. 30, the parties renewed carriage of Disney-owned broadcast stations. The agreement also covers the launch of Fusion, Longhorn Network, ESPN Goal Line and Buzzer Beater and comes as part of a flurry of activity on the carraige and retransmission consent front as the year draws to a close. Disney, which reached a comprehensive carriage deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative in August, inked a retransmission consent agreement with the co-op for its eight owned and operated ABC stations across the country on Dec. 22.

The companies said they would explore new over-the-top opportunities. Disney already has an agreement with Dish, with ESPN and ESPN2 expected to be part of the DBS provider’s upcoming over-the-top video service. DirecTV earlier this week began the soft launch of its previously announced over-the-top Spanish language video service – Ya Veo.  But the satellite giant has been expected to offer a more robust package of OTT programming at some point to compete with planned offerings next year from Dish, Sony, Verizon and possibly others.

“This new agreement brings DirecTV’s already unmatched content offering and experience to a whole new level.  It also allows both companies to evolve together into the future and gives DirecTV customers a wide range of in-home and out-of-home viewing options to enjoy the broad collection of ESPN, Disney and ABC content,” Dan York, chief content officer of DirecTV said in a statement. “It’s an immense and exciting undertaking to work together to shape the future of content consumption and the possibilities are endless.”

The DirecTV-Disney deal comes at a time when No. 2 DBS provider Dish has been battling with programmers, including 21st Century Fox and Turner Broadcasting. Back in November, the Turner networks went dark to Dish’s 14 million customers, but the two agreed to extend their deal into next year while negotiations continue. The No. 2 satellite TV service provider also pulled Fox News Channel and Fox Business News from customers Dec. 20 after it could not reach an accord with Fox. 

“We have a stellar reputation for working in close collaboration with our distribution partners to strengthen the value of the multichannel video subscription. Our new agreement with DirecTV reinforces that approach and brings to a successful conclusion the renewal over the past several years of deals with each of our top ten affiliates,” said  David Preschlack, executive vice presidenr, affiliate sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Media Networks,  “Not only will DirecTV customers continue to receive all the great content they currently have, but they will now be able to access it on digital platforms through our authenticated Watch products as well as receive new services as part of their subscription, including Fusion, Longhorn Network, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater and ESPN3 also on television.”

In addition the DirecTV pact includes Disney’s eight owned and operated ABC broadcast stations and cable networks ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS and SEC Network.  ESPN Classic will be reintroduced as a video-on-demand service. 

The deal also expands DirecTV’s video-on-demand capabilities, giving customers access to content inside and outside the home through DirecTV Everywhere on their computers, tablets and smartphones. VOD programming includes:

•       ABC On Demand, including episodes of current ABC shows as Scandal, Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon A Time and Revenge.

•       ABC Family On Demand, featuring a variety of full episodes, refreshed monthly, including The Fosters, Switched at Birth, Baby Daddy and Melissa & Joey.

•       Disney-branded On Demand offerings, including Disney Channel On Demand, Disney Junior On Demand, and Disney XD On Demand. 

•       Expanded On Demand content from ESPN, including content from ESPN Deportes and ESPN’s award-winning original content from ESPN Films.