Viacom Channels Off Cable One As NCTC Pact Expires

Cable One said "Viacom forced it to remove" the following Viacom networks from the cable lineup following the expiration of the Cable One/Viacom contract on March 31: BET, Centric, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, MTV Hits, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nick Teen, Nick Toons, Spike, TV Land, VH1 and VH1 Classic.

"Despite the fact that viewing is down on 12 of Viacom’s networks, some by as much as 30% since 2010, Viacom demanded an increase greater than 100 percent to carry all 15 of their channels,” Cable One president and CEO Thomas Might said in a release. “We asked for a price reduction because of their declining viewership and they refused. We also asked to drop the less popular networks and only carry the networks our customers really watch, and the rate they demanded was even higher. That means we would have to pay more, for fewer channels.”

Cable One plans to make substitutions with networks such as BBC America, Sprout, The Blaze, Hallmark Channel, National Geographic, Investigation Discovery, TV One and SundanceTV.

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