Update: DirecTV Responds to Viacom Statement on Contract Dispute Negotiations

Since the blackout of 17 channels of popular Viacom programming on DirecTV due to a contract dispute, the two companies have gone back and forth in the media point the blame at each other. Yesterday, DirecTV responded to Viacom recent statements on their web site.

“Viacom’s current statement on our negotiations is completely inaccurate. They made a proposal last night for our carriage of the 17 channels they pulled from DIRECTV and we accepted all material terms for those channels including an increase that was more than fair. We are ready to close this deal at anytime and restore those channels to our customers. However, as part of that offer, Viacom insists that we carry the EPIX channel at an additional cost of more than half a billion dollars. We know our customers don’t want to pay such an extreme price for an extra channel, they simply want the ones they had returned to them. We stand ready and willing to work with Viacom to get this done and, once again, ask Viacom to do the right thing and restore these channels to our customers immediately.”

Since the blocking of channels including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and Spike, ratings for the Viacom channels have suffered substantial drops. Not good news for the company or its advertising revenue.

According to a report by the New York Post, the Viacom’s networks lost about 2 million viewers during the first week of the fight with DirecTV. Now two weeks in, the numbers continue to slide which had actually started before the dispute.

According to Nielsen, BET viewership is down 23 percent in total viewers, Spike is off by 28.9 percent and VH1 lost a whopping 54.1 percent. Only MTV showed gains with a small rise, up 4.2 percent and Comedy Central lost little ground, down only 1.1 percent. Viacom responded to the drop in ratings saying that, “We anticipated an impact in the ratings,” continuing “This is not what we want.”